K-12 Text Books used in the US.

[projectgcm]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knew what text books are currently being used in the US to teach Chinese Language grades k-12.

Thanks.

[kudra]

googled around and had no luck.

The big ACTFL foreign language conference had sessions on Chinese. I suggest you go to the schedule, select Language: Chinese, Level: Any

and look at the talks, for example this one:

9145: Establishing Chinese Programs in K-12 Schools: Resources, Strategies, and Challenges

Fri, November 17, 2006, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Presenters: Dr. Shuhan Chou Wang, Dr. Mary Ann Hansen, Madeline Uraneck, Greg Duncan

The teaching of the Chinese language and culture has become both an interest and necessity of many US schools. This panel presents national and state resources, strategies, and challenges for meeting the demands. This interactive session also invites participants to share their experiences and expertise in establishing and sustaining quality Chinese programs.

google for the presenters ( the names were dupped in the original online abstract) and email them. Then please report back what you find out.

[gato]

I suspect that there are almost no K-8 Chinese programs in the U.S and very, very few high school Chinese programs and therefore no standard for the textbooks used.

Here is some information on a partial Chinese immersion program based at a high school in Flushing, NY (a very heavily Chinese neighborhood in NYC). 95% of students in the program are not born in the U.S. (i.e. they probably speak some Chinese dialect at home).

http://www.cal.org/heritage/programs/profiles/Chinese_Program_Flushing_High_School.html

Heritage Language Programs

Chinese Program/Flushing High School

Textbooks: The main textbook is a 12-level Chinese literature series published in Hong Kong. However, only a small portion of class materials are drawn from the text.

Other materials used for instruction: The majority of the materials are selected by the teacher. At the higher levels, materials include works of classical Chinese literature of a type often used in college classes in China.

Here is also some info from the Asia Society

http://www.askasia.org/chinese/publications.htm

[kudra]

I suspect that there are almost no K-8 Chinese programs in the U.S and very, very few high school Chinese programs and therefore no standard for the textbooks used.

Actually it looks like there is a push to do more in k-12 in the US, see this post which references the program in the Chicago Public Schools. Unfortunately, as I mentioned there they use materials from the Chinese Ministry of Ed., which I kind of doubt has the best texts to teach k-12 kids in the US who don't speak Chinese at home.

In the last 3 years I've met 2 people(not ethnic Chinese), socially and at work, who came up through the Chicago area Chinese language program. One went to a Chicago area prep school, and one to a public (magnet) school. Admittedly, not a random sample, given my own interests.

[projectgcm]

I was fortunate enough to attend the ACTFL conference Tennessee. I sat through many session and while talking to some of the Chinese teachers found that many of the teachers are using Integrated Chinese textbooks level 1&2 and Integrated Chinese audio. Of course there are many supplements that other teachers prefer I was just curious to see what else people are using besides Integrated Chinese material.

I was also very surprised how popular k-12 programs are becoming in the US. Few states are becoming to develop deep Chinese programs and is become more wide spread through the US.