Rant about Chinese schools

[Hofmann]

怨始

A Chinese school is a school established explicitly for the purpose of teaching the Chinese languages (Standard Mandarin or Standard Cantonese are the most commonly taught) to Americans with Chinese ancestry, Canadians with Chinese ancestry, Americans with Taiwanese ancestry, Canadians with Taiwanese ancestry, and the youth born in the respective countries.

It is not that it isn't a good idea. It is only that the teachers don't have any teaching experience/degrees, and often can't teach worth crap. Also, many of these Chinese schools exist only to teach Chinese characters and not a language (they assume students can already speak perfect Chinese). Therefore, asking them to explain something not 漢字-related (especially in a language other than the language taught) is futile. Also, most of the teachers are native speakers who have never seen a textbook for Chinese as a secondary language, never taken PSC, or are unaware of their own 懶音.

Also, because many teachers don't know any better, their primary teaching method is making the students write something over and over again, which results in minimal learning and tired hands.

怨終

[HerrPetersen]

I did not know there was such a thing... Are you a "victim"?

[Meng Lelan]

I understand your concerns.

I'm a Western teaching Mandarin Chinese to adult beginners/intermediate at a Chinese School on Sundays. My background is a master's in deaf education so that helps me a lot in the Chinese School.

Because the weekend Chinese School tends to be a nonprofit, all volunteer organization, we often must look for teachers who are willing to spend time teaching Chinese for free or for a very minimal salary. They tend not to have professional training in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, in fact, most of them are recent arrivals or already have full time work in some other area, like law, or banking, or finance, or microbiology, etc etc so we have to work on making sure they have the funds and opportunity to attend workshops and classes in this professional development area. Which means taking their free time on Saturdays for training.

[Madot]

Yes, here in Australia there are lots of such schools around. Not only for the children of Chinese migrants but for virtually every ethnic and linguistic group you might care to mention. In fact, for quite a few years I was the Chairperson of the Ethnic Schools Board of the State of New South Wales, (later the name was changed to the Community Languages Schools Board). The problem is twofold really. The first issue is that the teachers are, as has been mentioned, volunteers. They must complete a certain amount of training, but they are not professional language teachers. In addition, the schools are aimed at children who already speak the language fluently, even though their level of home language may not correspond to their level of language in their regular school. The programs are really aimed at improvement in an already established fluency and/or learning how to read and write a language the children already speak. Sometimes children who have no home background in the language are enrolled in these same classes with the idea that they will somehow pick it up among the native speakers. This rarely proves to be true because you can't 'pick up' a language naturally when you only hear it for an hour or two each week. BUT-- as they say, horses for courses! These schools can make a great contribution towards not forgetting one's home language or learning it at a higher level than you would have just in mum's kitchen. And think of the dedication of these parents and teachers...

Mado

[trevelyan]

Hey, when I was going through university our primary method of learning the characters was copying them out over and over again. So I don't think you can blame volunteer-backed after-school programs for the lack of an effective pedagogical approach for teaching second-language students.

We know there are better ways to learn languages now, and that high volume listening and reading are critical, with speaking thrown in there and then writing pretty much coming last. But it is going to take time for the best practices that are developing online to filter into traditional educational institutions.

Most of these places are run on a shoestring. They need support, not criticism!

[Hofmann]

They need both. Criticism to call attention to their ineffective methods, so that they may receive some support.

[Meng Lelan]

Actually we're keenly aware of the criticism, which is coming from the parents who want more interesting and relevant curriculum.

Up to two years ago or so, funds for teacher training were minimal. There is now some funding mostly from STARTALK here in the US that provides free teacher training in crtitical languages.

However Chinese Schools are struggling with rising rent fees for classroom space and exodus of high schoolers to high school level courses in Chinese language that lead to AP Chinese language exams and consequently college credit for Chinese language study. So funds are very tight, hardly enough for teacher training more than once or twice a school year.