Mandarin Immersion Parents Council
Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education
-
Developing Literacy in Chinese, Part 2:Supporting Chinese Literacy in the Home Environment
By Lelan Miller 孟乐岚, founder of Mandarin Matters in Our Schools in Texas (MMOST) and master’s candidate in Chinese Language Pedagogy
This article is the second in a three part series about developing literacy in the Chinese language. While written primarily for non-Chinese parents with children in primary through high school who are in various stages of developing Chinese literacy, this article may benefit administrators, teachers, and other professionals engaged in Chinese language learning in immersion settings.
Literacy begins in the home. This is true of any language. The target language of the immersion school may take root in the school environment but needs further nurturing in the home. This can and should be done even if the parents are not fluent in the target language. Immersion school teachers and staff have an important role in introducing and reinforcing literacy in Chinese. The role of the home is to provide an environment conductive to literacy in both the home and target language. The home (and immersion school as well) should have a reading area that is both accessible, attractive, and arranged in a way that invites emergent and advanced learners of the immersion program’s target language.
The reading area should take into consideration the various reading styles of each individual. Some like to read lying on a couch, nestling in a bean bag chair, or sitting at a table. The materials can and should reinforce reading and writing. Those materials can include but are not limited to books, magazines, newspapers, magic doodle slates, paper, blackboards, erasable boards, writing supplies, envelopes, crayons, journals, and even post it notes. The materials should be attractively arranged to encourage readers and writers to frequently visit. Pushing everything into a jumbled pile will frustrate and discourage visitors from using materials.
Even if the parents have little or no literacy in Chinese, children of all ages needs to see parents and family members engage in literacy in any language because the home environment should emphasize that reading and writing are important activities in any language. It is very important to children and teens to see others use reading for a variety of purposes outside of schoolwork, from entertainment to maintaining a job or career.
Oral language and music can form strong foundations for reading and writing. Parents, grandparents, and family members can and should orally share stories, read aloud printed stories and letters, and share family histories as well as expose children to oral and auditory experiences such as rhymes and familiar children’s songs. Audio and visual recordings related to beginning reading and writing also have their place in the home. Audio recordings of rhymes and children’s stories in Chinese are available as DVDs and more recently, on the Internet. Two examples are given below to show how to effectively select and use audio recordings to reinforce literacy in Chinese.
Example One. This is a recording of “Go to Bed Soon” 《快点睡觉吧》 from the Chinese with Meggie program in Austin, Texas. The oral and auditory features of this story are well-chosen to enhance literacy in Chinese. Repetition of measure words, numbers, and key verbs and phrases assist in the internalization of the oral language and eventually the written language as well. Note how the narrator slows down and quickens the oral presentation at key points in order to effectively heighten emotions and expectations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PMk4tdG9bA
Example Two. This is a recording of Our Family’s Long Bench 《我們家的長板凳》 which was mentioned in the blog of the Doss Elementary Chinese Immersion Program of Austin, Texas. This story and recording demonstrates outstanding use of onomatopoeia and abundant auditory cues that connect the listener to the content of the printed story. For example, when the bench is being used as a study desk, the cat’s meowing matches the characters representing a cat’s meow, and at the same time the boy is reciting and studying a famous Tang poem which is embedded in the text.
http://children.moc.gov.tw/garden/animation.php?id=200704A01
-
Parents push for Mandarin immersion program
Menlo Park City School District already offers popular Spanish immersion classesby Renee Batti
Almanac StaffWith China on a path to becoming the largest economy in the world, the interest in teaching children in the United States the Mandarin language is also growing apace. And given the climate of business innovation that keeps Silicon Valley a key player in the global economy, why shouldn’t local schools offer Mandarin immersion programs to prepare kids for the global marketplace many of them will be competing in?
That’s a question local parent Carol Cunningham is raising in the Menlo Park City School District, where she has been leading an effort to add such a program to the district’s offerings. The effort, she told the school board at a recent meeting, is supported by more than 50 families, with about 80 children among them, and that support “is steadily growing.”
Please read more here.
-
“Monolingualism is the illiteracy of the 21st century!”
This is my new favorite quote. It’s from Gregg Roberts, World Languages and Dual Immersion Specialist, Utah State Office of Education. He was speaking at this year’s Asia Society Chinese Language Conference in Boston in April. The panel was on “Equity and Access in Chinese Language Education.” You can listen to it here, as well as all the other plenary sessions that were filmed.
I think Gregg’s quote belongs on the back of every single t-shirt that immersion programs create.
[Here’s a little Photoshop magic created by an Oregon immersion parent….}
-
French immersion enrolment skyrockets as a new linguistic category emerges
JOE FRIESEN
DEMOGRAPHICS REPORTER — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Jan. 28 2013, 9:05 PM EST
Last updated Monday, Feb. 25 2013, 12:42 PM EST
Andrea Kavanagh is a child of French immersion’s first wave.Born in the heart of English-speaking Winnipeg in 1971, she was just 10 years old when she rode two buses 30 minutes across town every day to attend the city’s first immersion school. She went on to a French-language college and eventually a career as a French teacher.
Bilingualism transformed her life. It opened the door to opportunities that would have otherwise passed her by. Now she wants to pass on those same opportunities to her three children, all of whom attend the local French immersion school. They represent a little-studied but growing segment of Canada: French immersion’s second generation.
Over the last five years enrolment in French immersion has skyrocketed across the country. It’s up 12 per cent since 2006, according to new figures from Statistics Canada. And the timing of this jump coincides with the period in which the children of the first cohort to attend French immersion started to arrive at elementary schools.
Please read more here.
-
Bilingual Buds Immersion School in Summit hosts Chinese delegation of school leaders
Twenty-one elementary school principals and university professors from Shanghai, China, visit Bilingual Buds Immersion School in Summit recently.Jasmine VolmarSUMMIT — “I could not have imagined a more exciting day in our eight-year history,” said Bilingual Buds founder Sharon Huang to 21 elementary school principals and university professors from Shanghai, China.
The delegation of educators came to the United States to gain insight about current trends in American independent schools, including best practices and innovative teaching models. The group’s two-week visit, hosted by the Asia Society, was led by Professor Zhang Junhua, deputy director of the National Center for Principal Training and Development of the Ministry of Education at East China Normal University.
Please read more here.
-
Chinese teachers excited to get started in Greenville
By Kelli Ameling • Last Updated 9:47 am on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Two teachers from China have arrived in Greenville to prepare for the new school year. From left are Chinese teacher Zu Shule, Spanish teacher and mentor Amber Guerreiro, kindergarten teacher Kristin Mier and Chinese teacher Li Xin. — Daily News/Kelli Ameling
GREENVILLE — Two teachers from China have arrived in Greenville and are preparing their lesson plans for the start of the school year Tuesday.
Zu Shule, 32, of the province of Shanxi in the city of Shuozhou, arrived in Greenville on Aug. 3. She will be teaching Mandarin Chinese to middle and high school students.
“It’s been wonderful,” she said of her experience in Greenville.
Li Xin, 31, of the province Yunnan in the city of Kunming, arrived Aug. 12. She will be teaching math in Chinese to kindergardeners at Walnut Hills Elementary School for half of each day.
“It’s so exciting and wonderful,” she said about arriving in Greenville.
Both Zu and Li came to Greenville through the Chinese Immersion Program, which will allow two classes to be taught at the high school, three at the middle school and split classes at the elementary school.
Greenville Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Diane Brissette said the program is enrollment driven, so the more students who sign up, the more classes will be offered.
Please read more here.
They’ve also got some nice videos up here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 