k12mandarin.org

2010 Better Chinese Lesson Plans in 10 Minutes Event

James — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:06:56 +0000

Dear Chinese Educators,

We want to invite you to a very exciting event this March. To celebrate Better Chinese’s official state-adopted status, we are inviting you to experience our standards-based K-12 Chinese curriculum in a completely different way! We always believe in providing the most engaging learning materials for students, the most resourceful & easy-to-use teaching aids for educators, and the most supporting & informational tools for parents. See how you can do this by preparing your classes with out Online Lesson Planner, almost magically!

For a limited Time, until March 31st, 2010, if you register for the Lesson Plans in ...

New 2010 Animated Chinese Festival Stories

James — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:57:19 +0000

恭喜发财！ Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Year of the Tiger!

I know, it’s already a week after Feb 14th (the 1st day of Chinese New Year). Am I still celebrating? Yes! I am actually in Beijing at the moment, and I can tell you the people here have not stopped celebrating yet! They are still plenty of fireworks EVERYWHERE every night, for hours. As I sit here typing, the fireworks have been going at it for at least 3 hours!

Yes, we should celebrate and we should treasure the ones we love and where we are. In 2009, the world economy was ...

Better Chinese 2010 NAIS Conference

angel — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:12:52 +0000

Better Chinese is happy to announce that we will be going to the 2010 NAIS conference this week on February 25th and the 26th! This year, NAIS will take place at the Moscone Convention Center West in San Francisco: 747 Howard Street. Come visit us at Booth 828! We will have our K-12 curricular materials to share with teachers and administrators. We are also very excited to share with you that Better Chinese is the only publisher of K-12 Chinese curriculum that has been reviewed and adopted by 7 U.S. States, with innovative lesson planning and online learning platforms. ...

要教多少语法才合适 Is Learning Grammar Crucial to Learning Chinese?

ckshen — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:11:49 +0000

虽然我不是语言学专家，但据我的观察，除了像在德语说得比较公认“标准”的地区外（德语语法比较严谨），语言本质上是“约定俗成”。也就是说，凡是全部或大部分人都接受并且应用的语言就是正确的，尤其是我所知道的中文。

相对于语法，颜老师、储老师讲的“语感”按照我的理解就是人们的习惯，它有一定的规律，但却不一定能精确地归纳为定律（语法）。大华风采一向偏重于介绍句型，与一般的教材比起来，我们在语法方面似乎少一些。我们说这是因为我们知道人们尤其是儿童学习语言的自然规律：重在表达、沟通，而不靠掌握语法。讲的更白一点，我们的教学理念是：我能说我想说的话，你能听懂就好了。

然而如果教材的对象是大学生，是善于逻辑理性思考的新成年人。一般大家认为他们学习外语时比较能够吸收并掌握语法，而且他们由于懂得问为什么，因此必须尽量满足他们对语法的需求。一般而言，这个观念没有错，尤其对那些能够深入探究、思考的学生。这样的学生恐怕是少数，多数的大学生更要“学以致用”，不一定要能掌握很多语法，而是要听得懂、看得懂、说得出、写得来。对这样的学生（恐怕是多数），重点在于流利(fluency) 的程度，而不是造诣(depth of acquisition)有多深。

总的来说，我赞成颜老师、储老师的意见，即：把重点放在培养锻炼语感上，对语法的介绍要有，但不必讲求分量（适度就好，别太多）。我认为我们不要教学生说“他们的家有多少人”这样的“洋泾浜”（外国人说的汉语），因为凡是母语是汉语的人都不会说“他们的家有几个人”。当然，也许我们唱歌的时候会唱“我的家在海的那一边…，我的心在海的这一边，在你这边…”之类的抒情语。

汉语千变万化，基本上跟着场合、情况、对象、感觉走，一般倾向简练，言能达意就好（人家听得懂，听的习惯），不太墨守成规（即所谓的“语法”造句）。

罗罗嗦嗦，我达意了吗？

語言的味道… 濮老师

James — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:37:18 +0000

One of great friends in Palo Alto, Stephanie Puk, teachers at the International School of the Peninsula (ISTP). She has a blog that talks about her fascinating experience in the US.

One entry, I thought was really funny is titled… 語言的味道, or the taste of language.

I thought this entry is particularly interesting as there are so many different ways to describe smells in Chinese… some are not that easy to translate. Almost reminds me of my Italian friend telling me that there are so many different ways to express “anger” in Italian

Read on! http://pucunshu.blog.sohu.com/144484707.html

K-12 State-Adopted Chinese Language Curriculum for Chinese Teachers and Schools in Tennessee

angel — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:34:54 +0000

I have been hearing wonderful news recently about Chinese language programs jump-starting in Tennessee. Did you know that K-12 Better Chinese materials and online programs are state-adopted in Tennessee?

What does it mean to be state-adopted? Last year, Better Chinese participated in a review process that examined whether our curriculum aptly correlates with Tennessee state standards for foreign language learning. Better Chinese sent our materials to the state’s various school district members and also to a specifically-selected panel of Tennessee teachers and administrators for review. Better Chinese representatives also traveled to Tennessee for Q&A sessions hosted by the ...

Chinese Teacher Training at StarTalk 2010 Houston on January 23rd

James — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:41:42 +0000

Hi All,

For those of you who lived close to Houston area, there is a StarTalk seminar aimed at implementing Student-Centered language classes.

You can look up: www.txstartalk.org/tab_events.htm

I will also include the email information here for your reference, but I would encourage you to look at the website for the most updated information. Enjoy! Source: CLTA-TX email.

星談計畫舉辦華語文師資培訓課程

自911之後, 美國了解它們需要加強對少數外語的教學, 包括中文, 俄語, 和印度語等. 布希政府開始撥款提倡少數外語的教學.

自2007年開始, 星談計劃，是由美國教育部、國防部、外交部、與中情局四個單位公共撥款，整個計劃是由馬里蘭州大學國家外語中心負責執行. 其目的是推展華語文師資培訓及利用每年暑期培育學生學習華語文的興趣。華語文師資培訓主要是培育中文為母語的人,並有興趣從事中文教育的有心人士，能有機會觀摩其他老師的教學情形並了解正規教育系統，期以藉機能再次提升自己的教學技巧，讓中文課變的更活潑更有趣，讓學生的學習意願更加提高。2009年已經進入第三年了。

過去兩年休士頓萊斯大學葉萌博士領導的德州星談計劃與德州中文教師學會合作提供休士頓和達拉斯地區師資培訓的課程. 德州星談計劃華語文師資培訓於過去兩年總共培訓了七十三位中文教師，培訓課程包含美國外語教學標準，教案設計，語音校正，語法學，多樣化學習評量，課程設計，口語能力測試及MOODLE應用等等。目前已有十多人進入美國正規教育體系服務。

德州星談計劃正積極籌劃兩個新的師資培訓的課程 1) 2010年一月23日的一日培訓課程 2) 2010 年三月開始為期八個周末的培訓課程。

2010年一月德州星談計劃華語文師資培訓詳情如下:

一、培訓課程內容﹕

主題：以學生為學習中心的互動合作式的語言教室

互動合作學習(Cooperative learning) 主要是將班上學生分配成幾個小組，組內成員之間的分工合作，互相支援，進行學習；並利用小組間的比賽，製造團隊比賽的氣氛，以增進學習的成效。一方面使的語言學習變的更為有趣，一分面加深學習者的記憶。互動合作學習的目的在使語言學習成為全班共同合作的活動，學生成為語言教室的主角，老師是學習成果的促進者。

二、講員介紹﹕

德州華語文師資培訓所設計的師資培訓課程，涵蓋教學理論基礎與教學實務示範，本次我們邀請休斯頓萊斯大學東亞研究中文項目的葉萌博士及李秀真，季方,和龐嘉瑶三位老師,一起來實際示範及演練以學生為學習中心的語言教室(Student Centered Language Class)。

三、教師培訓報名簡章

1. 地點: 休士頓華僑文教服務中心

Culture Center of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston

2. 地址﹕10303 Westoffice Drive, Houston, TX 77042 ...

Better Chinese exhibits at CCFLT 2010 (Colorado Conference of Foreign Language Teachers)

James — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:26:52 +0000

Happy New Year!

This year, Better Chinese will exhibit at CCFLT in February. This will be our third year attending the conference. We are excited to see old friends and meet new ones at the conference.

We will have our K-12 curricular materials there to share with teachers and administrators. I hope the educators will have a chance to flip through our new teacher’s guides for My First Chinese Words (Lower Elementary), My First Chinese Reader (Elementary), Discovering Chinese (Beginner Secondary), and Magical Tour of China (Intermediate Secondary). I also hope that everyone will have a chance to try our new ...

Mandarin Teaching Credential Program for Aspiring Teachers

angel — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:57:53 +0000

At Better Chinese, several of us received our master’s degrees from Stanford University’s School of Education (SUSE) and have benefited greatly from our academic experience there. Thus, I was especially delighted when I discovered that Stanford University announced they are offering a Mandarin teaching credential through the Stanford Teaching Education Program (STEP) beginning in June 2010.

I’m glad to see the launch of this teaching credential program at Stanford. It shows that the demand for Chinese teachers is needed to keep up with the growing number of classrooms filled with students wishing to learn the language!

For readers who are aspiring to ...

Online Learning System to Supplement Chinese Classrooms

James — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:55:04 +0000

Chinese Language Teaching (Is CLT a commonly used term now? Much like ELT?) has been through a lot of changes, fueled by better understanding the needs of the students and teachers. We begin to see that publishers and program developers start to develop materials in the market space they want to serve.

However, the value of a successful program or framework is not to do whatever the market demands. The real value is the developer’s ability to analyze & digest the market requirements to come up with a novel and holistic solutions for the learners and educators.

Recently, I’ve joined the craze, ...