由于缺乏运用目标语言教学的相关培训和经验，不少在今年暑期沉浸项目任教的新中文老师将面临艰巨任务。特别是那些每天要教初学者５个小时、总课程长达几个星期的任教老师面临的挑战尤为严峻。怎样做才能既保证达到语言教学目标，又能让课堂生动有趣、引人入胜呢？在这里，我想跟在美国的所有中文老师一起分享创建活跃的沉浸课堂的一些“小贴士”。
设定清楚的课程期望
有些项目自称是沉浸课程，但事实上并不是真正意义上的沉浸项目。而有些真正的沉浸项目则，则常常因为沟通交流不利而失败。了解项目管理人员、家长和学生对课程的期望十分重要。作为中文老师的你，应该确保教学环境有利于初期设定的项目要求（让学生承诺在课堂上只讲中文），并要求学生一起坚持、维护应有的沉浸教学环境。如果可能的话，要尽早与家长和学生沟通，以确保他们都理解学习语言的要求、沉浸项目的意义和课程目标。有些项目，学生们在上课之前根本不知道在课堂上他们不能用目标语言以外的语言说话。这样，他们对沉浸课堂的挑战没有任何心理准备。 (more…)
Lisa Li Urbonya
Many Chinese language instructors face the daunting task of teaching in an immersion program this summer with little or no training on how to stay in the target language. Particularly challenging will be those assigned to teach beginners for upwards of five hours a day over the course of several weeks. What can you do to keep it lively and engaging while reaching language objectives? Below are some tips for creating dynamic summer immersion classrooms.
Know Your Audience
Some programs call themselves immersion programs but, in fact, are really not in the true sense of the word. Conversely, some are immersion programs, but fail to communicate this properly. It is important to understand the expectations of administrators, parents and students. If the expectation is, indeed, that the program will be a full immersion program, it will be up to you to assure that the environment is conducive to the language pledge being upheld by all students. If possible, communicate with the parents and students as far ahead as possible to make sure they understand the language pledge and the meaning of immersion. In some programs, students were never told they could not speak in their native language until they arrived on site. They were not prepared for the challenges ahead.
Be Prepared
Advanced planning is critical to creating a successful short-term immersion environment. Have as many materials possible prepared before the program. Many programs are only 15-20 days in duration. Set your objectives and assessment for each day before the program starts. To be sure, adjustments will need to be made on the fly. But you will feel a lot more confident in making those adjustments if you have done your best to prepare for all eventualities. Particularly difficult to predict are the language levels of those you will be teaching. Even if the students are supposedly all “beginners,” this is a subjective term and you might find yourself in a classroom that includes students who have, in fact, studied the language. The more prepared you are in a broad sense, the more likely you are to be able to accommodate these unexpected differences. (more…)
Lisa Li Urbonya, President, Action Language Learning
李丽莎， 总裁， 活力语言教育培训中心
北美的中文老师，尤其是那些在中国土生土长的中文老师们，带来了他们原汁原味的语言和文化，这是为北美中文学习者准备的最好的礼物。而如何在西方环境中，保持他们的中国文化本色，是这些中文老师们面临的最大的挑战和任务。在中国，中国教育文化本色是通过一系列传统规范的考试来测试学生的学习成绩，这种考试体系要求学生有严格的自律和对老师百分百的尊敬与服从。可是，老师们要如何在保持这种教育理念本色的同时，又能被西方的教育体系所认可呢？他们要面对的是与北美的学生面对面的互动，这多少有些让老师们不知所措。在一个课时内要使课的内容有吸引力，来保持以有短暂注意力而闻名的西方学生的精神集中，老师们可谓是绞尽脑汁。
Lisa Li Urbonya, President of Action Language Learning (www.actionlanguagelearning.com)
Chinese language teachers, especially those who grew up in China, bring the wonderful gift of their native language and culture to students. However, the challenges they face in teaching that language to students in American classrooms can be daunting. Their biggest challenge is to keep their Chinese-ness while in a Western environment. How do you keep your culture when a good part of the culture is based on student achievement through a formal traditional testing system that requires intense self-discipline and respect for the position of a teacher; concepts that are not easily embraced in the current Western educational world? To conscientious Chinese language teachers, maintaining continuous concentration of Western students with attention spans as long as a text message is a veritable nightmare.
Mandarin language instructors from China feel the burden of staying in the target language and creating lesson plans that appeal to Western students while still adhering to the goals and objectives of the ACTFL and state standards. For those instructors who were educated or taught previously in China, the thought of needing to make a grammar lesson entertaining and fun to be successful is antithetical to traditional Chinese education, where teacher-led, direct instruction is the norm and the instructor’s authority is unquestioned. Yet this is the reality they face. In addition, attempting to measure student progress while employing new teaching methods adds yet another layer of complexity, pulling teachers further out of their comfort zone. What’s more, when teachers arrive in American schools, sometimes it is not clear how to measure progress because it is not always assessed through conventional testing.
Complicating the many challenges is the difficulty in finding materials and activities that can be used to jumpstart lessons, bring textbooks to life and add clarity to the assessment process. In the Western education environment each lesson needs an element to “hook” a student into learning. Chinese language instructors benefit from generating enthusiasm and quickly focusing the attention of students on the current objective during classroom periods that are unnaturally brief for language learning. The Action Language Learning music and activities for language classes assist in achieving these goals, overcoming the challenges and especially finding “the hook”. At the same time, the songs and corresponding methods provide processes to measure student achievement in either an Eastern or Western format.
Many teachers have now successfully used the first two CDs by Action Language Learning – Action Language Songs, which incorporate concepts of total physical response and multiple intelligence theory into Chinese teaching and Sing & Learn Tang Dynasty Poems, which serve as introduction to classical Chinese. A third CD, Action Language Linguistic Songs, which focuses on the most common grammar patterns, will be published this spring. Songs on this CD have been developed and tested successfully on several thousand students of mixed ages and levels. Student achievement can be easily charted and measured in this program through rubrics and progress indicators.
Here are nine ways the new Action Language Linguistic Songs promote Mandarin
language learning!
1. Student Achievement can be clearly measured. Every lesson is based on a song. The song introduces a grammar pattern or command -response. The mastery of each pattern in structured situations and spontaneous speech which correspond to the ACTFL and state standards are provided. This assists teachers with measuring student achievement regardless of the teaching methods employed. Students are also clear about the objectives they need to achieve.
2. Question and answer format promotes conversation immediately. Most songs are written with either a question and answer or a command and response. This question and answer promotes the communicative method and builds conversational skills. It also focuses both teachers and students on an objective.
3. Grammar concepts introduced through music. Music creates a strong memory burn. When grammar concepts are introduced through song, students not only memorize the grammar but can also apply it to create similar sentence patterns during spontaneous conversations.
4. Common phrases and visual/physical response questions are that are simple but useful in conversations are taught first before building towards more abstract, non-visual concepts. Some examples are “要不要？”and“有没 有？”Interestingly, these phrases are often used by native Chinese speaking parents in talking to toddlers when they are first acquiring speech. Other questions that can be illustrated through visual and physical response means such as “___在 哪儿？”and “你想吃什么?” are taught in the beginning of the program. More abstract questions such as “你有什么意见？”are introduced later.
5. Lyrics are recited on the CD before singing. Music is a masterful tool for creating memory burn but tones are generally not enunciated in singing. Therefore, a recitation of the lyrics provides an opportunity to hear the proper tones within in a natural conversational context. Many of the songs also include a spoken command and response portion in the middle to reinforce proper tones.
6. Flexibility with how these songs are used in educational settings. Action Language Linguistic Songs can be used as a text in their own right, as reinforcing enrichment for a text or simply as a supplemental change of pace.
7. Communicative activities that accompany each song are offered through seminars by Action Language Learning. These are learn-by-doing seminars. Workshops provide teachers with an opportunity to actually experience the activities they will be teaching. Seminars are designed to prepare instructors to use these tools in their classroom, with a special focus on inspiring instructors from traditional Chinese educational backgrounds to employ with confidence the music and movement methodologies.
8. Songs are effective for mixed-age and mixed-level classes which naturally lead to differentiation of instruction. Action Language Learning seminars introduce how to differentiate instruction and use these songs for mixed-age and level classes. Many students who have started out in this method have gone on to become advanced speakers of Chinese. Toddlers, elementary, middle, high school and college students through adults have learned Chinese in both mixed age and with homogenous groupings. This training demonstrates how to get the most out of this music regardless of the mix of ages and levels.
9. Action Language Linguistic Songs are effective learning tools for a variety of different settings. Properly deployed music and movement methods have efficacy in any language learning environment. Action Language Linguistic songs been shown to be effective in elementary, middle and high schools; language academies; immersion programs; Montessori schools; preschools; universities; summer camps; Startalk programs; after-school and weekend enrichment programs for both children and adults and mixed groups.
It is one thing to ask a group of primary school children to jump around the room, making pointy ears next to the sides of their heads while singing a silly limerick about a rabbit. But what to make of a room full of adults with advanced degrees and successful professional careers doing the same thing? Active, multi-sensory musical teaching methods are known to be effective in teaching second languages to children but what I have learned is that they are surprisingly even more successful with adults and high school students.
Why is that? I believe there is a deep-seated need for language learners of all ages to spend time immersed in a structured but de-pressurized learning environment that mimics the way young children learn their first language. While it might bit a bit much to build an entire high school curriculum or university classes around a hop, skip and a jump, it is a mistake to underestimate the efficacy of these sometimes farcical, yet deceptively effective methods as a catalyst for beginning to intermediate learners of all ages.
Music, combined with movement, is one of the most powerful tools for learning language and promotes the communicative method in the Chinese language classroom.
In the process of developing a music and movement based curriculum for learning Mandarin as a second language, I discovered that what was originally designed for a K-2 classroom works remarkably well with learners of all ages. Singing to music helps with second language fluency and also singing songs provides repetition which brings confidence in newly acquired learning and joy that goes along learning through melodies.
The music curriculum I have developed employs more than 150 original songs written to meet specific language and cultural objectives through a variety of musical genres. Most of the topics derive from the natural neighborhood interactions I experienced first hand as I raised my children in China during the 1990s. As a former speech/language pathologist, I was constantly observing their adult-to-child, teenager-to-teenager and child-to-child linguistic interactions. I had the benefit of vicariously learning language as a child because I was with my children while those chatting with them repeated words, exaggerated expressions, manipulated objects during play, tried to feed them, and talked kid talk. I also was with them at the hospital, store, Chinese preschool and elementary school, in the taxi, on the bus, at the market, etc. It was authentic kid language at its purest.
If we consider the current thinking on language development theory, it makes sense that those over 14-years-old at the beginning through intermediate levels should also learn a language (at least half of each formal class) through active methods. It is important to be a child in a language before you are an adult. Haven’t we done that in our native language? Part of this is because we cannot jump into a new language and be our “mature” self. We don’t have the vocabulary, grammar and cultural skills. However, we feel less inhibited if we are given permission to be a child again and we can just let our curiosity run wild. Children usually spontaneously use language without being afraid to make a mistake. For adults, creating this type of atmosphere can be liberating to point of being therapeutic.
Children of all ages want to let their child self come out through play and laughter. Let’s face it-life after childhood is a load of obligations and responsibilities. Everyone needs an opportunity to let go. Learning a second language through active, multi-sensory and musical methods may be traditionally reserved for children. However, I believe it can promote the communicative method in a very effective way.
Note: More than 1,000 students have learned Chinese through this program. Passing quickly through the beginner and novice states, many of these students have gone on to become fluent speakers of Chinese.
Note: More than 1,000 students have learned Chinese through this program. Passing quickly through the beginner and novice states, many of these students have gone on to become fluent speakers of Chinese.
要让一帮小学生在课堂上活跃起来很容易，只要让他们戴上翘翘的长耳唱一支傻傻的关于小兔子的童谣 就好了。但是怎样能让满满一教室受过高等教育的成功人士也像孩子们那样活跃起来？我们都知道“多感觉并用音乐教学法”对小孩子学习第二语言很有效果。说出来可能吓你一跳，其实“多感觉并用音乐教学法”对 高中生和成年人 第二语言习得更加有效。
这究竟是为什么呢？我相信任何外语学习者，不论其年龄大小，都非常需要一种有章法、同时又没有过多压力的学习环境，就像小孩子刚开始学他们自己的母语时那样的自然氛围。在高中和大学的课程或者课堂设计中，如果整天让学生们蹦蹦跳跳也许显得有点太过头了。但是，如果你低估这些有时候看上去“傻里傻气”的教学法，那肯定是个错误。 因为对于任何年龄段的第二语言学习者，特别是在初级和中级阶段，让他们跟着音乐蹦蹦跳跳是极为有效的激发学习兴趣的好办法。
音乐与动作相结合，是最有效的学习语言的方法之一；也是在中文教学课堂上，贯彻交际教学法的最强力的手段之一。)
在设计一个以课堂音乐和动作。为基础的汉语普通话教程过程中，我发现本来专为幼儿园到小学二年级课堂设计的课程，竟然也适用于所有年龄段的语言学习者。随乐而歌之所以能够提高语言熟练度是因为唱歌可以重复所学、提高语言学习者的自信。同时，音乐的旋律可以让人在语言学习过程中享受更多快乐。
我设计的音乐语言教程 选取150首专门为特定语言和文化教学谱写的类型多样 的歌曲。 这些歌曲中，大部分歌曲的灵感和主题都来自九十年代我在中国带我自己的孩子时与左邻右舍交流得来 的第一手素材。作为一位前言语治疗师，在中国，我自然而然地在观察人们的日常言语交流，这些交流包括成年人和儿童之间，青少年和青少年之间以及儿童和儿童之间。在中国，我有机会能够间接感受儿童学习语言的过程，因为我和我的孩子们在一块儿，能够理解他们的语言习得情境和特点。在给他们喂饭、聊天、或者跟他们玩儿游戏时，我用孩子说话的语气与他们聊天，加夹杂 着重复语句和夸张的表情。这种交流无处不在—在医院、幼儿园、小学、商场，甚至在出租车或者公交车上。我与孩子们交流时，用的都是至真至纯 的儿童语言。
根据当代语言习得理论，那些超过14岁的初级和中级第二语言学习者应该用更加积极主动的方式学习语言。即便是在所谓“正式”的语言课堂上，也要有至少一半的时间安排一些学生可以直接参与的活动。在第二语言习得中“当小孩儿”比 “当大人”更重要。在掌握自己母语的时候，我们自身都应该有所体会的。我们最好不要在乍一开始学习一门外语的时候，就立刻把自己当成年人对待，因为那时我们根本还没有掌握做为一个“成人”应该掌握的足够的目标语言词汇、语法和文化。如果我们能够屈尊，在 语言习得时做回孩子，会感到更加无拘无束，我们对语言的好奇心和求知欲也会像孩子般膨胀。孩子们可以很自然地运用所学语言而不怕出错， 而作为成年人，创造这样的“小孩氛围”可能会被人称为“有病”。
各个年龄段的孩子都喜欢通过玩耍和欢笑释放天性。对每个成年人来讲，童年一过就有无数的责任，但 我们每个人都仍然需要释放压力。传统上认为，“多感觉并用音乐教学法”特别适用于孩子。现在我们终于知道了，这种互动式的交际教学法可以向所有年龄段的学习者推广。（完）
All over the world, governments, organizations and schools are asking themselves what should be included in educational curriculum that will best prepare our youth for a global and “flat” world. Most educators agree that as the world around us transforms, our concept of education should also change. What we do not agree on is how we should adapt. The European Union has written a document specifying what knowledge students should know. These are called the “eight key competences”.
These competences reflect some of the best of Eastern and Western education. The European Union and Asian countries, especially China have emphasized the competencies that include learning languages, math, science and technology and digital competence. The United States is weaker in teaching world languages, math and science but stronger in social and civic competences and expression. One of the goals I have when consulting with districts in the U.S. is to lead teams and seminars which motivate and provide direction for American administrators and teachers to strengthen the weaknesses of the U.S. educational system with practical suggestions that can be easily implemented. We use some of the techniques from the East but adapt them to both American culture and the culture of each individual school district.
Eight Key Competences
The eight key competences describe the knowledge skills and attitudes related to the following points.
Other Information about Competences
Reference
Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union on key competences for lifelong learning L394/10C.F. (2006), December 12). Retrieved December, 2009 from http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/education_training_youth/lifelong_learning/c11090_en.htm
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