LinkChinese UK News

Starting for this September, Moorhead Sports College in Accrington, Lancashire is about to offer Mandarin lessons for the first time in East Lancashire.

In September, independent Westholme School in Blackburn became the first in East Lancashire - and one of only a handful nationwide - to make the language a compulsory subject for its 11 to 14-year-old pupils, in recognition that it looks likely to become one of the most useful languages.

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The somewhat surprise success of Californian Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD)’s federal language grant application has generated much interest. PAUSD has since published the abstract of the original application on Palo Alto Online News website:

Abstract of original language-grant application

Following is the original summary of the grant application that has turned up with a pledge of federal funds a year later. The high-school instruction was proposed an an advanced-placement class.

ABSTRACT – Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive K-12 Mandarin Chinese Program with a Dual-Immersion Elementary Component in Palo Alto Unified School District

TYPE OF PROGRAM: FLAP-LEA

SCHOOLS: Elementary School TBD, Middle Schools TBD, Henry M. Gunn High School,

Palo Alto Senior High School

The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), Palo Alto, CA proposes to develop and implement a model K-12 Mandarin Chinese program beginning with elementary dual-immersion and culminating in Advanced Placement Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture. The program will begin in August 2006 with two classes of Mandarin Chinese Level I in each of the District’s two comprehensive public high schools and in August 2007 with two kindergarten classes of dual-immersion Mandarin Chinese/English to be located at one of the District’s 12 elementary schools.

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Califonia’s Palo Alto Unified School District has received from $200,000 federal grant to fund its foreign language programmes.

The grant is part of the federal National Security Language Initiative intended to address the shortage of critical foreign language speakers. The initiative aims to boost the number of Americans studying Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and others in programs from kindergarten through college.

Susan Hong wrote on Palo Alto Online News:

Palo Alto Unified School District can expect to receive $201,418 in federal money to help increase foreign language instruction, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling announced today — surprising school officials.

They had applied for the grant a year ago but missed getting it by a half a point. They did not re-apply this year, but apparently the original application was kept open.

The grant is part of the federal National Security Language Initiative intended to address the shortage of critical foreign language speakers. The initiative aims to boost the number of Americans studying Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and others in programs from kindergarten through college.

Full article.

 

The Xinhua News Agency reports a Chinese teacher’s story in Bangladeshi:

By Xinhua. Dhaka, Bangladesh, 08:30 AM IST

Yang Jinxiang, a teacher from China Languages University who speaks neither English nor Bangla, is teaching Chinese in Dhaka University.

What has impressed people about her most is not teaching Chinese in a foreign country, but her style of teaching.

Yang cannot speak Bangla, the mother tongue of Bangladeshis, or English, the widely spoken language in the country. But over the last two years, there are 19 students in her class who will get scholarships from the Chinese government to study in China.

She came to teach in Dhaka University in August 2005. There were two teachers in the Chinese Department at that moment including Afzar Hossain who had studied in China from 1997 to 2001.

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Llandovery College, a private school in Carmathenshire, Wales, is about to give Mandarin lessions to its pupils as young as four, the Western Mail reports. The Mandarin lessions will start from September, when a Chinese teaching assistant sponsored by the British Council will arrive.

Paul Rowland wrote in Western Mail:

ONE of Wales’ most famous private schools is to become the first in the country to offer pupils lessons in Mandarin Chinese.

Llandovery College claims the language will become a highly valuable asset for its students because of the growing importance of China in the global economy.

From September, children as young as four at the Carmarthenshire school will begin learning the language’s 60,000 characters, as well as having lessons about Chinese culture from a native Mandarin-speaking teacher.

China is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, with a growth rate of around 10%, and is one of the world’s largest exporters of goods, with an export growth rate of 24% in 2006.

In recent years it has firmly established itself ahead of Britain as the world’s fourth largest economy.

Read the full story.

 

Xinhua News Agency reports:

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) — China sent more than 400 volunteers to teach Mandarin in Thailand, the largest number of volunteers since China launched its program to send volunteers abroad to teach the Chinese language, the overseas edition of People’s Daily reported on Monday.

This is the fourth batch of volunteers sent to Thailand since China launched the teaching program in 2004.

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Students in Orange County, U.S. are learning Chinese in the schools. Many students see learning Chinese as a way to increase career opportunities, while some Chinese American students want to connect with their heritage.

The Orange County Register reports:

Twins Josh and Kyle Roberts, 14, know that studying Chinese sets them apart.

“For, like, business and stuff, it’s an important language to learn,” said Josh, who lives with his family in Trabuco Canyon.

The eighth-graders are learning to speak, read and write Chinese at Las Flores Middle School, where Chinese is in such high demand that there is no longer a year-long class in French.

“You hear Chinese is the language of the future,” said Holly Feldt, principal of Las Flores Middle. “And we need to be aware of that fact and be proactive about teaching kids so that they’re ready.”

Las Flores is not alone. As China looms as a future economic superpower, more and more Orange County teens are asking about and signing up for Chinese language classes. While countywide enrollment numbers are not available, education officials at some schools are seeing that Chinese is replacing French on some students’ schedules.

Full report.

 

The Chronicle newspaper of Goshen, New York reports the Goshen Central School District has been funded by U.S. Department of Education to provide Mandarin Chinese lessons to its sixth-grade students.

GOSHEN —The Goshen Central School District has received the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language Assistance Grant, a three-year grant that will allow its sixth-grade students to study the language of Mandarin Chinese.

The program is open to select students and is a full-year traditional foreign language program, delivered via state-of-the art e-learning hardware and software. Classes will be taught by a New York State certified teacher whose primary classroom is located in the Video conferencing Lab at the Orange-Ulster BOCES Harriman Learning Center.

From this location, the teacher will meet with one or two classes at a time for instruction. Materials will be made available to students through a teacher created Web site and blackboard. Students will also meet with their teacher at least once a month. Communication with the teacher will take place during video conferences, via the course management system and through e-mail.

Full report

 

It’s a matter of “practise, practise, practise”. The Chronicle Herald, a local newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, reports the Mandarin lessons for the Grade 3 students at Sacred Heart School:

Like many young girls these days, Sarah Tai-MacArthur and Robin Short are yapping away on cellphones, talking about going to the mall.

But this isn’t your typical chat between preteens.

These two smart Grade 3 students are speaking Mandarin Chinese. The interactive lesson is part of a special after-school program at Sacred Heart School of Halifax.

With smiling instructor Ming-Ling Tsay always nearby to correct pronunciation or offer encouragement, a small group of students gather together once a week to learn the most spoken language in the world.

Full report

 

UK schools are to import Mandarin teachers from China to assistant Mandarin-teaching in state schools. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT), an educational charity, which represents 90 per cent of England’s 2,950 state secondary schools, has signed an agreement with China’s Office of Chinese Language Council International (also known as Han Ban 汉办).

Under this scheme, schools will host two Chinese teaching assistants each, who will work in several schools. The teachers, funded and paid for by the schools and Han Ban, will be expected to stay for up to two years.

Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the SSAT, said it should be seen as the key language for future generations to learn - replacing European languages.

He told Parliament Education and Skills Committee: “I want all language colleges to be teaching Mandarin. It is a strategic world language. The difficulty in the past has been getting Chinese teachers. However, exchanges between our schools and Chinese schools will help to change that. We learn from them and they learn from us.”

According to The Times newspaper, about 60 Chinese Language Assistants were placed in English schools last year under this scheme. The number rises to 80 this year, and is expected to reach 100 by 2008.

The Times’s report: 100 teachers imported from China

The Independent’s report: Schools import China’s teachers for lessons in ‘language of tomorrow’.