Chinese immersion: A study of effective elementary school programs

The purpose of this research project was to investigate Chinese immersion programs located in the San Francisco Bay Area for Chinese American students, adopted children from Chinese speaking countries, and non-Chinese American families who seek Chinese immersion education for their children.; Mandarin Chinese has become a leading language in the world of business, and people see value in being fluent (Walton, 1996). The population of families from China who wish to maintain their culture is increasing, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thus, the need and interest in Chinese language instruction is growing, which was a major concern for this study (Asian Society, 2006).; The literature review outlined a historical context, San Francisco Bay Area elementary immersion schools, learning benefits of immersion education, early language programs, simplified and traditional characters, traditional Chinese instruction, and what is an effective immersion education. Topics discussed were: content-based instruction, motivation, learner-centered curriculum, critical thinking and creativity, a communicative approach, the teacher's role, and cultural relevance in pedagogy.; The research method was a qualitative descriptive narrative and a quantitative survey of teaching practices and programs. Participatory research as designed by Park, (1999) was the approach used as it represented the input of principals, teachers, and students. The need to address this problem emerged from within school communities.; An analysis of this study was in three areas. The first component was what is known about traditional Chinese immersion instruction. The second was what makes a Chinese immersion program effective (Genesee, 1994), and the third group was data collected in this study, particularly the students' perspectives on how they learn Mandarin most effectively. The student data average indicated that group work was the most effective way to learn Mandarin. Following group work, memorization of characters and phrases, textbooks, the environment, and teacher created lessons/worksheets showed almost equal value of importance. Common themes taught in English class were the least important method of learning Mandarin effectively for these students. The principal and teacher data indicated the need for more collaborative work among Chinese immersion schools.