Supporting young children to learn Chinese as a second language in CLIL classrooms: Dynamic Enrichment Learning Mode (DELM)

Supporting young children to learn Chinese as a second language in CLIL classrooms: Dynamic Enrichment Learning Mode (DELM)

• Loh, Elizabeth K. Y. The University of Hong Kong
• To-Chan, Sing Pui Tikky The Education University of Hong Kong
• Kwan, Che Ying The Education University of Hong Kong

The 5th International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research (2018: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

• F Learning & Teaching
  • FA General Teaching Strategies, Different Instructional Methods
• F Learning & Teaching
  • FE Medium of Instruction, Language of Teaching, Bi-& Multilingual Education, Problems of Bilingualism, Code-mixing & Code-switching

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Pre-Primary Education

There are about 17,000 kindergarteners (for 3 to 6 years old) learning Chinese as a second language (CSL) in Hong Kong (HK). Research shows that these children’s Chinese language (CL) ability is at least 3 years behind their native Chinese counterparts while encountering difficulties in learning (Tse & Loh, 2014). It is also a challenge for the teachers to cater for such huge learning diversity, as HK kindergartens mainly use the theme-based approach without deliberate consideration of CL curriculum (HK Education Bureau, 2006). Without professional training in CSL teaching, teachers have little knowledge of how to provide these students with adequate support. The present study aims to examine the possibility and effectiveness of implementing a CSL curriculum for CSL students in “content and language integrated learning” (CLIL) classrooms where Chinese is used as the medium of instruction (Lin, 2013; Lin & Wu, 2015; Lin & He, 2017), and how well it works with the existing themebased curriculum. “Dynamic Enrichment Learning Mode” (DELM) was developed and implemented in six kindergartens with 131 CSL learners. This CSL-focused DELM was designed based on the Second Language Acquisition (Krashen, 1982) and CL orthographic (Leong et al., 2011) theories and comprises the following: (1) tailormade individual (one 30-minute session every fortnight) and group (two 30-minute sessions every week) enrichment learning activities; (2) using both CSL and mainstream theme-based curricula; (3) authentic learning materials (e.g. picture books and specially written children’s songs based on the learning objectives of each unit); (4) diversified learning activities (e.g. interactive language games, matching games, free writing games etc.). CSL students learn together during the enrichment activities, and then return to their ordinary classes to learn with their native Chinese classmates to benefit from both the CSL and theme-based curricula. This enables them to immerse in a safe, comfortable environment with rich target language input while not having to separate from their Chinese counterparts. Quasi-experiments, classroom observations, teacher and parent focus group interviews were conducted in this study. Compared with the control group, the results show that students who adopted the DELM for one year made significant improvements in CSL performance (effect sizes ranging from 1.47 to 1.98), motivation, and self-confidence, as evidenced by their willingness to participate in CL learning activities and use Chinese for communicating with their native Chinese counterparts. Copyright © 2018 CACLER-5.

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

• English

Conference Papers

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/d3540dbf

2019-11-01