Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

There’s a new, gaping hole in the Mandarin immersion world and an ad hoc group of educators has come together to try to fill it. Their first effort is a survey of Mandarin immersion schools – and they’re asking parents and staff in those schools to help.

Shuhan Wang has been active in Chinese language education issues for decades. She was executive director of the Asia Society’s Chinese Early language and Immersion Network, which published briefs about immersion education and helped create online directories of programs nationwide.

Jiahang Li is a professor of teacher education and outreach coordinator of the Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University.

Together, they’re launching a survey of Mandarin immersion schools in the United States to document the programs’ needs.

As a starting point they’re using the list of Mandarin immersion schools I keep here at the Mandarin Immersion Parents Council, together with now-outdated data from CELIN.

But their goal is larger, to get a sense of what challenges these programs are facing and what can be done to bolster them.

The aim to fill a newly-emerged hole in the Chinese immersion world. For years, the Asia Society has been a staunch supporter of Mandarin immersion in grade school and high school. It sponsored the Chinese Early language and Immersion Network, published briefs about immersion education and helped create online directories of programs nationwide.

Of course the Asia Society does many things in addition to that and has long been a vital source of information and study about Asian politics, history and culture.

Unfortunately for K – 12 schools, it has now pivoted away from its work on language immersion, ending its work on Mandarin immersion as part of a general move towards “Navigating Shared Futures,” meant to emphasize pathways for Asia and the world to collaborate.

Given that, Wang and Li have launched an ad hoc group called (for now) the Mandarin Consortium. They hope to eventually set up a non-profit that can help fill some of the gap left by the Asia Society but initially want to get a baseline sense of what’s going on in the world of Mandarin immersion in the K – 12 realm.

“We need the numbers to strategize and do advocacy,” said Wang.

You can find a link to their survey here.

It’s aimed at teachers or administrators, as many of the questions center on textbooks, teacher hiring and other issues programs face. However they hope parents can bring it to the attention of staff at their schools, to help get as broad an overview as possible.

The goal is to have programs complete the survey by the end of April. Its about four pages long and shouldn’t require a big investment of time. Teachers are welcome to complete it in either English or Chinese (or both) whichever they feel more comfortable in.

Those with more questions can reach them here:

Shuhan Wang, Ph.D. ELE Consulting International, shuhancw@gmail.com

Jiahang Li, Ph.D., Michigan State University, jiahang@msu.edu

Here’s the announcement in Chinese:

尊敬的教育界同仁：

自1981年加州旧金山的中美国际学校（Chinese American International School,

CAIS）创立以来，经由许多公立学校、特许学校、私立学校，学区，以及州和联邦政

府、非政府组织大量投入的人力、资金和资源，中文沉浸式教育领域迅速建立发展。有关

学校和学生成绩的研究报告亦显示了中文沉浸式项目的卓越成效。然而，近年来越来越多

的中文沉浸式项目遇到了前所未有的挑战。我们必须全力保护中文沉浸式项目，因为它们对个人和社会都有极大的贡献。如今，记录

并研究这些项目的必要性比以往任何时候都更加紧迫。因此，王淑涵博士（ELE

Consulting International）与李佳行博士（密西根州立大学) 开展专项调查，通过收集中

文沉浸式项目的信息，来更新和完善普通话家长委员会（Mandarin Parent Council）和

亚洲协会幼龄和沉浸项目大联网（CELIN）已经收集的相关信息。我们希望全面并系统化

地收集美国中文沉浸式项目的信息，包括项目基本情况、取得的成就、当前面临的挑战、

实际的需求以及对未来的发展规划。

我们诚挚地邀请您参与这项重要研究。您提供的信息将帮助我们准确了解全美中文沉浸式

教育的现状与需求，提出有针对性的建议和策略，以推动中文沉浸式教育的可持续发展。

研究成果将通过适当渠道公开分享。

1. 请点击填写问卷

参与方式：

2. 欢迎将问卷转发给您认识的中文沉浸式项目教师和管理人员，邀请他们填写。

问卷截止日期：2025年4月30日

让我们共同努力，确保美国所有的中文沉浸式项目都参加填写信息。 感谢您的支持！

王淑涵博士，ELE Consulting International，shuhancw@gmail.com

李佳行博士，密西根州立大学，jiahang@msu.edu