What Is Mandarin Immersion?

中英雙語浸沉式教學課程是什麼？

Mandarin Immersion programs integrate Mandarin Chinese into everyday curriculum. No prior exposure to Mandarin is necessary. It is designed for English-speaking and Mandarin-speaking students to develop communication and literacy skills in both languages. The earlier children are introduced to a language, the greater the likelihood they will become truly proficient in it. Children’s brains are naturally programmed to learn any language they are sufficiently exposed to perfectly and without accents. This ability declines with age, disappearing by high school, according to research. Determining exactly how the program should be structured depends, in part, upon the percentage of students from each language group. Schools with half Chinese speakers and half English speakers can implement two-way immersion. If the student body is predominantly English-speaking, one-way immersion is the best model.
 

此課程將華語融入學校每天的一般課程中。學生先前不須具有華語背景，課程的設計，是要讓用華語的學生及用英語的學生，發展出雙語兼通的溝通及說話、讀寫能力。學生越早接觸新的語言，就越可能熟練該語言。孩子的腦部自然被賦予能力，能夠學習日常生活中接觸得夠多，且完美無不正腔調的任何語言。自然語言學習的能力，隨年齡增長而減弱，到高中時失去。

這 項課程將如何組構，部份決定因素是來自華語家庭的學生比例。擁有華語家庭與英語家庭各半的學校，可以進行雙向的浸沉教學。如果學生絕大多數原是用英語的， 單向的浸沉教學則為最好的模式。洛杉磯聯合學區正在努力要確定：可能有興趣為孩子註冊加入「中英雙語浸沉教學班」的家庭組合中，使用英語與華語之比率。