A Case Study Of Application Of Chinese Teaching Activities In Immersion Program In The United States

The United States,being a frontier of language teaching both in theory and practice,has gained great accomplishment in immersion program.The purpose of immersion program is to assist learners to acquire a target language across the curriculum,but also,ensure a similar level of proficiency in the first language as that reached by students in monolingual school.Immersion model has been studied from different perspectives by scholars abroad and at home.However,the researches on the application of teaching activities are not adequate.Taking the Lakes International Language Academy in United States as an example,the author aims to address the following research questions by using classroom observation,tests,questionnaire and interview.(a)What activities can teachers use to help students study Chinese effectively in the American environment? How do teachers carry out these activities?(b)What is the effect of teacher's activities after one semester in Chinese immersion model?(c)What attitudes do students have towards the activities implemented by teachers?The main conclusions of this study are as follows: Firstly,in American teaching classroom,students are over-active and hard to managed,when doing monotonous activities.Thus,in immersion program,teachers teach Chinese by carrying out many activities,including reading story books,playing games,singing Chinese songs,making crafts,sharing information.Different activities have different functions,which can be applied according to different teaching objectives and curriculum.The effective implementation of activities in immersion program should meet the following four principles: 1.integrating language,content and culture;2.making input comprehensible;3.creating a rich target language environment;4.meeting diverse learners' needs.Secondly,after one semester's immersion,the listening,speaking and recognition of Chinese in immersive students are far superior to those of non-immersive students.In addition,in the process of learning foreign language for beginners,especially for young kids,teachers should concentrate on developing the ability of listening,speaking and recognition of words,while competence of writing at a slower pace.Finally,Students tend to have negative attitudes towards activities that are not interesting.When teachers create activities that meet students' interests,students are apt to have a positive attitude,and students will have less pressure on learning Chinese.This research is beneficial to achieve a better comprehension of Chinese immersion program for educators.It is hoped that the pedagogical implications will be useful to give teachers some inspiration to organize and implement teaching activity in their class.