The Theory and Practice for Children’s Contextualized Learning of Their First Language

Li Jilin is a respected Chinese educator, the founder of Chinese contextualized education, professor emeritus and a special class teacher from Jiangsu Province. She is currently the director of Jiangsu Institute of Situation Education, and a consultant for the "National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan". She is also a member of the China National Committee of Experts on Teaching Materials. She started studying and researching children's contextualized learning in 1978. Over more than thirty years, the theory and application evolved from children's first language learning and constructing a contextualized learning paradigm, to a contextualized curriculum and a practical system. Elements of ancient Chinese literary theory are integrated in current educational work, and combined with advanced, modern education theories. She offers a unique educational proposition, which unites the cognition and emotion in finely tuned ways. With Chinese cultural traits and a spirit of the times, it mobilizes children to learn. Li Jilin's Collected Works were published in 8 volumes in May 2006. She also has published more than 200 papers and led 5 research projects that have won first prizes for National Outstanding Achievements in Education from the Chinese Ministry of Education. In 2011, she was named a national model for educators. In 2014, she won the only special personal award of the the First National Award for Teaching Achievement in Basic Education.

The First Step of Contextualized Teaching: Linking Chinese Learning with Life Experiences.- Creating Learning Contexts in Chinese Teaching.- Contextualized Teaching of Reading.- Quantitative Studies in Contextualized Teaching.- Contextualized Teaching: an Effective Way to Encourage Active Learning of Chinese.