 We use the rich multi-media curriculum from Better Chinese. Better Chinese products are designed for children in non-native environment, and use fun and various materials to make learning fun. You do not need to speak Chinese to help your children learn Mandarin. In fact, you can have fun learning with your child by making Chinese a family activity. BetterChinese.com was founded by educators from Columbia University and the U.N. in 1997 with a mission to develop the best materials and programs to teach the Chinese language and culture to children from non-native environment, ages 2-13. The teaching philosophy can be easily summarized with three words: 'Learning Through Stories.' Based on a classroom-proven pedagogy, Better Chinese developed a series of easy-to-use, fun and comprehensive materials to excite children about learning Chinese. Not only will they learn the language naturally, they will also have fun and develop a keen understanding of the Chinese culture.
Check www.betterchinese.com for more details. All the teachers at NICE Learning have been busy reviewing students’ progress and identifying areas of improvement. We looked at the following areas: - Standardising the expected outcome of each curriculum level.
- Standardising ways of measuring students’ progress.
- Suggest basic ways that parents can help at home to maximise students’ language environment.
We have summarised the curriculum outcome and how parents can help into a table below. We appreciate if you can assist at home to maximise the benefits of the curriculum. For My First Reader and Discovering Chinese class students, we divide the vocabulary and reading progression into levels. The objective is to develop a way to encourage students to challenge themselves through various levels at their own paste. The teachers will be explaining to the students on how they can progress through levels at their own paste.
Curriculum | Age | Class length | Duration | Outcome / Objectives | Parents tasks | Home objective | Playgroup | 3-12 | 60 mins | 1 year | Develop basic familiarity to mandarin language through games, songs and rhymes. | Mandarin time at least 3 times / week:
o play music CDs | Develop language (hearing) sense. | Kindergarten | 5-7 | 90 mins | 2 years | Develop basic mandarin language skills with objectives of mastering 150+ vocabularies and 20 sentence patterns. (Emphasis on listening and speaking with character recognition and basic writing skill on selected chinese radicals.) | Mandarin time at least 3 times / week:
o Play music CDs or
o Story time with audio CD or
o Online time Holiday:
o play next 4 lessons | Develop language (hearing) sense. | My First Reader | 7-9 / 9-11 | 2 hours | 2 years | Develop basic mandarin language skills with objectives of mastering: - 650+ vocabularies
- Pin Yin; basic reading and literacy development;
- Sentence pattern development
- Character recognition and basic writing skill.
| Mandarin time at least 3 times / week:
o Online time or
o Reading aloud (e.g. before bed) or
o Home work Supplementaries:
o Mandarin movie or Holiday:
o Preview next 4 lessons | Develop language hearing and reading sense. | Discovering Chinese | 11+ | 2 hours | 2 years | Develop basic mandarin language skills with objectives of mastering: - 850+ vocabularies
- Pin Yin; basic reading and literacy development;
- Sentence pattern development
- Character recognition and basic writing skill.
| Mandarin time at least 3 times / week:
o Online time or
o Reading aloud or
o Home work Supplementaries:
o Mandarin movie or
o Mandarin Karaoke / Songs or
o Talking to mandarin speaking friends or Holiday:
o Preview next 4 lessons | Develop language hearing and reading sense. | Magical Tour of China | 11+ | 2 hours | 2 years | Develop advanced mandarin language skills with objectives of mastering: - 2000+ vocabularies
- Reading and Literacy skill development
- Sentence pattern development and composition skill.
| Mandarin time at least 3 times / week:
o Online time or
o Reading aloud or
o Home work Supplementaries:
o Mandarin movie or
o Mandarin Karaoke / Songs or
o Talking to mandarin speaking friends or Holiday:
o Preview next 4 lessons | Maximise exposure and get practice opportunities. |
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