COURSE DESCRIPTION
Chinese – Beginning II students continue to improve their Chinese skills by using both structured and created language. Cultural connections are made at appropriate intervals to familiarize students with the Chinese-speaking world. Students learn to initiate and participate in daily communication, apply new vocabulary and more complex sentence patterns to fulfill the functions of expressing individual needs, describing circumstances, comparing the similarities and differences of phenomenon, and demonstrating culturally contextualized understanding. Students improve character literacy, authentic language production, and cultural competency. A variety of audio, visual, and textual materials are carefully selected based on the interests and preferences of the students, which optimizes the effectiveness of the online personalized experience. This course aligns with Cheng and Tsui’s Integrated Chinese Level I, lessons six through 12. By the end of Chinese – Beginning II, students will be able to write journals, compose short Chinese songs and rhymes, share about topics related to their school life, and produce refined language freely at the paragraph level on essential social communication.
WHAT STUDENTS SAY
"My teacher has been awesome this year. She has always reached out to me and has always been willing to help me ."WHAT STUDENTS DO
Learning is an active process at One Schoolhouse. Students design, create and apply. And, they engage with classmates and connect with their teachers through discussions, video conferences, and projects. Specifically, in this class students will:
MEET A TEACHER FOR THIS COURSE
SIGNATURE ACTIVITIES
Examples of signature activities and projects for this course are:
OUR RESEARCH-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHING LANGUAGES ONLINE
One Schoolhouse designs competency-based courses with the student-teacher relationship as the cornerstone of our personalized pedagogy. While students excel in our language AP courses, for many years we did not offer full sequence language courses because there was little research to support the efficacy of online language learning at the early levels. The research shows that fewer than 1% of Americans are proficient in the language they studied in traditional classrooms. Not wanting this outcome for One Schoolhouse students, our goal is to inspire deep learning so we strive to ensure that the online learning experience increases the effectiveness of second language acquisition. In recent years, we have honed our approaches to delivering the four language competencies – reading, writing, listening, and speaking – in the online space, and have therefore endeavored to build out our Chinese, French, and Latin sequences. The limitations of other online language programs are mitigated by the centrality of the student-teacher relationship, including interactive sessions where students speak, listen, and translate with their peers and teacher, at One Schoolhouse. J.C. Narcy-Combes’s research on second language learning online shows that, “meaningful interaction will trigger learning processes,” which we know to be true anecdotally, and that, with intentional design, students can be taught to learn language effectively online. Carrier et. al. have more recently shown that educational technologies and online learning are rapidly transforming second language acquisition, and that intentional practice can create a highly effective digital experience. Because One Schoolhouse students have pathway options where they can practice in the target language at their own pace, get feedback from their teacher, interact with peers from around the country, and demonstrate their mastery through both traditional assessments and creative projects, students have the full complement of research-based learning activities in their online courses that you would expect to find in any independent school language program. Additionally, our language teachers have advanced degrees from American universities, are trained in both their language and the best pedagogical practices for delivering language online, teach in independent schools around the US, and are AP readers. COURSE APPROVAL
This course is approved by the NCAA. One Schoolhouse is fully accredited with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges through December 1, 2025; we are an approved online publisher for the University of California. |
Xiaohong Teng
Foreign Languages Teacher BA Liaoning Normal University MA University of Colorado, Colorado Springs |