Investigation Reoort On Chinese Language Summer Camp Of Convitto High School Of Rome,Ltaly In2013

The number of foreigners who come to China to learn Chinese and the number of Chinese learning programs in China with different aims are booming as "Chinese craze" spread widely all over the world. There are more and more Chinese programs differing in forms, among which regular long term programs, short term intensive programs and summer camp experiencing programs are very popular. Furthermore, young learners have become a large part of the participants. In view of that, how to launch Chinese programs adaptive to adolescents attracts much attention in the field of teaching Chinese as a second language. As adolescents’ characteristics differ from those of adults, course designs and activity arrangement should be more specific and flexible. Summer camp is a kind of short term program featured in short periodicity, high flexibility, interesting design and combination with language teaching and culture experiencing, which is tailored to the needs of adolescents.Chinese Language Summer Camp of Convitto High School "Vittorio Emanuele II" of Rome, hold by Beijing Foreign Studies University, has attracted more than380students to participate since2010. The summer camp improved the students’practical ability of Chinese language, deepened their knowledge and understanding of Chinese culture, and consequently arouse their passion for Chinese learning. Therefore, a research on this Chinese Language Summer Camp would be of great significance for future organization of summer camps, Chinese short term programs and global promotion of Chinese language. The author, who was the spoken Chinese teacher of Class2, Grade3in the Chinese Summer Camp of June2013, adopted the research methods such as questionnaire and interview to collect the materials, and at the same time, observed and recorded the whole program in details. Basing on the investigation result, the research discusses the merits and defects of the summer camp and, with considerations of the characteristics of Italian high school students, proposes suggestions for further improvement.This article, which is divided into5chapters, is an investigation report on Chinese Language Summer Camp of Convitto High School in2013. Topics such as Chinese courses, textbook, classroom management, cultural courses and activities are viewed based on feedback from teachers and students. And suggestions are given at the end of the article in order to offer reference to future Chinese summer camps.The first chapter is preface, which mainly introduces the selected topic reasons, significance, research content and research methods. It also introduces the current research status of Chinese language summer camp, including definitions, introductions of Chinese summer camps hold in the United States, types and characteristics, teaching models and case studies.The second chapter is a brief introduction of Chinese Language Summer Camp of Convitto High School, including designs, reasons and purposes of the Chinese courses in this high school, as well as the students’number in the past summer camps and the general situation of the summer camp in June,2013.Chapter Ⅲ and chapter Ⅳ are the main parts of the article. We obtain the investigation result by using software SPSS16.0to analyze the data collected from the questionnaire and interview. In chapter Ⅲ, feedback from teachers and students on language courses, textbook using and strategies of classroom management is discussed. We found that junior students were more passionate and motivated in learning than senior students, and spoken course was more interesting than listening course and HSK course in students’point of view. However the textbooks utilized in spoken course is not adaptable. And in general teachers were able to adopt effective classroom management strategies according to the students’personalities. Chapter Ⅳ discusses the investigation result on cultural courses and cultural activities. Students were very interested in both courses and activities, especially in the linguistic and cultural exchange which gave them the opportunity to communicate with Chinese. Certainly there are some students who were not satisfied with a few activities and arrangement. The report tries to analyze the causes and make recommendations.The fifth chapter proposes some thinking and advices. In the first part we list the successful factors and problems of the discussing summer camp in order to make a general estimate. In the second part we summarize the psychological characteristics of Italian high school students and, focusing on making the summer camp more specific, interesting and flexible, we provide detailed proposals on aspects of Chinese courses designs, cultural courses designs, organization of activities and time management.The last section of the article is epilogue, which summarizes and reviews the limits of this research, and the expected follow-up study.