Chinese Toddlers Program

Chinese Immersion for Preschoolers (Pre-K)

Teaching Philosophy

Our philosophy for teaching children is to concentrate on conversational skills, that is, speaking and listening, first. In our immersion programs, children learn Mandarin Chinese in much the same way as they learn their first, native tongue: by hearing it, speaking it, using it verbally. For a tonal language such as Mandarin Chinese, this is imperative for mastering the lilt of the language early, instinctively.

Children at our school learn Mandarin through singing, dancing, exercise and physical activity, games, outdoor activities, arts and crafts. They are having fun, being engaged, all the while learning to communicate in Mandarin Chinese....

Repetition is important. Topic groups are introduced (e.g., colors, family members, fruits and vegetables...) and later built on; they are repeated in various ways and in different settings (for instance, during arts and crafts, singing, outdoor activities).

As a child, learning Mandarin Chinese, which is a tonal language, in an immersion program or preschool is the very best way for a non-native speaker of the language to lay a life-long, solid, indelible foundation of fluency in a language that is not easy to learn as an adult, but which over 1.3 billion people and counting speak.

Children learn the tones instinctively, without analysis, at face value. They do this in part because they are children and in large part because they are having fun, playing games, singing songs, painting a picture -- where the instruction just happens to be in Mandarin Chinese.

When Chinese characters are introduced, the children already know, cognitively, the meaning, pronunciation and usage. The new character is then merely one additional knowledge unit to associate with a word that is already part of their conversational vocabulary. Simple characters are introduced first, then more complex (multi-stroke) characters. Children learn stroke order and how to write characters correctly.

Our teachers are warm and caring. We feel that this is very important for children of preschool age. As important as the subject matter is, even more important is that the children like to learn and have fun doing so, as they build relationships with their teachers and other children in a positive environment.

As children in the program near the end of their preschool years, and prepare for kindergarten (or homeschooling), they will have acquired enough Mandarin Chinese to hold simple conversations, and they will know enough characters to be able to read and write simple sentences. They will be well on their way to functional fluency in a language that many consider to be one of the most difficult to learn.