C.S.O.L. Class (Chinese Speakers of Other Languages)

Ms. Gloria Dai-Lin Cheng  (Children Beginner Class)

Ms. Cheng is a fully certified (Pre-K to 12 grade) bilingual teacher with a Master's degree in Education and a well known language teacher in both Chinese and English. She has been an ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher with public schools for nearly a quarter of century and a Chinese language teacher for about 20 years. While she is teaching with the public school system in Georgia, Ms. Cheng has been awarded as an outstanding teacher in two consecutive years (2005-2006) by Who's Who Among America's Educators along with many other excellent recognitions and achievements by Taiwanese and Japanese governments.

She has a natural talent to work with students. She believes the children are like sponge, they will absorb whatever you pour on; so it is better to make it good taste. She is not in favor of the traditional Chinese teaching method, which is memorization, because it is too rigid and creates pressure associated by the memory drills. Instead, the students will learn much better when all senses are engaged.

In her classroom, the students are always fully participating in various fun games that involve with the hands-on activities in her classes. The students often ask their parents to take them to Chinese school everyday because they have so much fun during each lesson. The parents often told her that their children enjoy doing their Chinese homework without being reminded and wish the weekend will come sooner for them to show their homework to Ms. Cheng.

Ms. Cheng not only teaches Chinese  to the children at Chinese schools, but also teaches it to the children from FCC families (Families with Children from China). All the parents make the effort to learn Chinese language and its culture with and for their children from Ms. Cheng. When the parents come to her classes, she shares her teaching methods and materials with them; and therefore the parents can reinforce the language with same way to their children at home throughout the week. The children, for certain, will make tremendous progress when the reinforcement and continuity take place at home and it can also create the family fun time and togetherness as a result of it.

“Learning through playing” is the motto for her teaching philosophy. She believes that learning  traditional Chinese characters is easy if it is been taught with an interesting and creative method. The traditional Chinese characters are beautiful and full of layers of meaning which are recognizable images of things. They are also filled with cultures, which associate with arts, calligraphy, and history, that lasted five thousand years and will continue forever. Chinese is an interesting language and it can be taught through creative methods and anyone can be easily encouraged to learn this language through varies fun activities.