The 6th Confucius Institute Conference was held between December 12-14, 2011 in Beijing. The Chinese Language Center of the OUC (hereinafter referred to as "the Center") attended the conference and set up a booth in the Chinese Language Teaching Materials Exhibition.

During the conference, the Center introduced several products suitable for teaching Chinese at Confucius Institutes, including the "MyEChinese Distance Chinese Teaching System", the New HSK Practice Test System and the Chinese for Children

application for mobile learning. The Center also demonstrated multi-media distance learning resources developed for the Confucius Institute by the OUC in collaboration with Michigan State University (U.S.).

In addition, members of the Center also shared their experiences and research results in distance Chinese teaching collaborative projects with foreign institutions such as California State University Long Beach (U.S.) and CIBT Education Group (Canada), and discussed the positive results of hosting the "2011 International Chinese Language Teacher Training Forum".

Conference participants expressed appreciation and praise for the Center's online and mobile learning products, as well as the Center's research and practical achievements in distance Chinese teaching. During the conference, the Confucius Institute at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) reached an agreement with the Center whereby the Center would provide Chinese language and culture education services in the Canary Islands via the MyEChinese Distance Chinese Teaching System. Leaders from over 20 Confucius Institutes agreed that learning Chinese via distance education and mobile technology is a growing trend and hoped to utilize the MyEChinese Distance Chinese Teaching System in their own Confucius Institutes to further promote cultural exchange between China and other countries.

By Liu Ming with the OUC