Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood

This study investigated the common issues and challenges faced by Southeast Asian English language teachers in their teacher professional development (TPD) activities and explored how they utilized ChatGPT to address these challenges. Using qualitative data collected from participants from 10 Southeast Asian countries, this study found that limited time, heavy workload, limited support and resources, irrelevant training content, limited technical skills, and inability to identify professional development needs were the most common TPD challenges encountered. To address these challenges, the participants utilized ChatGPT as a learning companion, facilitator, adviser/coach, and collaborator for their self-directed TPDs. They used the tool as a partner or collaborator in planning and completing teaching and learning tasks. They used the tool to analyze their TPD needs and design their personalized, self-directed TPD activities. In addition, they also used it to independently learn new concepts and practices by prompting it with relevant questions or instructions. Moreover, they also used it to generate initial ideas and subsequently enhanced these ideas with their personal knowledge and experiences. Lastly, they used the tool to polish the language of their outputs for clarity and effectiveness. Insights and implications of these findings for language teacher education and professional development are discussed.

This article traces the development and modification of Chinese Language curriculum for Singapore schools during the period of 1960–2011. The curriculum modification was influenced by the changing conditions in the social environment and student proficiency in the language. The trend was shifted from culture transmission to language application. This article also reports later development in Chinese Language curriculum in Singapore. As a response to the changing socio-linguistic environment, the curriculum emphasizes clearly on language application in daily life, while paying attention to national and world trends in globalization.

The twenty-first century is the era of communication and knowledge construction, so information communications technology (ICT) literacy has become a critical twenty-first-century skill that enables students to engage in computer-assisted language learning (CALL). This chapter discusses current ICT practices in the teaching of the Chinese language in Singapore. These practices include integrating ICT into Chinese language curriculum goals and assessments, classroom teaching and student learning. Localised ICT platforms used in teaching and learning, such as iMTL and 10C, will be briefly introduced. We will then reflect on the use of ICT in Chinese language teaching in Singapore and suggest its possible future direction. Finally, this paper proposes a new term, authentic learning with ICT (ALICT), that refers to the use of real-life situations and contexts for immersive learning in an ICT-assisted environment.

In this theory-building review essay, we advocate that second language teachers encourage their students to act critically, cooperatively, and autonomously. We discuss the three components of critical collaborative autonomy, explain why these components fit together, and present ideas for promoting their interaction and development. Being autonomous does not necessarily mean learning in isolation, but rather having the ability to metacognitively and critically make decisions as to the means one uses to learn and develop. It is our contention that students learn autonomy more quickly through guided cooperative learning in which they collaborate with peers to find and create their autonomous and critical voices. The incremental assuming of control of one's language learning within a community not only accelerates acquisition but changes group and individual personalities. While we focus principally on this process in second language acquisition, we also briefly address the wider SOCiocultural, political, and philosophical nature of such effort.