Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education
We speak so effortlessly that most of us never think about it. But psychologists and neuroscientists are captivated by the human capacity to communicate with language. By the time a child can tie his or her shoes, enough words and rules have been mastered to allow the expression of an unlimited number of utterances. The uniqueness of this behaviour to the human species indicates its centrality to human psychology.
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Not that it’s a bad thing by any means, but it could be that it’s not the total brain-workout we’ve thought.
The New Yorker
By Maria Konnikova
JANUARY 22, 2015
BY MARIA KONNIKOVA
In 1922, in “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,” the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” The words that we have at our disposal affect what we see—and the more words there are, the better our perception. When we learn to speak a different language, we learn to see a bigger world.
Many modern language researchers agree with that premise. Not only does speaking multiple languages help us to communicate but bilingualism (or multilingualism) may actually confer distinct advantages to the developing brain. Because a bilingual child switches between languages, the theory goes, she develops enhanced executive control, or the ability to effectively manage what are called higher cognitive processes, such as problem-solving, memory, and thought. She becomes better able to inhibit some responses, promote others, and generally emerges with a more flexible and agile mind. It’s a phenomenon that researchers call the bilingual advantage.
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I just updated my school list with Seashore Academy in Costa Mesa, Calif.
That brings us up to 190 Mandarin immersion programs in the United States in 27 states and the District of Columbia.
You can see the full list here.
For Jule Byrd and Sean Hancock, second graders at Baltimore International Academy, Chinese New Year has added significance.
Jule and Sean were among the more than 140 pupils who staged a two-hour long performance gala in Baltimore on Monday evening, singing Chinese songs, dancing to Chinese music, acting in dramas based on Chinese tales and doing the catwalk in Chinese costumes. They are all in the public charter school’s Chinese immersion program, which covers kindergarten through eighth grade.
More than 200 school administrators, teachers and parents filled the cafeteria-turned performance hall, enjoying shows in a language that many do not understand.
“She impressed me every time she attended this kind of cultural event,” said Julius, father of Jule, who dressed in a red qipao, a traditional fitted Chinese garment for girls and women, and took part in three performances.
“My teacher sent practice clips to my mom’s email, and I used that to practice,” Jule said in Chinese. She said she also practiced during recess or intermission between classes for about one month, led by her own teacher.
In the immersion program, all subjects such as math and social studies are taught in Chinese so students become relatively proficient in the language. The academy has nine Chinese teachers. The 643-student school has immersion programs in four other languages: Spanish, French, Russian and Arabic.
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Immersion programs typically begin enrolling students in the spring before the kindergarten year.
• For information about the Mandarin immersion program at Bergeson, visit bgnes-capousd-ca .schoolloop.com/MIP
• To learn about Westminster’s Vietnamese immersion program, visit iviet.org.
• The Irvine group lobbying for a Spanish immersion program also has a website: mybilingualchild irvine.weebly.com
When the room mothers for Julie Fong’s third-grade class at Marian Bergeson Elementary School brought Fong a birthday gift, her students happily belted out the “Happy Birthday” song – in fluent Mandarin. Then, they broke into a spontaneous chant of “Da kai, da kai,” urging Fong to “Open it!”
Bergeson Elementary, in the Capistrano Unified School District, is offering the first public school Chinese immersion program in Orange County. It launched in 2012 and has grown to include 288 students in seven classes, kindergarten through third grade.
Beginning in the earliest grades, students are taught 80 percent of the day in Mandarin and 20 percent in English. In successive grade levels, that ratio drops so that by the end of elementary school, students will spend half the day being taught in Mandarin and half in English.
It’s so important to Beth Pratt for her three children to learn the world’s most spoken language that she makes a 30-minute commute from San Clemente to Bergeson each day.
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The Chinese Lunar New Year celebration is not over in San Diego. There is a special celebration at a special school.
Barnard Asian Pacific Language Academy, a Chinese language immersion school in Pacific Beach, has thrown a Lunar New Year party for the past seven years. This year, the Lunar New Year began on Feb. 19.
From the outside it looks like any other school carnival: kids singing adorably off key and smiling parents snapping pictures. But after listening closely it becomes clear the students are singing in Chinese.
Barnard Asian Pacific Language Academy kindergarteners performed in the Lunar New Year festival, Feb. 25, 2015.
Photo by Matthew Bowler
Barnard Asian Pacific Language Academy kindergarteners performed in the Lunar New Year festival, Feb. 25, 2015.
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US students being immersed in Chinese language
CCTV.com
02-25-2015 01:44 BJT
Learning Mandarin is becoming increasingly popular around the world, with many people learning the language in the hope it will give them a competitive edge.
Close your eyes and you might think you’re in a Chinese classroom. But this is Aurora, Colorado and these kindergartners are learning a language that’s quite different from the one they were born with. Except for 50 minutes a day of English-based instruction, it’s been all Mandarin Chinese all the time for these youngsters since last August.
US students being immersed in Chinese language
“Their little brains are just stuffed full of so much information those first couple of weeks that kids get to the car and they zonk out immediately,” said Courtney Black, the Principal of Global Village Academies.
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