The Chinese Language Teaching Materials Training sesson, held on November 26 and 27, 2011, was held successfully at the Confucius Institute at the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. Thirty-eight Chinese language teachers from different universities, middle schools and primary schools in Turkey participated in the event. Yu Jian, Counselor of Chinese Embassy in Turkey, together with a press delegation that was on its visit to Turkey from the People’s Daily, the Xinhua News Agency and the Guangming Daily attended the opening ceremony. Mr. Yu Jian made an keynote speech at the ceremony.

The training was aimed at getting a general idea of the use of Chinese teaching materials in Turkey, promoting the popularization of excellent international Chinese language teaching materials, enhancing Chinese language teaching innovation and improving the quality of Chinese language teaching. In order to ensure that participants could achieve everything they wanted, eight Chinese and Turkish experts and scholars were invited to give lectures for participants. Training activities also included the introduction and classification of the best Chinese teaching materials, the exchange of the local Chinese language teaching experience, a survey on the use of Chinese language teaching materials, and an exhibition of Chinese teaching materials.

The event focused on introduction of the following textbooks, including Chinese Paradise, Kuaile Hanyu, Learn Chinese with me, and Contemporary Chinese and other related resources. The usage of some dictionaries were also introduced, such as 800 Essential Chinese Characters, My Chinese Picture Dictionary and My Little Chinese Picture Dictionary, and the Syllabus of International Chinese Laguage teaching was briefly covered. In addition, the participants shared their experience of teaching Chinese and their ideas about these textbooks and related teaching materials. During the training, the Confucius Institute also held an exhibition of Chinese teaching materials - textbooks, exercise books, teachers’ books, word cards, dictionaries, mp3, CD, CD-ROM, wall charts and other electronic teaching materials, which aroused all participants’ interest and attention.

The feedback from the questionnaire survey showed that the Chinese language teaching materials training was well received by participants,who felt that the training provided a wealth of resources, broadened their horizons, and offered a platform for all Chinese language teachers in Turkey to learn and communicate with. They were confident that the training would promote the further development of Chinese language teaching in Turkey, and hoped that Confucius Institute would hold more training activities in the future.