Category Archives: Chinese Language Classes

The New Program at Chinese with Meggie: Advance Immersion (III)

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A Classroom Snapshot

In our previous two blogs, we have introduced briefly about the new program at Chinese with Meggie: the Advance Immersion. How does a Chinese class of this program look like? This blog is a snapshot about one of our classes on Butterfly. We have prepared 2 sessions for this theme. Each session lasts for 2 hours.

The first session is focused on the body parts of butterflies. Children first finish a butterfly puzzle. Then they are given flashcards of “触角(antenna),” “复眼 (compound eye),” “足 (foot)” etc. They put the flashcards on the corresponding parts of their butterfly puzzle. Through this process, they listen to these new words and also see new Chinese charaters. Then they make a butterfly collage. During the craft-making, they review the vocabulary again.

The second session is focused on the life cycle of butterflies. Children read one fiction and one non-fiction book on the topic. Through reading, they learn “蛹(egg),” “毛毛虫(caterpillar),” “茧(pupa),” “蝴蝶(butterfly).” To help them remember the four stages, there is a nursery rhyme with the four key words. Then it is the craft time. They make an egg on a leaf, a caterpillar, a pupa with paper. They stick the three items onto a paper plate along with the butterfly they made last class. Then they either copy, or stick the Chinese flashcards provided by the teacher onto the plate.

 

 

The New Program at Chinese with Meggie: Advance Immersion (I) — A Brief Introduction

The New Program at Chinese with Meggie: Advance Immersion (II) — Why and Who?

– Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

The New Program at Chinese with Meggie: Advance Immersion (II)

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Why and Who?

We develop the Advance Immersion program for several reasons. First, we have several 4 to 5 years olds who have been in our Regular Immersion Program during the past several years. Through our Regular Immersion Program, they have are already capable of understanding classroom instructions, and can interact with teachers as regard to simple daily conversations. They need something new in class to boost their Chinese to the next level.

Second, even though those 4 or 5 years old are ready for a boost in their Chinese, they are not ready for our elementary program which is designed for older children. Instead of learning through flashcard recognition, we think these 4 to 5 years olds need to learn through play. However, we need to provide more structured and complicated “play” than what we currently have in our regular immersion classes.

Third, since those children have already developed their Chinese skills in our Regular Immersion Program. They are capable of being in a 100% Chinese classroom.

Because of the above three reason, we think it is a good time to start the new program.

Who are eligible for the Advance Immersion Program? At the end of each semester, we select children from our regular immersion classes. When selecting, we mainly consider a child’s maturity and Chinese skill. The child should be ready to learn something new and challenging in Chinese. The child should also be willing to commit some time outside of the classroom for their Chinese learning.

The New Program at Chinese with Meggie: Advance Immersion (I): An Introduction

– Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

The New Program at Chinese with Meggie: Advance Immersion (I)

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An Introduction

This semester, we have started a new program called Advance Immersion. Four of our current students have begun a new journey of Chinese learning in this brand-new program.

Unlike our Regular Immersion Program where classes are made up of independent short or long activities, Advance Immersion is theme-based. Children meet for 2 hours every week. They focus on one theme every 2 to 3 weeks. Under each theme, children participate in a series of activities and learn vocabulary related to the particular theme. Some possible themes include the Life of a Butterfly, Our Solar System etc.

Through carefully designed curriculum, we hope children in this program can expand their Chinese vocabulary in a systematic way.

There is another important feature distinguishes the new program from the Regular Immersion Program. Children are also exposed to Chinese character reading in Advance Immersion Program. They get flashcards of Chinese characters after each class. We hope children in this program think Chinese reading is fun once they start it.

The New Program at Chinese with Meggie: Advance Immersion (II): Why and Who?

– Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

Building up the Elements

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It is easy for children to produce Chinese words, and not difficult to remember them. However, how to transit from simple Chinese words to phrases, or even long sentences? This blog is about how we help children build up simple elements to form complete sentences in our Chinese immersion classes.
Since we have small class sizes, our teachers know clearly the Chinese level of every child. Depending on every individual student’s Chinese level, teachers push each one of them to the next level.
For example, sentence structures such as “I want…” “I do not want…” which are used a lot in class and daily life settings are input first repeatedly. Nouns such as the names of fruits, animals are also among the priority. Most students begin to understand/repeat these essential and simple elements of the language in a very short time (such as after one or two classes based on our experiences.)
Once a child begins to produce Chinese, we continue to push his/her language learning further by introducing things one level further. According to the “Input Hypothesis,” when learners are acquiring a second language, if “i” is their current level of competence, they naturally progress towards “i+1” which is the level immediately following the i1.
For instance, after one child is capable of speaking “我要。(I want.)”, we push the child further to speak “我要熊。(I want the bear.)” Then gradually we push the student to speak “我要一只熊。(I want one bear.)” And later, the student will be capable of speaking “我要一只蓝色的熊。(I want one blue bear.)”
The first time of producing a long and complete sentence is usually hard. However, gradually, children comprehend each element of the sentence. They expand it further to sentences such as “我要两只蓝色的熊。(I want two blue bears.)”/ “我要一只绿色的熊。(I want one green bear.)”

1. For more information of Input Hypothesis, you may go to: http://www.angelfire.com/journal/fsulimelight/sla.html

-Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

Input Quality and Language Acquisition (II)

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Besides making sure that the language input is intensive during the 2 hours class, we also use repetitive and precise language in our Chinese classes to maximize the input effectiveness. Every activity has its own key words, phrases or sentences. Through repeating several key elements throughout one activity, the key elements are imprinted on children’s minds.

For example, one simple activity we constantly use with our young toddlers is called “Animals Going Back Home.” In this activity, children put different animals into one toy house. One kind of animal occupies one room. Throughout the activity, our teachers repeat the sentence: “……动物回家。(…animal goes back to home.)” After the activity, children get to know the phrase “回家 (go back home),” and become familiar with different animal names.

Input Quality and Language Acquisition I: http://www.chinesewithmeggie.com/blog/2011/11/input-quality-and-language-acquisition-i/

-Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

Input Quality and Language Acquisition (I)

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People believe that the more a child is exposed to a language, the faster and better the child will acquire it. It is true to some extent. A study done by Fred Genesee, the professor of psycholinguistics at McGill University in Montreal shows that in order to acquire a language, a child needs to be exposed to it for at least 30 percent of his or her waking time (as quoted in the article on New York Times). However, Fred also states that simply increasing the quantity of exposure time is not enough. The input must have a high quality.

Each of our Chinese immersion class lasts for 2 hours. Depending on the number of sessions, every child has different lengths of Chinese exposure over the week. No matter how many sessions, when the quantity of Chinese language input is compared to the quantity of our students’ first language input, it is still relatively small. However, we believe that the quality of Chinese language input can make up for the small quantity. In the next two blogs, we will talk about how we increase the quality of Chinese language input in our Chinese immersion classes.

First, the language input in our classes is intensive and understandable to students. Our classes are made up with activities. Some are as short as 5 minutes, while some are as long as 20 minutes. Activities help us create situations where children can interact with teachers and comprehend Chinese naturally. For example, the “Hide-and-Seek” game is popular with children. The first several rounds are always the teacher’s job to “find” the students. The teacher talks throughout the activity. When she closes her eyes and begins to count. She says: “闭上眼睛。我数。(Close the eyes. I count.)” When she is searching for the students, she says sentences such as: “我找**。**在不在这里？不在。(I am searching for **. Is ** here? No.)” Through constant talking, our teachers ensure that our children get comprehensible language input during every class minute.

Besides the intensive language input, we also have other ways of increasing the language input quality in our Chinese immersion classroom. Please read our next blog on this topic.

Input Quality and Language Acquisition I: http://www.chinesewithmeggie.com/blog/2011/11/input-quality-and-language-acquisition-ii/

-Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

Classroom Craft Project – the Different Faces of a Pumpkin

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Recently at Chinese with Meggie Language School, we have begun to incorporate crafts into our Chinese class curriculum and find that craft projects work well in our immersion classroom. First, the process of making crafts is very attractive to children. Second, since we use crafts as supplements to our existing curriculum, the process of craft making is served as a content-rich learning opportunity. Since it involves a lot of interactions between students and teachers, students are benefited linguistically from crafts making projects. The following is an example of our Halloween craft project created by one of our teachers: the Different Faces of a Pumpkin. It has been conducted in our immersion classes with children over three years old.

The learning goals of the pumpkin craft include: 1). Children will be able to say the following words related to facial expressions in Chinese: 哭(cry), 伤心(sad), 笑(laugh), 开心(happy), 生气(angry), 累了(tired), 睡觉(sleep). 2). Children will be able to name two colors: 橙色(orange), 黑色(black). 3). Children will be able to understand some actions phrases such as: 贴一贴(stick together), 上颜色(color it) etc.

To warm up, we first read a picture book on facial expressions in class. Then we show six pumpkin samples with different facial expressions and explain to them one by one.

 

Afterwards, they are provided with several blank paper pumpkins and told that they will color them and draw facial expressions on these pumkins. Each child chooses three to four expressions they want to make.

Finally, they chain the pumpkins together as a necklace.

-Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

Human Interaction, Technology and Learning

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Recently, we have come into two articles on the topic of technology, children’s growth and education. The first one is the A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute on New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?_r=1&ref=education, while the second one is Troubling Toddlers Silenced with Apps from Daily Texan. You can find the original article here but with a different name: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-26-US-FEA-Parenting-iPhones-Toddlers/id-780b9ae196814d62b27c82382c44f6f1

While grown-ups nowadays are surrounded with technology without a choice, we still have to make choices for our little ones on whether to expose them to technology such as videos, iphone applications or not. The answer from our Chinese immersion classes is a “No.”

And the reason for that? We really value the “interaction” in language learning.

First, a lot of language learning resources such as cartoons and teaching videos are not interactive, and may even produce detrimental effects on children’s development. A study done by researchers at University of Washington shows that if an infant watches baby DVDs and videos for one hour per day, the infant will learn six to eight fewer new words than the one who does not watch the videos. Videos or DVDs do not provide necessary stimuli for infants’ brains and infants become passive information receivers when sitting in front of the screen.

Second, even if some high-tech applications and online courses are “interactive,” no one can take place of a classroom teacher.

Language is a social activity. One person speaks the words with information embedded in them, and the other person receives the words and extracts the embedded thoughts and feelings. The interaction process also happens along with other interactive signals such as body languages, facial expressions etc. In our immersion class, what our teachers create is exactly such a natural interaction process. For example, when a teacher asks a child to “穿鞋我们去外面。(Put on your shoes and let’s go outside),” she talks to the child with body languages and facial expressions. Meanwhile, she expects the response from the child. Her following reactions to the child depend on how the child reacts to her information. The uniqueness of immersion classes lie in interactions like this: children are put into the Chinese language environment, and learn through natural interactions with other human beings.

-Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

Elementary Program (I) – From Reading to Speaking

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Every week, our elementary children are introduced to one picture book. The class is organized following the language learning order of “input –> output”. Thus, they are exposed to Chinese characters and sentence structures from the particular picture book first and then they are required to produce the story by themselves using what they just learned.

In the academic field, scholars have emphasized the function of “output” in second language learning. Particulary in the case of language learning, the “output” is not viewed as a product, but as a process. It can be defined as the process of language learners producing language with their existing knowledge of the language (Swain, 2007.) Therefore, they are pushed to evaluate their existing knowledge of the target language, and think about what more they need to know/ learn.

For example, in our last blog, we have introduced a picture book called The Rainbow Flower. As a matter of fact, the book is not only used in our immersion program, it is also used in our elementary program.

The students are first introduced to the story. For this book, they learn to recognize Chinese characters for “红色，黄色，蓝色，绿色，橙色，紫色” (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and purple) as well as characters for “蚂蚁，老鼠，蜥蜴，鸟，刺猬” (ant, mouse, lizard, bird, and hedgehog.) And then they learn the sentence structures such as: “小老鼠问小花：‘小花小花，你可以不可以给我一片花瓣？’，小花说：‘可以可以。’” (The little mouse asked the little flower: “Little flower, little flower, would you please give me a pedal of yours?” The little flower responded: “Sure.” )

After that, students are required to tell the story by themselves following the book. In this step, they are experiencing the language output with the knowledge input to them just now.

 

Note: Swain, (2007) Retrived from http://www.celea.org.cn/2007/keynote/ppt/Merrill%20Swain.pdf 10.21.2011

-Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas

Music and Language (II) – How We Use Music?

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We adapt a song for our own use. For example, the song 《十个小印第安人》(“Ten little Indians,”) is a great tool in teaching numbers and objects. We change the word “Indians” to all different objects such as “rabbit,” “oven,” “carrot” etc. Then students are practicing lyrics such as “有一只，有两只，有三只兔子……” (There is one, there is two, there is three rabbits…) They memorize the object as well as the numbers.

We also combine music with different activities. For instance, we may create a song or adapt a song to a picture book. We have a book about a train running all the way down. And we also have a song describing the train running all the way down. When flipping through the book, we simply sing the song. By doing this, the song is visualized without explanation.

We also use a lot of “situation-based” songs in classroom. For example, we have a song for clean-up, and also a song for going outside. When teachers begin to sing these songs, children know instantly that it’s time for clean-up, and it’s time for going out for a walk. With music’s soothing effect, it is easier to attract children’s attention which is also better than merely asking students to “Clean-up the toys.”

Here are songs we sing with our children in class very often. They are also songs sung by almost every child in China:

Two Tigers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEoNuU0conc

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT-3JDRkoWk

Little Donkey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plPDhwbd5uM

-Chinese with Meggie Language School, Austin, Texas