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Ｊｉａｎｇ　Ｙｉｎｇｓｈａｎ

Citi Innovative English Teaching Competition Final for teachers in West China sponsored by the CPAFFC was held in Beijing from January 22 to 23, 2008. Wang Li, vice president of Citibank China, Professor Zhu Xudong and Ms. Ma Xin with the Beijing Normal University served as judges in the final. Over 50 English teachers of primary and middle schools from Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region took part in the finals. Twenty two teachers won prizes.

This competition is a follow-up programme of the English teachers training course in West China from 2001 to 2005 sponsored by the CPAFFC with the Citigroups support. In 2006 and 2007 preliminary competitions were held in the above provinces and the autonomous region. The teachers who got the first and second prize took part in the final in Beijing. In order to enhance the influence of the training course, the CPAFFC also invited the teachers who had received the training to watch the final in Beijing. In both the preliminary competitions and the final every competitor was asked to give a mock class according to the pre-provided teaching plan, and judges gave marks to the competitor on his or her teaching method and results. After the final the teachers of the Beijing Normal University made comments on the competitors performance. After the final, the competitors were assigned the work of one-year research on classroom teaching and requested to submit the research reports the following year. All the reports would be collected and compiled into a book which would be printed and sent to the teachers and schools that had taken part in the competitions so as to facilitate their exchanges and learning from each other. The competitions have helped the teachers consolidate what they had learned in the training course, strengthen exchanges among them and further improve their teaching skills.

In the past 7 years since the programme was launched, about 150 English teachers in Chinas western poor areas have attended the training course. The training and competitions have not only helped them update their teaching concepts and methods, but also by spreading their experience raised the whole teaching level in the schools and regions where they taught and lived. Many teachers who had taken part in the training and competitions said that the training course and competitions with very practical contents were conducted in a new and lively way and that the teachers of the Beijing Normal University were experts with high professional level and new teaching concepts. They said that this programme had helped them greatly improve their teaching methods and broaden their vision; as a result, the students they taught did better academically. At the closing ceremony of the final, a teacher from Sichuan said from the depth of her heart, the programme has brought her many changes; she used to deliver her lessons in a dull and rigid way and now her class has become lively and cheerful. The students, their parents and the principal of her school all praise her new teaching methods. She is now being assigned more and more important teaching tasks by her school.