Page 3 - sample pack

3

Introduction

Primary Mandarin is a suite of educational materials designed to help you teach Mandarin as a second language to school-age beginners. Designed in consultation with the English Schools Foundation of Hong Kong (ESF), these educational materials help consolidate vocabulary and improve literacy. This integrated package covers a number of themes common to most curricula, and covers all four disciplines of language learning; reading, writing, speaking and listening.

This Sample Pack will help you integrate the Primary Mandarin™ materials into your teaching, with a focus on how to enhance learning for children of all skill levels. It also demonstrates the versatility of the materials, and how they can be adapted for use as par t of a PYP curriculum, or integrated into the study programme of your school.

Fun

Primary Mandarin TM products combine illustrations and real-life photography to encourage children to draw connections between products and the world they live in, ensuring they appeal to children of all ages. The products also place emphasis on appreciation of different backgrounds and cultures, helping children to develop a global awareness in addition to insights into Chinese culture.

Structure

Spanning six levels, Primary Mandarin makes learning Chinese as a second language an exciting and engaging adventure. Crisp, colourful characters introduce simple grammar and useful phrases, enhancing conversational competency and Chinese literacy. In the higher levels, myths and legends are retold, taking children on a journey through Chinese history, landscape and culture. The versatility of these products means they can be fully integrated into an existing curriculum or form the basis of a curriculum yet to be implemented.

Aims

Primary Mandarin covers over 1,000 characters children should learn, in carefully graded levels to allow for differentiation within a class group. The major aims of the programme are that by the time a child leaves Year 6 they can:

Beginners: Non-native speakers of Chinese

• Par ticipate in a brief conversation of 12 exchanges • Be able to carry out simple tasks such as shopping and ordering in a restaurant

• Have an oral vocabulary of 400 words

• Read aloud from Chinese Readers up to the Purple Level • Be able to read 300 different words • Write 200 different characters

• Write simple paragraphs of up to 50 characters

Intermediate: Some Chinese exposure

• Hold a continuous conversation for two minutes on a familiar topic

• Use Chinese in basic social contexts • Have an oral vocabulary of 600 words

• Read aloud from Chinese Readers up to the Brown Level • Be able to choose their own Reader regularly • Write 300 different characters • Write a shor t story up to 200 characters

Advanced: Daily Chinese exposure outside of school

• Understand media material such as car toons and children’s flms

• Par ticipate in discussions advocating their opinion • Have an oral vocabulary of 1,000 words

• Read aloud fuently including Red Level and beyond • Write up to 800 characters

• Write a piece of work, up to 300 characters, under test conditions