The 8th annual conference of the New England Chinese Language Teachers Association (NECLTA)  was held on October 5 at Boston University. More than 160 Chinese teachers and administrators from 50 colleges, universities, institutions and high schools from the States and China attended the conference. The NECLTA seeks to advance the teaching of the Chinese language and culture in New England at all educational levels, and to support Chinese language teachers through opportunities for professional development and for exchanging experiences and points of view. Tong Chen, along with the board of directors of NECLTA, organized the conference. Tong Chen also chaired a panel and gave a presentation on “A Comparison and Analysis on the Structure of Chinese and English.”

Last year, Tong Chen, MIT lecturer in Chinese, was elected president of NECLTA. On December 1 of this year, it was announced that Tong Chen was elected to the Board of Directors of the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA).

In other news, Tong Chen organized the K-12 Chinese teachers workshop on November 2 at Tufts University. It attracted more than 40 K-12 teachers. He also gave a presentation on “Cultural Issues in the Compilation of Textbooks for Intermediate-high and Advanced-low level Students of Chinese “at the 5th Chinese Innovation Forum held at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, on October 25-26.

Below: NECLTA  conference participants.