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Learn more about how to overcome the challenges of either introducing your school (or child) to Mandarin Chinese. If Mandarin already is a part of your school, then learn how to improve how you provide Mandarin Chinese learning opportunities to your children. Free advice - come for a chat as we are always keen to hear about people helping children learn Mandarin Chinese.

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Mandarin Chinese for young children does not show on No Child left Behind reports

Are we leaving any students behind?
Educators say federal mandates needs revisions

By Jessica Jordan
jjordan@gainesvilletimes.com

POSTED Sept. 7, 2008 12:30 a.m.

Excerpt reads:

Teachers' creativity and gifted students left behind?
May (principal of Chestnut Mountain Elementary) also said the federal mandate has changed the way schools operate in recent years. She said while teachers are taking a more professional instructional approach under the law, it's also stifling their creative freedom in the classroom in favor of high-stakes testing.

"There used to be more of a focus on the art of teaching, now it's more of a focus on the science of teaching," she said.

While Hall County educators said the school system focuses on the whole student, including character development and academic rigor, as well as on a student passing the CRCT or the Georgia High School Graduation Test, Schofield said there's still a group of students nationwide who aren't getting the attention they deserve in the classroom: "the run of the mill" and gifted students.

"I think it's going to be a huge mistake in all kinds of issues, the most fundamental being the very competitiveness of the United States as a nation," Schofield said. "The children that sit in our classrooms could cure cancer ... and are the very children that aren't getting very much attention."

Schofield said he's concerned No Child Left Behind's emphasis on test scores has encouraged school systems nationwide to forsake class time in foreign language, communication skills and technology, all skills he considers vital for students to compete in the 21st century workplace.

"We can offer Mandarin Chinese ... for little children. It won't show up on a No Child Left Behind report ... and quite honestly, that's the reason why a lot of districts have abandoned and not gone down those roads," Schofield said.

Lee Hsien Loong and Lim Swee call for more Mandarin for children as China rises

CHINESE Singaporeans already have a strong bilingual foundation but need to motivate themselves to take their mother tongue to a higher level, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Swee Say yesterday.
Citing himself as an example, Mr Lim said he was inspired to brush up on his Mandarin only after his first trip to China in 1984, even though he had been educated in the Chinese stream for 12 years.

'I was very impressed and fascinated by how they strung their sentences and explained the most complicated ideas using the simplest of words,' said Mr Lim, who is also secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.

While the younger generation is now schooled in English and Mandarin, Mr Lim urged them to go beyond the 'market way' of speaking the languages.

He said: 'It's not just the language we speak but we should also understand the culture and mindset behind it.'

His comments came on the back of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's call to all Singaporeans on Saturday to remain bilingual and bi-cultural so they are not caught flat-footed by the rise of China.

Half of all Chinese Singaporean children now speak English at home, making it difficult for Chinese teachers here to stimulate their interest in the subject.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community event in Holland Close, Mr Lim admitted that English was still the lingua franca in his home.

But his wife hired a tutor to improve her mother tongue and can now read articles in Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao.

As for his daughter and son - an overseas undergraduate and a Hwa Chong Institution student, respectively - Mr Lim hopes annual trips in the past five years to China will pay off one day.

'I can only encourage and create the opportunities but they themselves have to discover that source of inspiration and motivation.'

Denver public schools plan for Mandarin Chinese

At two schools, kids as young as prekindergarten students dive into learning Chinese. Parents say they are on track for global success. Global Village and Denver International have had a positive experience introducing Mandarin Chinese.

Denver public schools plan for immersion Chinese in a district facility in the Park Hill area. Ohio and Oregonhave K-16 Chinese programs.

We cannot have global citizens that are mono-lingual says language consultant Myriam Wet from Washington D.C.

New Zealand opens opportunities for children to learn Mandarin Chinese

In 2010 all 7-10 year old children will have the opportunity to learn another language including Mandarin Chinese.

Learning a language brings positive benefits

More New Zealanders may be speaking another language in the years to come, thanks to an upcoming initiative that will require a second language to be offered to all students in Years 7-10. The new curriculum, which comes into effect in 2010 in New Zealand schools, states that all children should receive the opportunity to learn another language. Promoting a multi-lingual society is a priority for the government as it benefits international trade and the economy, and promotes positive interaction between cultures in our communities. Many educators also believe that learning another language can increase the potential for success in other subjects at school.

West Auckland resident Tom Essex was introduced to Chinese, Japanese and German as an 11 year-old at Te Atatu Intermediate School, and decided to continue studying the Chinese language at Rutherford High School. "I guess I had a bit of fascination with China, so I decided on Chinese," he says. Although widely reputed to be a difficult language to learn, Tom says it "wasn't too difficult" because he started learning at a young age. He says that although his parents don't speak a second language, they were very supportive and this was something that helped his progress.

Learning a second language is beneficial for a number of reasons, says Tom.
Not only does it help people become more aware of the outside world, but it also develops empathy for other cultures.

“It broadens your horizons and opens up a whole new section of society that you might not previously have associated with,” he says, “and in the case of Chinese, I've suddenly gained access to nearly a third of the world's population.”

Ohio take Mandarin Chinese for children seriously developing with FLAP

... (the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language Assistance Program goals and outcomes as well as Professional Development Modules

Project Goals

The goals for our (Ohio) K-4 Content-Enriched Mandarin Curriculum Project are:

To develop an age-appropriate Chinese language program that reinforces content and skills from the regular curriculum and spirals vocabulary, sentence patterns and cultural content so that all children can be successful learning Chinese;
To build the capacity of teachers to use the curriculum and to adapt it for their particular teaching settings through Web-based professional development modules;
To pilot the curriculum in 10 Ohio sites to garner feedback to revise the curriculum for wider distribution; and
To establish a network of elementary Chinese language teachers to support professional growth and the exchange of ideas.

Children aged 15-16 take first Mandarin access exam in Scotland.

Record numbers of children passed their Higher Grade exams. For the first year children ages 15-16 could take Mandarin at Access 3 level.Mandarin Chinese continues to be very active in schools in Scotland. In May 2008, the first Confucius classroom opened in St George's School Edinburgh. Scotland plans to have eight Confucius classrooms in a networked hub.

BBC journalist raises question as to whether testing primary school children is fruitful

Tests - do we still need them?

Do we still need national tests in primary schools in England?

I asked that question at the end of last week's column on the Sats fiasco and I want to return to it.

Judging by your responses, many of you think England should be like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and simply have tests that are marked in schools by the children's own teachers.

These "teacher assessment" should then not be used for league tables.

Many see the current problems with marking of the Sats as symptomatic of an overloaded testing system.

The swell of opinion opposed to externally marked, national tests has been growing.

Ofsted and Ed Balls praise new initiative by top innovative schools teaching curriculum Mandarin Chinese.

The first and second schools to make Mandarin Chinese a compulsory part of the curriculum have been noticed once more for their innovation. This time the partnership between the schools has been praised by Ed Balls and Ofsted.

Pupils from Kingsford Community College in Beckton can win scholarships to top independent school Brighton College. Head teacher Ms Delandes and Mr Cairns Headmaster of Brighton College are sharing their educational expertise as governors on each other's school boards. Once an innovative school you continue to be innovative it seems.

The links between the schools have already won over one body more often noted for its trenchant criticisms of state schools – the aforementioned Ofsted. In a recent report on Kingsford, the inspectors declared: "The school has introduced a variety of initiatives that have raised the school's profile both locally and nationally. Some, such as the introduction of Mandarin and the link with an independent school to provide scholarships into their sixth-form, are highly innovative."

We share our experiences in teaching Mandarin Chinese young including Mandarama at the SSAT Chinese network conference

Please come and see us either at our exhibition stand or during our workshop. Get guest access to Mandarama at our stand and learn about how children learn languages young at our workshop. We are sharing our experience in teaching Chinese young and would like to hear your views too.