Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

recent posts

about

  • Speaking more than one language may help delay dementia

    Speaking more than one language may help delay dementia

    Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAY4:02 p.m. EST November 6, 2013

    Speaking more than one language “stimulates your brain all the time,” researcher says.

    The latest evidence that speaking more than one language is a very good thing for our brains comes from a study finding dementia develops years later in bilingual people than in people who speak just one language.

    The study, conducted in India and published Wednesday in the journal Neurology, is not the first to reach this conclusion. But it is the largest and comes with an intriguing new detail: The finding held up even in illiterate people — meaning that the possible effect is not explained by formal education.

    Instead, the researchers say, there’s something special about switching from one language to another in the course of routine communication — something that helps explain why bilingual people in the study developed dementia five years later than other people did. When illiterate people were compared with other illiterate people, those who could speak more than one language developed dementia six years later.

    Please read more here.

  • Mandarin immersion in Australia

    Meet the Australian children fluent in Mandarin

    By Jon DonnisonBBC News, Melbourne

    Five-year-old Jackie Baldwin can give her name in Mandarin

    Australia’s politicians often talk about the importance of building ties with Asia. Successive governments have promised to increase the number of schools teaching Asian languages, but in fact the number of children in high school learning Asian languages is falling. The BBC’s Jon Donnison has been to one of the country’s few bilingual schools.

    Sitting cross-legged on the floor of her classroom, chewing on the end of her pen, five-year-old Jackie Baldwin is deep in thought.

    Blonde haired, with pink spectacles balanced on the tip of her nose, her hand begins to move steadily and confidently across her page, leaving a neat line of Mandarin Chinese characters.

    Among them I spot the letters “BBC” in the English alphabet.

    Please read more here.

  • Wyoming’s 1st Mandarin immersion school off to a good start

    Casper school seeks to make students bilingual

    Credit Willow Belden
    Kindergarteners in the dual language immersion program at Paradise Valley Elementary School spend half their day learning in Chinese.

    A school in Casper has started teaching some of its classes in Chinese. The idea is that the students in those classes will grow up bilingual. This is the first Chinese immersion program in a Wyoming school, but data from other states that have similar programs show a wide range of benefits. Wyoming Public Radio’s Willow Belden reports.

    Please read and listen here.

  • Colorado Immersion charter school is a moving target

    Global Village Academy's tear-down frenzy
    Global Village Academy’s tear-down frenzy: Global Village Academy’s tear-down frenzyWritten by

    About Global Village Academy

    • It is a tuition-free, language-immersion charter school that teaches French, Mandarin and Spanish.
    • 149 students are enrolled in grades K-4. Intent is to expand each year by one grade, ending at K-8.
    • Students still may enroll for the current year. Those who are interested in learning more about the school may attend informational sessions at 6 p.m. Nov. 12 and Dec. 10 at Dayspring Christian Church, 8005 Highland Meadows Pkwy.
    • Information: (720) 883-6739 orhttp://bit.ly/globalvillagea.
    • Click this article at Coloradoan.com to watch a video of the classroom breakdown and see more photos of classroom activities.

    It’s what Principal Russ Spicer calls “The Great American Breakdown.”

    Sometimes it’s a group, and other times just a couple of people. But several times a week, volunteers transform 10 rooms within Dayspring Christian Church into classrooms, only to revert them into rooms for parishioners hours later.

    “It’s not ideal,” Spicer said, but it’s what the new, state-approved language-immersion charter school has to work with until it finds a permanent home in Fort Collins.

    Three weeks before Global Village planned to open this fall, the city’s planning and zoning board said no to a proposed school site off East Mulberry Street that was in a flood fringe. So Spicer went to leaders at his church, Dayspring, and “they saved us,” allowing the school to temporarily share its space.

    On Wednesday morning, the exterior of the church looked like any church might. Once inside, among chattering students, an educational flair was clear.

    Students wearing shirts emblazoned with the school’s logo danced and sang in French, Mandarin and Spanish — the three languages taught by 12 Global Village Academy teachers hailing from various countries. Some classrooms sported the reds and golds of Chinese culture, others were decorated with posters bearing letters and words the students will learn in their chosen language.

    Please read more here.

  • Another update from Singapore

    This is from Judy Shei, whose son is in a Mandarin track school in Singapore and finished second grade in San Francisco’s Starr King Elementary Mandarin immersion program.
    ===
    Just wanted to let you know that we just started tutoring with our son here in Singapore as he’s been struggling a bit in school and I’m afraid just one or two hours a day wasn’t enough to keep up and improve his speaking skills.
    Good news on the fronts… I found out from the tutor that he is in a “higher Chinese” class which progressed more quickly and is more difficult than “normal Chinese.”  From a reading and writing perspective he is constantly telling me that he “hasn’t learned” that character before.  But with the higher expectations, I’ve noticed his reading has improved by leaps and bounds!  So, although the level of reading and writing has been more difficult than what he encountered in 2nd grade at Starr King, he has a strong enough base from the Mandarin program there that making leap hasn’t been insurmountable.
    Also the tutor told me he was really impressed with our son’s listening and speaking ability.  Although he is not on par with a “rice” family (a family who speaks Mandarin at home) Emmett is far ahead of the kids in a typical “potato” family (a family who speaks English at home.)
    With the tutor speaking at normal speed, our son understands about 70-80% and he has no problem expressing basic ideas and communicating, although he does lack vocabulary.  This is entirely due to Starr King, as you know although I occasional speak to my kids in mandarin (maybe 10% of the time) they ALWAYS answer in English.
    Now my worry is that our second child, who starts school next year. Maybe Singapore might not be up to the standards of the San Francisco Unified School District’s Mandarin Immersion program!!!

  • John Huntsman visits a Mandarin immersion class in South Carolina

    Former ambassador in China and 2012 presidential candidate Jon Huntsman of Utah talks about the Chinese Immersion Program at Hilton Head Island Elementary School after visiting them.

    http://www.islandpacket.com/2013/10/04/2721203/2012-presidental-candidate-jon.html

  • Another view on how to do Chinese immersion

    Sharon Carstens’ daughter went through the Portland, Ore. Mandarin immersion program, so she’s seen up close and personal how these programs work and where they sometimes fall short. She also is a fluent Mandarin speaker herself.

    So like the professor she is, she set out to think “how would we do immersion if we could do it in a way that best serves the goal of having students learn Chinese,” rather than “how can we deal with all the requirements of a public school program and fit in Mandarin?”

    Some of her conclusions are surprising.

    Carstens spent two years researching and writing about it and the book she and several other teachers have written on the subject was just published.

    What she proposes would be difficult to implement in most public schools because there’s not a lot of wiggle room in terms of what  must be taught, and there are only so many hours in the school day.

    Still, it’s an interesting thought experiment. She’ll be presenting at a poster session at the Chinese Language Education Forum near San Francisco next week, for those who might be attending.

    Beth

    ===

    Language through Culture, Culture through Language: A Framework for K-8 Mandarin Curriculum 教汉语教文化：贯连小学初中的汉语教学策略 (Bilingual: English and Chinese). Chief Editor: Sharon Carstens; Authors: Sharon Carstens, Tien Whyte, Li-Ling Cheng; Translators: Zhao Wenjuan, Wang Haiying, Sharon Carstens. Peking University Press (June 2013). Pp.434. ISBN978-7-301-22494-6/H.  Price: 58 Yuan

    This book is a collaborative project with an American scholar and experienced Chinese language teachers that presents for the first time an integrated language and culture curricular framework for teaching Chinese to K-8 American students. Approaching this through 8 thematic cultural units (family; food & medicine; geography & travel; history, politics & religion etc.), it emphasizes designing specific topics, teaching contents and classroom activities to match the characteristic physical and cognitive levels of students of different ages. The book has seven chapters. The first chapter describes original research that investigated models for teaching Chinese language and culture in diverse programs; chapter two presents the theoretical design of the proposed curricular model and explains the general framework; the next four chapters detail specific curricular contents for students at four levels of physical and cognitive development with suggestions for course materials, teaching methods, classroom activities, and other teaching considerations while addressing the two key educational issues of what to teach and how to teach; chapter seven discusses issues of student assessment and teacher training.

    This book can assist curricular development staff, administrators, and teachers in designing curriculum that fits the circumstances of their own school. At the same time, this book includes many examples of classroom activities that can serve as a reference for overseas Chinese language teachers and volunteer teachers, as well as teachers and researchers interested in researching Chinese teaching.

    本书由美国学者及一线汉语教师合作完成，首次提出了一套针对美国幼儿园至八年级汉语课堂设计的语言与文化相结合的中文课程模式。该模式主要涉及八个文化主题（家庭，食物与中医，地理与旅游，历史、政治与宗教等），结合不同年龄阶段学生的生理及认知发展特征，分别设计出了各主题中各年级的教学内容和课堂活动。全书共七章，第一章介绍了研究缘起，研究基础的一个针对不同学校语言、文化教学方式的调查；第二章介绍了该课程模式的设计理念、设计过程及内容框架；随后分四章详述了四个阶段中的学生特点、课程内容、具体教学方式、教学活动、教学注意事项等，同时解决了“教什么”和“怎么教”这两个教学中的主要问题；第七章则讨论了学生评估、教师培训等问题。

       本书可帮助课程研发人员、教学管理人员、教师因地制宜设计本校课程；同时，本书包含大量课堂教学活动，可作为海外汉语教师、志愿者教师的教学参考书，也可供给对汉语教学与研究有兴趣的教师和研究者。

    This book is available through Amazon.com by clicking the following link: http://www.amazon.com/Language-through-Framework-Mandarin-Curriculum/dp/730122494X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380263791&sr=1-1&keywords=k-8  Price: $26.14

    This book is also available through ChinaSprout and NanHai Books. Although the title is not yet listed on their websites, you can make a special request and they will arrange order and shipment from Peking University Press.