Repeated readings and Chinese immersion students’ reading fluency, comprehension and character recognition

Although reading fluency instruction has been identified as an important literacy focus for English proficient students, little research has examined its role in foreign language settings, and it has not been studied in Chinese immersion education. The current research compared two seventh grade Chinese immersion classes. One class did repeated timed readings in student pairs, while the other class spent more time on comprehension activities. Both groups increased their correct Chinese characters per minute rates over the treatment period, but the repeated readings group outperformed the other group on reading fluency, character recognition, and reading comprehension measures. In addition, the students who engaged in repeated readings were better able to generalize reading fluency gains to new, but related, reading materials; they also reported more confidence and enjoyment when reading Chinese. Suggestions for integrating peer reading fluency procedures into language arts instruction are proposed.

Pedagogical Challenges in Cross-Cultural Chinese Language Teaching

In this chapter, a qualitative approach was used to enlist Chinese immersion practitioners in the identification and elaboration of issues and challenges in Chinese immersion language teaching. Through extensive individual interviews and reflection writings, six pre--1 Chinese immersion teachers recruited from China in five school settings served as informants. Data analyses revealed that the Chinese immersion teachers encountered significant challenges in six major areas of their immersion teaching: curriculum development, use of the target language, classroom management, subject area teaching, teaching style, and working with American partners and parents. These varied challenges suggest that professional development for Chinese immersion teachers needs to include training in cross-cultural classroom management skills, curriculum development, content-based Chinese language teaching, and host country school culture education.

Pedagogical Challenges in Cross-Cultural Chinese Language Teaching

In this chapter, a qualitative approach was used to enlist Chinese immersion practitioners in the identification and elaboration of issues and challenges in Chinese immersion language teaching. Through extensive individual interviews and reflection writings, six pre--1 Chinese immersion teachers recruited from China in five school settings served as informants. Data analyses revealed that the Chinese immersion teachers encountered significant challenges in six major areas of their immersion teaching: curriculum development, use of the target language, classroom management, subject area teaching, teaching style, and working with American partners and parents. These varied challenges suggest that professional development for Chinese immersion teachers needs to include training in cross-cultural classroom management skills, curriculum development, content-based Chinese language teaching, and host country school culture education.

Looking in the one-way mirror

Since its inception in the late 1960s in St. Lambert, Quebec, Canada, one-way immersion has become a globalized phenomenon taking many forms and focusing on many target languages. In this paper, we will take a brief historical look at one-way immersion with regard to its program design and variants. We will then describe how immersion has evolved by focusing on five particular one-way immersion contexts: French immersion in Canada, French immersion in Louisiana, French immersion in Australia, English immersion in Hong Kong, and Chinese immersion in the U.S. We explore each of these programs by examining demographic issues as these relate to design and intercultural elements. Through these explorations, we will describe the changing face of immersion programs and the changing faces of teachers and learners. We will conclude with a discussion of what can be learned from the various models and suggest directions for future one-way immersion research.