On April 20th, the Confucius Institute in Edmonton (CIE), Canada celebrated the 14th United Nations Chinese Language Day by organizing a seminar, with the theme of "The Ideas and Practice of Localized Chinese Language Teaching in CIE". A total of 18 participants, including the Local Director, Chinese director, staff and visiting teachers, attended the one-day academic event.

The teachers shared their research on the theories and made their own distillation of the practical characteristics of local Chinese teaching. And they explored new teaching models based on the summary and analysis. And then the teachers focused on analyzing, comparing and evaluating the ideas of local Chinese teaching which they observed in their own work practices. And they discovered the highlights and characteristics of local Chinese teaching work.

The presentations showed that the teachers working in the various Confucius Classrooms have a wide variety of perspectives, based on the situations of the schools and students. Their research topics include: The Educational Philosophy and Principles of Local Teachers, An Exploratory Practice of Applying the "5Cs" Standard for Foreign Language Teaching to Local Chinese Classrooms, Teaching Methods to Help Local Students with High Chinese Proficiency to Further Improve, Teaching Chinese Children's Songs in the Lower Grades of Local Primary Schools, Application of Theme-based Teaching Method in Bilingual Classrooms, Methods of Developing Intercultural Communication Skills in Chinese Language Teaching, Exploration of a Fun Chinese Calligraphy Teaching Model, The Deep Cultural Connotation of Chinese Paper Cutting, The Feasibility of Artificial Intelligence Technology to Assist Chinese Language Teaching, Features of Chinese Teachers Working in Local Secondary School Classrooms, Local Classroom Practices for Teaching Mathematics in Chinese, The Role of Chinese Sign Language as an Aid to Chinese Language Teaching, The Effectiveness of Teaching Student-authored Books, etc.

The teachers' research was unique, informative, and closely integrated theory and practice. Arriving at the Confucius Institute at different times and in different posts, all of them have made their best efforts to contribute to the local Chinese language teaching. And they also had their own understanding, observation and reflection on the Chinese language teaching in primary and secondary schools in Edmonton.

CIE's seminar was held on a day of special significance for Chinese language teachers, and provided a valuable opportunity for academic exchange among CI teachers who are usually busy with their work. During the presentations and discussions, sparks of new thinking shone through and the teachers' enthusiasm for teaching Chinese grew even higher. This thematic event to celebrate the International Chinese Language Day was a great success and will greatly facilitate the future Chinese teaching work of the Confucius Institute in Edmonton.