Hardage Chinese Language School

This blog entry comes as a response to a reader's question.

One reader asked "Jamie, I am thinking about having my child start some Chinese classes.  How much Chinese should my child be taking?"

Thanks for the question.  The most specific answer to your question would depend on what your goals for your child's language learning are.  Parents have widely different goals for their children. Some want merely to expose their child to a foreign language while still young in order to provide him or her with a basic background if the child chooses to pursue language learning later in his/her educational career.  Other parents have determined that they would like their child to pursue bilingual ability, but are willing for this to be a gradual process that may take place over a number of years.  Finally, some parents wish for their children to develop proficiency while still young in order that they can become bilingual by the time they reach adolescence.

For the first two groups of parents, an hour of Hardage Chinese language instruction per week should be sufficient to start their children on the path to achieving their language learning goals.  An article by Marcia Rosenbusch at the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center recommends 75 minutes of foreign language instruction per week at the elementary level (note that this is for school day programs).  An hour of Hardage Chinese's language instruction per week approaches Rosenbusch's recommendation.  Of course, it must be kept in mind that if you are a group-two parent (those pursuing Chinese/English bilingualism over the long term) one-hour a week (or even several) must be continued for the long term. 

Of course, Hardage Chinese is not the only Washington, DC program offering between an hour to several hours a week of Chinese.  Here I will introduce a few elementary level programs that you might be interested in looking into.  Each entry includes a brief description and the school's website so that you can find out more about a particular program.

• Aidan Montessori School (http://www.aidanschool.org).  Offers pre-K through 6th grade Chinese language and culture.
• Thomson Elementary School (http://www.thomsonelementary.org).  Language and culture for pre-K through 4th grade.
• Eaton Elementary School (http://www.eatondc.org/) 4th-6th grade language instruction; cultural instruction in the lower grades.
• Aiton Elementary School (Phone: (202) 724-4627) 4th-6th grade language instruction.

For the third group of parents (those wishing for their child to achieve proficiency by adolescence), assuming that you child is a native English speaker, an immersion setting would be the optimal setting for your child.  One school in D.C., which opened this fall, offers Chinese immersion alongside English instruction.  At Washington Yu Ying public charter school (http://www.washingtonyuying.org), students learn content in Mandarin as well as English, receiving instruction in each on alternating days.  In Montgomery County, I am aware of two schools that you can take a look at.  The first is College Gardens which is partial immersion (the reading/language arts curriculum is in English, while other subjects such as math and social studies are taught in Mandarin) (http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org.schools/collegegardenses/Chineseimmersion.html) and covers k-4th grade.  The other is Potomac Elementary, which is also a partial immersion school (http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/potomaces/chineseimmersion.html)

If you know of other programs in the area or would like to comment on your experience with any of the programs mentioned in this entry, please let me know.

Up to this point, the focus of this blog entry has been on the goal of achieving proficiency.  But please note, where your child is studying Chinese for half an hour a week or several hours a day, there are various benefits that accompany foreign language study.  These include improved accent in the target language, brain benefits, positive attitudes toward language learning and other toward people of other cultures, and social benefits. In my next article, I will be describing these benefits in more detail.  Check back here soon.

~Jamie

Reference

Rosenbusch, M. (1995). "Guidelines for starting an elementary school foreign language program."  Center for Applied Linguistics digest: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/rosenb01.html.

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