Reply to Yu Ying - Do/Can Non-Native Kids Actually SPEAK Chinese?

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Reply to " Yu Ying - Do/Can Non-Native Kids Actually SPEAK Chinese?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is old territory on DCUM.  I can certainly see a kid from a monolingual home who's has been in 50% Chinese immersion for 7-10 years not speaking nearly as well as a kid who speaks Chinese at home. Just the same, when you talk to the current DCI "advanced track" Chinese students, as a native speaker, you can hardly help shaking your head.  The DCI 11-14 year olds speak like toddlers to my ear, 2 year olds for the stragglers, 4 year olds for the high fliers.  I would never say it to the families, but results for speaking are god awful.  I speak Spanish OK and hear much better Spanish from DCI students whose families don't speak Spanish at home.

I have suggestion for those who come on YY threads. Pack it in until there's a new HOS. Who knows when, 2 years, 5 years. She won't stay forever and nothing much will change until she does. Outreach won't be done to native speakers to drum up interest in the school.  Relationships won't be forged with organizations serving native speaking kids. Hardly any native speakers will enter the YY lottery. After-care won't be immersion. School newsletters won't come home in Chinese and English etc.[/quote]

Does the topic of conversation matter at all?

The non-native, monolingual children are learning school Chinese -- math, science, history, etc. They probably don't know how to talk about sports, movies or what they did over the weekend. If they can't discuss their academic work in Chinese with some level of fluency, I agree there's an issue.

[/quote]
Believe what you want but most of the DCI "advanced track" kids can hardly speak about a thing they haven't been specifically trained to say. I know this because I've volunteered in their classes. They've been trained to verbalize greetings, I'd like to order the cashew chicken, I'm 12 years old and my favorite color is blue, please drive me to the Great Wall etc..  But ask them everyday questions like "What jobs do your parents do?" or "which system of governance do we have in this country and which one do they have in China" and watch their faces go blank. So what, exactly, does "academic work" constitute for MS kids? If they can't talk about sports, movies, what they did over the weekend, their extra-curriculars, the pop culture they like etc. for starters, what are they supposed to talk about?

They clearly understand better than they speak, but only if you speak to them like they're 3 year olds.

There's an issue. Of course there's an issue. There are no standards for speaking at YY or DCI.  Everything goes because standards are unfair to families who can't host au pairs or afford immersion summer camps.  [/quote]

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