US students/teachers of Chinese: Tell me about your program please

[xianu]

I have been charged with building a program in Chinese at my university, and I am wondering if students and teachers of Chinese in the US universities might help me out with a few facts and figures about your own program. One of the things I am looking at is enrollment in Chinese classes from level to level (i.e. 2 sections of 1st year, about 30 students, 1 section second year, about 20 students, etc.). If you are affiliated with a school that is fairly small, or with a program that is just starting, even better. I want to give the administration something more concrete to chew on, so they don't freak out about the enrollment in upper-level classes as compared with beginning classes. Though universities try to pretend that this isn't the case, enrollment/students = customers/money, and low-enrolled classes (which is awesome for language classes) means it costs them more money than they make, and so they are often reluctant to do it. I also want to try to map out a reasonable time line of how long it takes to build a solid program. If any of you can answer some of these questions about your own programs (and add anything else you think relevant), I would really appreciate it:

1. Approximately how many sections and students of Chinese are there at each level?

2. Do you have a major and/or minor in Chinese there?

3. How many years has the language program been around?

4. Are there any exchange programs associated with your language program?

5. How many hours a week do you meet?

6. How many levels are there in your program (i.e. 1st, 3rd, classical, etc.)

That's all I can think of. Thanks--

[kdavid]

Have you tried looking at some different university websites? I've been researching graduate schools recently so I've read a lot about what different universities offer.

Some of my findings:

o Many schools that offer Chinese as a 2nd language have a 3-year, 6-semester program.

o Some only offer a 2-year, 4 semester program due to low attendance / registration.

o Classical / Literary Chinese is often introduced as a class for Regional Studies / Literature / History majors, and is covered (introduced) in one class.

o Many schools will have 3 - 5 in-class hours a week (depending on the length of the semester) as well as a language lab, where they go and speak to natives / graduate students for an hour or so

o Many established schools offer exchange programs (e.g. study abroad in China for a semester / year)

o The "better" the school, the more that will be offered as far as majors, minors and study abroad opportunities go.

Check out the websites of a few of your local universities and see what you find. Good luck with your forthcoming program!

[Xiao Kui]

This site has a lot of links for universities with good Chinese programs.

[ipsi()]

Ok, quick rundown of what my class was like:

1) 3 years worth (6 trimesters) worth of core courses. Had about 60+ students at the start of first year, which dropped to more like 40 or 50 as we hit the middle of the course. It was about 30 or 40 in second year, and probably 20 - 30 at third year. Of course, a good half (or maybe more) don't attend the lectures. So at the tests I see a lot of people that I have never seen before... First year has a basic introduction to Chinese History (1 trimester), Second has Modern Chinese Literature (Selected plays and poems) (1 Trimester), Third has classical chinese (2 Trimesters)

Worth noting that the first year course is two trimesters long, but the second and third year language courses are one trimester long, but there are two at each level (1st year is 111, second year is 211 in the first and 212 in the second, etc).

Also worth noting that the classical Chinese paper is technically two trimesters long, but has the same number of lectures in total as the second year Modern Literature course (that is, the third year Classical one is two lectures a week, while the second year Modern is 4 lectures / week).

2) We have a major, but minors don't exist in New Zealand, to the best of my knowledge.

3) Don't know. Quite a long while. Maybe 10 years or more?

4) I think so, but I couldn't say any more...

5) 4 hours of lectures (that is, the teacher stands up front and talks, we either chorus along or listen, or interject with interesting questions), 1 hour of Audio / Visual class (for the listening and speaking bits), and a 1 hour tutorial, which covers practice of grammer and such like. Along with a bit more speaking practice.

6) Three years. I can't give a much better guide than that without expending way too much time.

It's worth noting that our trimesters are 12 weeks of lectures, a two-week break in the middle, one week of study leave, and then three to four weeks of exams. However, the Chinese courses do not have exams, so they total 14 weeks long each trimester.

Check http://www.vuw.ac.nz for more info about the University.

[kudra]

this thread may come in handy.

also off the top of my head, I know you can get course listings at Columbia and University of Michigan, probably others.

[xianu]

Thanks to all for your responses. I am not so much interested in what kinds of classes your programs offer, but in the size of the classes, the number of students, etc. This is the kind of information that administrations in a lot of institutions worry about, since enrollment numbers means money going into that department or program. In building a new program, the faculty are often faced with balancing small numbers in a growing program with quality of instruction/curriculum. Often the administration isn't satisfied with the small classes (though the teachers often prefer smaller classes for language instruction), and so they cancel some sections or courses. At the same time the admin wants the program to grow (numbers, majors, etc.). I wonder how many of you students in the US are majors or minors in Chinese, or would be if it were offered? Would you continue to take Chinese language classes if a major or a minor were not an option? Would you continue to take the classes past 1st year, or past your U language requirement if upper level classes/major/minor were not an option? How long would you wait (and continue in the non-program) for a major or a minor?

[kudra]

here is an article from the Sept 2005 issue of the undergrad campus paper Yale Daily News where the director of the Chinese program talked about the enrollment and class sizes they wanted at the various grade levels.

Currently, beginning language classes are capped at 12 students, and the intermediate ones at 14.

"It's supposed to be 10 students," Mu said. "Twelve is still a good number, many state universities have 20 or 30 students, but Princeton does 10 or eight."

Though language classes are capped, the department maintains that whoever wants to learn Chinese will be able to do so. Yale Provost Andrew Hamilton has authorized hiring two additional lectors to cover the necessary additional teaching.