About Us

History

In the late 1980s, the Dallas Oversea Chinese Language and Culture Center of Taiwan spared no effort in rushing about Chinese schools to facilitate the establishment of a Chinese School Association. The Dallas-Fort Worth Chinese School Association was ultimately established in 1989 to promote teaching experience exchange, teacher enhancement, as well as improving students' ability to express using the Chinese language.

The association includes 16 Chinese schools, 14 from Dallas-Forth Worth area, and 2 from the state of Oklahoma. The association consists of approximately 2,000 students and 230 Chinese teachers. Our objective is to unite enthusiastic Chinese language educators to collaborate in promoting Chinese language education, and thus serve the oversea Chinese community by passing on Chinese culture.

Besides periodic meetings, the association will also schedule annual activities. Activities include winter Chinese teacher workshop, speech contests, summer youth camps, summer Chinese teacher workshop, and teachers' day appreciation feast. We look forward to raise student interest in Chinese language, improve students' Chinese ability, and build rapport through these activities, so to contribute and better serve the community.

Objectives

Unify regional Chinese Schools to reinforce the overall effectiveness, and promote development of the Chinese language education in order to achieve the goal of brining Chinese language education into the American academic mainstream.

Memorandum

The association membership is represented by schools, not individuals. The association adapts a parliamentary system with a President, a Vice President, and a Treasurer to execute routine business. Through member council meetings, each activity is assigned to the responsible member who will have the assistance and participation from other members. Furthermore, the association has set up groups such as the summer camp committee, the AP Chinese language and the education development committee, etc.

Chinese school curriculum

School times are scheduled on Saturdays or Sundays. Class time vary from 2 to 4 hours. Classes include Chinese language and teaching of Chinese culture. Some schools also provide subsidiary learning programs such as mathematics, English and SAT classes. There is no restriction on the recruiting of students of different origin, nationality and ethnicity. Some schools even provide eight-week summer sessions during the summer vacation period.

Chinese School curriculum content

Chinese language teaching includes both the Mandarin phonetic system and the Pinyin system. Learning one or both of these systems will give the students a foundation for achieving basic listening, speaking, reading and writing capability. The school also provides counseling on Chinese SAT and AP Chinese exams.

The Chinese culture teaching not only emphasize Chinese history, but also include teaching of Chinese cultural activities such as diabolo (Chinese yo-yo), paper folding, abacus, traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy, Chinese idioms, Tang poetry, and Chinese festivals to suit student needs. Students can further understand the Chinese culture through these activities. School will also conduct literary competition each semester to raise students’ learning interest.

Chinese School teaching material selection

Teaching materials vary by school. The majority of the teaching materials for the Traditional character system are provided by the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission of Taiwan. Materials for the simplified character system mostly adapt publications of Jinan University. Some schools have also established own teaching material teams to develop and edit appropriate materials to meet educational demand. Some even create vocabulary cards to facilitate teaching. All teaching materials are chosen based on daily life association, interest, and practicality.