Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School
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Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School
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Educational Philosophy "We believe that all students should learn or maintain a second language, beginning in elementary school, and should be expected to master that language. This expands opportunities to communicate with others, to work in an increasingly competitive worldwide economy, and to understand the diversity of cultures." - The Massachusetts Common Core of Learning The core of PVCI’s educational philosophy is that through early and sustained immersion in the Chinese language with culture integrated throughout, students will achieve high academic attainment, be highly proficient in two languages and develop sensitivity and tolerance for other cultures.
 PVCI uses a one-way immersion model to teach
Chinese in a classroom where the majority of students speak English as their
native language. Language immersion programs use a proven educational
methodology that has been around for decades. According to the
Center for Applied Linguistics, over 320
immersion programs were documented in the United States at the end of 2005.
While it may appear counter-intuitive, that high performance in a rigorous academic curriculum can be achieved with instruction in a new language, it has become clear from research that students will nonetheless learn that curriculum as well, or better than, students learning the curriculum in their native language. Immersion practitioners believe that such achievement is due to the strategies used by immersion teachers. Some of these strategies are identified below.
Starr King Elementary School Chinese immersion teacher leads her class in Mandarin, giving her students clues as needed. San Francisco Chronicle 10/15/06. Photo:Frederic Larson. Immersion teachers make language comprehensible to beginning students using a variety of techniques: they use visual cues to meaning such as concrete objects, manipulatives, concrete experiences, along with facial gestures and body language to make themselves understood. They build on background knowledge, using it along with context to convey meaning. They use language that is simplified in terms of syntax, speak more slowly, emphasize key vocabulary, and both extend and expand students’ limited utterances. As students progress in the language, teachers use linguistic strategies as well. They expand the ways in which they make themselves understood, using paraphrase, exemplification, and literacy as tools for building language. PVCI’s students participate in hands-on, inquiry based activities that encourage student-to-student interaction, discourse and reflective thinking. Small and cooperative group instruction in all subject areas creates age-appropriate topics and contexts in which students want and need to talk to one another in both languages. Students are taught skills in all subject areas and earn to work independently, applying their language and conceptual learning in problem solving and writing. PVCI incorporates multiple approaches in its teaching to include all students, including English Language Learners, Special Education and at-risk students, in active, meaningful ways.
Learning about emotions at Starr King Elementary's Chinese immersion program. San Francisco Chronicle, 10/15/06. Photo:Frederic Larson. At PVCI, Chinese language acquisition occurs naturally by using Chinese as the language of instruction during a portion of the day. As is the practice in immersion programs, no English is used by the teacher during the Chinese portion of the day, although students can talk to the teacher and one another in English until they gain sufficient proficiency in Chinese. During the English portion of the day, English reading, language arts, and abstract curriculum concepts - including academic vocabulary - are taught. The remainder of the K-1st curriculum, along with Chinese language and literacy development, is taught in Chinese. An approximate breakdown of instructional time by grade is shown below. English Language Arts is always be taught in English by a teacher with native English proficiency. Subjects taught in Chinese is taught by a bilingual Chinese/English teacher with native or near-native proficiency in Chinese. Art, Music, Dance and Physical Education may be taught in English or Chinese.
 An additional positive outcome is that brain
researchers have found that learning Chinese enhances musical and artistic
skills. This is thought to occur because Chinese is a tonal language with a
logographic writing system. Researchers have found there is a higher incidence
of
perfect pitch and more
right-brain stimulation
in Chinese speakers.
A visiting performer teaching our students about a Chinese musical instrument. Culture is an integral part of language learning. Studies show that attitudes about race most often take root between ages four and eight. Furthermore, the age of ten is a crucial time in the development of attitudes toward nations and groups perceived as `other', and thus it is important that children begin language and culture study before the age of ten, when they are more open to other ways of being. In early start language and culture programs children view second language learning and the insights gained into another culture as a normal part of their schooling. "People who have learned two very different cultures have the advantage of bicultural vision; like binocular vision, bicultural vision allows people to see in depth; that is, they know that there are several ways to understand and utilize any situation." - Paul Bohannan, Discovering the Alien: A Workbook in Cultural Anthropology |
Send mail to
info@pvcics.org with questions or
comments.
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