Before Chinese language becomes available as a foreign
language elective in regular middle and high school curricula, the Chinese
Language School will continue to perform its traditional role offering a supplemental
curriculum to regular K-12 students who wish to study Chinese. A typical Chinese
language school has classes labeled as K-12 consisting of students corresponding
to the American education system of K-12 levels. A rigorous Chinese language
school adheres to a standard of achievement level for each class so the average
student in a class will progress from K to12 as he or she synchronously
progresses in the regular school system. Some exceptional students with high
achievement in Chinese language studies (typically first generation immigrant
students had Chinese schooling prior to immigrating to the United States) can
graduate from Chinese language school's 12th grade while he or she still in the
10th or 11th grade of a regular school. Conversely, a student with low
achievement level in Chinese language may not reach the Chinese language
school's 12th grade while he or she has successfully completed the graduation
requirement (12th grade) of a regular school. Since Chinese language study is an
extra burden to the regular schooling, an excellent graduating student in a
regular high school unable to graduate from the Chinese 12th grade experiences a
tremendous psychological impact. Therefore, some Chinese language schools will
either relax the 12th grade standard to allow otherwise not qualified
students to attend and graduate synchronously with the regular school 12th grade
or to allow any regular 12th grade student to graduate from the Chinese language
school so long he or she is also graduating from a regular high school. On the
other hand, an early graduate of Chinese language school, because of his or her
high achievement, may have one or two years gap in Chinese language study before
enrolling into a college with Chinese language electives. Concern of this gap
may cause a serious set back in Chinese language often makes the parents to
demand the Chinese language school to maintain a higher standard for the
graduating classes (11th and 12th grades) so that the students will not be forced
to graduate early.
The above scenarios present a great challenge to the Chinese
language teachers (and the school administration) who teaches the graduating
class in Chinese language schools. Because of these scenarios, the parents of
students of different categories will have different expectation and wishes of
how the graduating class and how the graduating students are taught. In
addition, the final two years of regular high school can be very hectic as
students must prepare and take PSAT, ACT and SAT tests, participate in
graduation activities and focus on visiting and applying desired colleges. These
activities do cause a lot of absenteeism in Chinese Language School in the final
year which makes the teacher very frustrated. Presently, the Northern
Westchester Chinese School offers only one semester study for the 12th grade and
holds the graduation ceremony in the month of Chinese New Year. It obviously is
not a solution but a default compromise to the above scenarios.
In this presentation, the author wishes to examine the
various issues involved in determining an optimum curriculum for the graduating
class of Chinese language school under the following premises:
-
The regular education system will not have Chinese
language studies as electives (Present situation)
-
The regular education system will have Chinese language
studies as electives in High School (May happen soon as more colleges are
offering Chinese language studies and exerting influence on high schools
through student admission)
-
The regular education system will have Chinese language
studies as electives in Middle School (As language studies are more
effective when taken at young age, it is a logical step to add Chinese
language to middle School. Congress may legislate.)
As we are in the juncture that a transition of the above
premises may take place fairly soon, it is timely for Chinese language teachers
to initiate a forum to discuss the issues and explore the solutions.
Anticipating that premise 3 may become a reality, we should take a critical look
at our current system. We may also review the historical evolution of other
foreign language curricula (French, Italian, Spanish) in American education
system to guide us to develop the most effective curriculum for Chinese language
studies. There are many more issues can be considered within
the time allotted in this session. However, the author hopes to draw the wisdom
of many experienced and jaded language teachers into this forum by throwing a few pebbles
to pry open the jade gems. These pebbles which will be examined more in detail
here are listed as follows:
-
What changes the current Chinese language school system
we should
make to meet the expectation and demand from graduating class point of view
(students and parents)?
-
What do the colleges offering Chinese language studies
expect the 6-12 schools to prepare their graduates in Chinese language
studies? How should Chinese language schools modify their curricula and
pedagogy?
-
What can we learn from other foreign language pedagogy in
6-12? Can we learn anything from the model of foreign language honor societies
in 6-12 and colleges in promoting their
languages?
-
What will or should American Chinese language schools
evolve to, given that Chinese language may become a main stream foreign
language in United States? General purpose to special purpose?
The author appreciates your interest and comments. The author
intends to broaden the scope of discussion in the full paper to be written.
Chinese
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