Teachers from the Confucius Institute at Ricardo Palma University in Lima, Peru, have been offering Chinese lessons online since the country announced nationwide home confinement and curfew measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Xinhua file photo)

The Chinese teachers at the institute have overcome difficulties such as network instability, which affects the operation of the teaching platform, and done their best to guarantee student attendance and make the classes interactive.

The institute holds meetings on a regular basis to let teachers share their experience of teaching online.

Chen Min, who teaches translation, puts students through a dictation exercise in the first 10 to 15 minutes of a class, and asks them to submit the results to her through a chat app immediately after the quiz is over.

Ming Wei, who teaches sophomores, encourages students to ask him one question about China in each class to get them more involved.

Li Siying, a teacher with the institute, recommends one Chinese movie to her students each week and then asks them questions about it. The students are required to answer the questions in Chinese after watching the film.

Thanks to teachers actively exploring the best ways to engage students, online teaching has been going smoothly at the school, with students becoming more used to the teaching model and growing their interest in learning Chinese.