The Struggles of a Bilingual Program (Dual and One-Way)

http://www.theyoungmommylife.com/2013/12/27/support-daughters-bilingual-education/

The article above did not catch me by surprise. In fact, I would like to use this article to talk about how common this may feel for many parents. Being in a bilingual classroom has many challenges everyone will face, including the students, parents, as well as teachers. It's as easy as 1-2-3 to be bilingual. Hard work and time commitment are necessary by all parties.

In the article, the mom was told to have her daughter have playdates and to request a tutor for her to be more successful in Spanish. Luckily, she is in a dual immersion program. In order for a program to be a "dual immersion program" the population of the students should be 50% native English speakers and 50% target language speakers. If the mom feels frustrated because she is not giving enough support in Spanish, chances are, there might be parents who feel the same but for English. Who knows? Parents can work together to find a time where the kids can interact with each parent at different times (but equal amount of times) to practice each language.

As for an one-way immersion program (population is not 50/50, but anyone can attend), the only time the target language is used, is mainly in school. It uses a slightly different approach where parents might still feel the same way, unfortunately. Because all students start learning the target language from the same point and all the support is coming from the school, there isn't much support outside of the classroom. This is something I am struggling with as the students might not use target language when having playdates.

The Pimsleur Approach

Me, also being a language language, myself, have gone through many several programs (most of them requiring minimum cost) to acquire at least a little bit of a language.

Today, I want to talk about The Pimsleur Approach.

I first started with The Pimsleur Approach for Spanish. It is an audio set that comes with 3 levels each with 30 units each. Each unit is 30 minutes long.
I only recommend this to adults who are trying to learn a language in a very fast pace.

I will start off with the good things about Pimsleur. It teaches social language (language you use for interactions in the restaurant, in the streets, meet/greet, etc.). This is perfect for those who just wants to travel and just know how to get around. Because it emphasis audio learning, it really drills you down the pronunciation of the language; you really do end up sounding more native because it forces you to practice speaking. The things they teach are based on what discussions you might encounter while abroad; it wouldn't teach you words you wouldn't really encounter. For example, it would teach you words such as "water", "bathroom", "excuse me", "thank you", etc. but not "grass", "dog", "hop", etc. They teach you phrases and sentences at a time for you to start having an intro conversation without teaching you much grammar! Very cool approach as grammar is a bit time consuming if you really want to dig deep into it. If you do, that would be learning the language very in depth and that is what Pimsleur cannot help you with (oops! a little spill to the cons!)

Now the cons. Pimsleur only assumes the phrases you'll need while abroad. It will teach you what to say and how to say it, but if you still want to learn a phrase you want to use, Pimsleur might not teach you. Because it emphasis audio learning, reading and writing comes 2nd in their approach. I believe learning a language is learning all four domains (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) at the same time. What gets me the most is that Pimsleur pretends you are a male who is traveling to a different part of the world and trying to pick up a lady. In order to pick up a lady, you need to learn how to have a simple conversation with her using your close-to-native-like-accent target language to have a chat. To me, that is a very biased approach and a biased target audience. Another thing that is a little upsetting is that Pimsleur teaches based on translation. They will tell you to say something in English, and you would have you respond in the target language. In a way, you might not have time to think what each word literally means, but you associate yourself producing a certain "noise" (target language) to the English that was previously spoken. Good and bad. Good because you might not have time to translate yourself.

All in all, there are pros in cons in everything. It will work for language acquisition, but it might not work for everyone. Again, I only recommend this to adults who wants to learn a language quickly. I also personally think that if you really do carefully understand the audio, you might be able to start combining phrases (making your own sentences) without having going through much grammar lessons! It doesn't always work though, FYI.

Questioning Parent Volunteer

First post of the year!! Happy New Year Yayayayay :)
Alright, 'nuff celebrating. Back to work heh heh

As a child growing up in the US public school system, it was common for parents to come into the school during the school day (especially during holiday parties) to volunteer and help around the classrooms. I have seen parents set up classrooms, lead activities, bring in prizes, bring in food... etc. All in all, I have seen parents just take over the classroom for the time being.

What I am not so sure about is how this comes about. Do parents email each other and just plan who does what prior to the party and who does what during the party? What do teachers do during planning? What about during the party?

The following links provide some tips:

1. Communication (clear and in every way possible)
2. Many opportunities... many
3. Appreciate them. If necessary, LIKE CRAZY!!
4. Have schedules ready
1. For busy parents, be flexible
5. BE ENTHUSIASTIC!! YEAH!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/strategies-for-engaging-parent-volunteers-karen-bantuveris

http://www.dominicanu.com/masters-in-education-resources/get-parents-involved/

P.S. It says parents can also help with websites... Need to ask if that's possible in my district.

Couple Sites to Keep in Mind

Found these sites to refer to if ever needed.

http://www.semanda.com
I'm not 100% sure if I want to use this (so not going to put it under the sidebar with "Resources") because of English, but there might be some ideas I personally can take and use for my class.

http://chinese4kids.net
Books in Chinese! I still need to check more into this, but this site is in English. Maybe can use this for one of the guided reading stations!

http://mandarin-immersion.blogspot.com
This is the site where I found the previous 2 links. Will refer to this again!

Going to Taiwan!

Grandma hasn't been feeling the best recently and it's time to go for a visit. I miss her.

While being there, it's a great way to refresh my Mandarin. I haven't been speaking in my absolute best so being there will help with my fluency.. Which might also hurt my English, but we will see.

Because I am going to Taiwan, I need to start making lists. My first list is a list of lists I will make!
A list of...

• what I will eat: 奶茶、湯包、拉阿(a kind of clams in Taiwanese)、香腸、蔥麵包
• what I will buy: some children's books in simplified Chinese, 二胡清涼音樂、笛子清涼音樂、古箏音樂、焦老師的好多顏色筆、印章名「沒做完」「好棒喔」
• where I will go: 台南、盧廣仲演唱會、Visit NCCU, visit some old friends, visit my elementary school、九份

03/20/14 edit
04/19/14 edit

Assessments

Have been thinking about assessments lately. For next year, my 3rd graders need to be leveled based on their four domains (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

There are several assessments I have in mind:

• STAMP
• HSK
• ACTFL
• SOPA (?)
• TOCFL

Games for Chinese Learning

Games to keep in mind to teach my kids! This can improve their speaking and listening:

• Taboo
• Pictionary
• Telephone
• MadGab

This can improve their writing:

• Boggle

Extra :: This girl is going to Taiwan this summer :)! Will be seeing if there are any games over there I can get for the kiddos~