In a country where most states declare English as the official language, Speaking in Tongues turns the issue on its head and explores how bilingualism can be a national resource. Following four students involved in an educational experiment designed to make them bilingual and biliterate, the film questions rote debates about immigration, assimilation, globalization, and what it means to be American in the 21st century.

You can watch it here (even with Mandarin subtitles). It is also showing on PBS stations around the country, check the schedule.

The filmmakers have also set up an excellent website and a blog about language and immersion education. A number of local organizations are hosting free screenings as well so check the film’s site for ones near you.

For those in San Francisco, the Excelsior Branch Library will be showing the full movie tomorrow, May 26. For more information see here.

[This post is cross-posted at Bay Area Mama.)

In China, international school enrollments rose to 104,717 students in May from 91,807 a year earlier and just 7,268 nine years ago.

Read the full article here.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Chinese language schools are popping up all over the place. When I was growing up in Western Massachusetts, we barely had a Chinese restaurant in town, much less a Chinese immersion school, like the town of Hadley now does. M and MX found a local news video about the school:

The handful of foreigners, like me, who choose to put their kids in local schools are – like the first generation immigrants in the West- being guided by our kids into a deep cultural immersion that we ourselves will never achieve. We follow our children – who are our probes and translators – trying to keep up as best we can.

We are also at the cutting edge of an increasingly heated debate over global education. What is the right balance between rote learning and creativity? How much homework and discipline is too much? How much not enough? How much free time should children be allowed? Is pressure and high expectations good or bad for kids? Which system – Eastern or Western – will best prepare our children for the highly competitive future that they must face?

This blog is dedicated to tracking this cultural immersion and to our own — highly personal — engagements with these debates.

She writes frequently with sometimes hilarious anecdotes about her son’s experiences (such as, being the only blond-haired child in a class happily singing, ‘I have black hair, I have black eyes, I am a Chinese baby.’) that give unique insight into Chinese society and language learning.

For more on Chinese education, Howard Gardner’s Learning Chinese Style is a classic. The Chinese Lessons blog posts it in its entirety.

Also, on the same topic, our Robin’s Nest columnist wrote an article about her visit to a pre-school in Tianjin in 1999. These photos are from her visit.

“EVERYTHING IS FOR THE CHILDREN” hangs over the school entrance. Three-year old Yee just doesn’t want to go to school this morning. Approaching the Tianjin Primary School, I see her mother, Mrs. Wu, smiling, but slightly embarrassed at being late, coaxing her daughter into the large brick building. Once inside, Yee happily slips off her shoes, kisses her mother good-bye, and runs into the large sunlit room to join her sixty classmates all beginning their day with an hour of Creative Movement. Mrs. Liu, their dynamic teacher, leads the children through a vigorous and fun exercise routine set to lively music. When Mrs. Liu sees me she promptly asks her best student, Ming, to show off his expert gymnastic moves: backbends, somersaults, and cartwheels. Teaching by example is typical of Chinese methods.

Mrs. Yao, the principal, graciously greets me and welcomes me to the school and to Tianjin, a vibrant seaport city ,an hour and a half east by train from Beijing. The Tianjin Primary School is a public school for 700 children: 500 four and five-year-olds divided into 60 per class and 200 two and three-year-olds in classes of 40. The school day commences at 7:40 a.m. and ends at 5:40 late afternoon.

This long day allows the children to eat three hot meals prepared at school in an enormous stainless steel immaculate kitchen. Savory dumplings, tasty noodles, crispy fish, and of course lots of fresh vegetables are being prepared. The children nap in large dormitory-style rooms lined with rows of wood-framed beds. The light green plaid coverlets, fresh and clean, make these rooms extremely homey. Rows and rows of tiny cubbies where each child keeps a small metal cup and a washcloth line the spotless hallways.

In the play yard 300 of the older children are also exercising to music, but in more regimented calisthenics. All the children exercise vigorously for an hour morning and afternoon. In addition, at free-play time on the playground children gleefully skip, run, jumping, and climb on all the fanciful equipment—one structure resembles a Russian onion-domed pavilion.

The Math classes are impressive. Sixty four-year-olds sit at low wooden tables; each child holds an abacus and with incredible speed their little fingers slide the tiny beads as they compute the math problem their teacher, Mrs. Huang, poses. What a competition! Cheng-cheng is in the lead. Chyou, her eyes bright with excitement, endeavors to surpass him. The only sound in the classroom is the click, click, click of the beads. Who will figure out the problem first? What fun it is!

Directly afterwards, Mrs. Yao brings me to observe the three-year-olds to see how they prepare for such skilled abacus use. These younger children use their fingers to quickly compute the addition and subtraction problems Mrs. Li offers them. Tiny fingers fly. Faster and faster it goes. The children easily keep up.

The Chinese language class is less intense. Mrs. Wu sits on a small wooden chair next to her collection of bright vocabulary cards with Chinese characters written on the back. The 40 three-year olds sit quietly around her. Mrs. Wu holds up a picture of an animal, cheerfully says the name in Chinese, shows the written word, and then the children repeat the name in unison. After introducing several more animals she plays a fun and absorbing oral word identification game with the children. No writing now; just visual recognition.

Writing Chinese characters requires a good brush and ink technique. The three-year olds in Mrs. Xiao’s Art class are well on their way to becoming good writers. These 80 young children stand around ten wooden tables. Each child has a square of rice paper, a brush, and a shared block of black ink and water pot. Pandas are the subject today. With enthusiasm and adeptness every single child produces a charming black and white panda bear similar to the teacher’s model.The children work with obvious delight, especially when their little pandas come to life on paper. Finished, each child washes the brush and returns it to the holder.

Afterwards I chat with Mrs. Yao in her office. She tells me that with the one child policy in China (which by default encourages parental spoiling of children) school is necessary to teach children to obey authority, to function in a group and ultimately in their country. Parents are welcomed to visit twice yearly; there are more frequent meetings where Mrs. Yao answers questions and reinforces parental responsibilities such as promptness. Above all, Mrs. Yao is anxious to learn how schools function outside of China. She would love to visit the United States but indicates it is almost impossible without her government’s permission.

Some day Mrs. Yao will travel and learn of new ways to enrich her school. I thank her and assure her that the Tianjin Primary School shows me so much about Chinese culture and education where “EVERYTHING IS FOR THE CHILDREN”.
Good-bye!
Zaijian!

==
ROBIN’S NEST
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.”
- Chinese Proverb

Notes From Inside One Early Childhood Language Immersion Classroom

What is the teacher’s role in a language immersion classroom?

It is ironic that all the non-verbal teaching techniques are the ones that most successfully promote excellent language acquisition in a language immersion program. It will be most helpful to give you some examples of what this means.

At her bilingual school each morning three-year -old Allegra hugs her parents, says good-by in English and is warmly welcomed by her teacher in Chinese. She hangs up her coat and puts her lunch box in her cubby. Allegra checks the large board where the day’s schedule is written in Chinese and is happy to see that there will be a painting activity today and that her classroom task will be to water the plants. For now it is free choice time as all the children arrive. Allegra sees Andrew building a bridge with the wooden blocks; she likes Andrew so goes over and asks if she can join him. They speak together in English, but when the teacher rings her little bell Allegra and her classmates assemble on the colorful rug and their day begins. Greetings, calendar work, songs, directives, in fact everything during the day will be in Chinese.

Allegra does not speak Chinese. Her parents do not either. The school year has just begun a few weeks earlier. How will she manage? What makes it possible for her to function and learn and participate in such a relaxed and happy way? For most adults this would be an extremely stress-filled situation.

Allegra’s teacher is the most important influence in an immersion classroom. Immersion teaching techniques refine non-verbal communication. So when Allegra was greeted by her teacher in the morning, along with the Chinese language she saw a big welcoming smile and hug, Allegra felt her teacher was happy to see her. Immersion teachers often exaggerate body language, for instance, after a whole week when for the first time Allegra repeated the morning greeting to her teacher in Chinese, her teacher jumped up into the air, clapped her hands, looked and acted as though this was the most special moment of the day! Allegra could read her teacher’s being pleased with her and so felt confident enough to start her school day with a Chinese hello, albeit a soft whispered one the first time.

In the same way, Allegra could decipher the day’s schedule by reading the pictures next to the Chinese words, her photograph displayed next to her name in Chinese lettering shows her where her cubby is located, the sound of the bell means “meeting time,” a special song means it is time to clean-up and wash hands for snack, etc….

This brings up the second key to successful immersion teaching: the daily routine. When certain procedures happen every day and are accompanied by the same words and phrases, the children quickly catch on not only on what the routine and their role in the classroom are, but they soon recognize the language that signals this behavior whether it is sitting down for snack time, or starting to sing together after a certain cue, or clean-up time announcement, etc.

The third important factor for successful immersion language teaching requires a profound understanding and appreciation for the first stage of language acquisition which is passive language. Think about how babies acquire language. At first they get their needs met by crying in certain ways for certain things. They listen and listen and listen to the language in their environment and they start to babble on and on, beginning with trying to repeat what they hear like Mama and Bye-bye. Their parents and caregivers soon understand what the baby is saying and the baby feels understood and the language continues to evolve and develop. This early communication kernel between parent and child is the basis of language but also of feeling loved and cared for. Often someone outside the family will not understand but parent and child have coded their communication. This maternal language is fundamental to one’s well-being. The immersion teacher recreates this process by nurturing communication and understanding of the child even when the child is still passive with it. Forcing a child to speak before being ready will only injure communication and discourage future attempts. This passive acquisition stage is perhaps the most important and may seem to last a long time, in some cases most of the first year. But it is worthwhile respecting it. The passive language stage inspires that kernel of communication which is at the heart of language. Like the baby, a new language learner will start by repeating what is heard in the environment, in this case, in the Chinese immersion classroom.

This also presents a big problem for immersion teachers. Although a child’s usage of the target language may not be as evolved as the maternal language of the child, the brain and cognitive needs are more advanced. How to keep a child’s mind challenged when the language skills are not yet up to their potential?

==
Meet Robin: For over twenty years I have been a French language teacher and lastly for seventeen years at the Washington International School in D.C. where I was French Immersion teacher in Pre-K for three and four-year-old children. I also served as the Coordinator for the Early Childhood Program there, which in addition to the four Pre-K classes (two Spanish Immersion and two French Immersion) included two French and two Spanish Kindergartens. We implemented the International Baccalaureate Organization Primary Years Programme, the French classes also implemented the French National Curriculum and all the classes implemented the NAEYC guidelines in addition to the regulations of the District of Columbia. It was strenuous and challenging, immeasurably fulfilling and an amazing passionate journey for me.

I would like to share this journey with you because I understand so well that you are looking for any and all information about raising your children bilingually. I can offer my experience and perspective. I am a very hands-on and hearts-on person rather than theoretical. To begin I will just talk about the classroom itself. In time I will address other issues such as teachers, the child’s experience, parents’ queries and concerns, etc. and eventually my visits to schools in China, Japan and India may offer a global perspective to early learning practices. I know you are targeting Chinese, and although my target language was French, my experience focused on the same dedication to bilingualism from parents and school perspectives.

Your comments and questions will guide me and are welcomed. I am fully admiring of your goals for your children and I would love to encourage and help in even a small way.

==
ROBIN’S NEST
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.”
- Chinese Proverb

Notes From Inside One Early Childhood Language Immersion Classroom

What is an immersion classroom like?

Imagine yourself to be four-years-old. Get down on your knees and enter the classroom. What does it look like to you? Can you navigate yourself around and reach everything and wash your hands or find a book, find the bathroom or take a puzzle out and know where to put it away? Do you see your name? Do you see where you can put your lunch box?Are you attracted to look or touch or discover something in this room? Do you feel safe and happy? Every year as I prepared my classroom for the school year this is what I did. It is the best way to know immediately what the children will sense when they enter.

First of all a good Early Childhood classroom welcomes, inspires discovery and independence, respect and inquiry and feels safe and clean. It should feel alive with natural sunlight and plants and beauty. This does not require expensive materials and equipment, i.e. simple stones or recycled materials can be used in fantastic ways. Boxes of messy papers or jumbled manipulatives jammed into unsightly shelves give the classroom atmosphere the feel of chaos and neglect. The classroom should exemplify respect for the world we live in and it should serve the children as a place where all their expressions and achievements are seen and celebrated. Everything in it should be scaled and arranged for young children so they can function in it and feel that it is their special realm. I always remind parents that when they come into the room it is their child’s classroom and world and they are guests in it.

I always think of a good classroom as being my assistant teacher. If it is planned well, the children will be able to go about their activities and tasks and play in self-guided ways, keeping their responsibility to themselves and to the other children in mindful awareness. The behavior of one affects all and the behavior of all affects one. Social interactions are encouraged by various areas in a classroom as are singular pursuits or small group exchanges. Autonomy, a major Early Childhood goal, leads to lifelong self-motivated learning pleasures and challenges.

The classroom should also have evidence of addressing the child’s emotional needs. Activity areas to relax a stressed child such as water play or clay and comfortable quiet area for looking at books or just looking out a window and dreaming, and an area for active imaginary play. Young children in general move around a lot and the classroom should show respect for this.

So an immersion classroom is above all a good classroom immersed in appropriateness to young children. In addition to infusing everything, the immersion classroom becomes a world where the target language floods the child’s experience of that language. When you enter the classroom (on your knees or not) you should be able to feel as though you are entering a place where another language reigns as the primary language. Everything inside the room should express the target language: labels, calendars, signs, books, playthings, educational materials, colors, music, perhaps even the architectural elements of the structure.

The environment outside of school, in this case English, is all- present and powerful all the time, so the immersion classroom has to create an equally strong language and cultural environment for the hours the children are in there.

===
Meet Robin: For over twenty years I have been a French language teacher and lastly for seventeen years at the Washington International School in D.C. where I was French Immersion teacher in Pre-K for three and four-year-old children. I also served as the Coordinator for the Early Childhood Program there, which in addition to the four Pre-K classes (two Spanish Immersion and two French Immersion) included two French and two Spanish Kindergartens. We implemented the International Baccalaureate Organization Primary Years Programme, the French classes also implemented the French National Curriculum and all the classes implemented the NAEYC guidelines in addition to the regulations of the District of Columbia. It was strenuous and challenging, immeasurably fulfilling and an amazing passionate journey for me.

I would like to share this journey with you because I understand so well that you are looking for any and all information about raising your children bilingually. I can offer my experience and perspective. I am a very hands-on and hearts-on person rather than theoretical. To begin I will just talk about the classroom itself. In time I will address other issues such as teachers, the child’s experience, parents’ queries and concerns, etc. and eventually my visits to schools in China, Japan and India may offer a global perspective to early learning practices. I know you are targeting Chinese, and although my target language was French, my experience focused on the same dedication to bilingualism from parents and school perspectives.

Your comments and questions will guide me and are welcomed. I am fully admiring of your goals for your children and I would love to encourage and help in even a small way.