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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Kids almost always do "fine" in Chinese at YY without any supplemental instruction or assistance from parents because the bar for Mandarin just isn't set very high, particularly for speaking. The instructional emphasis is on writing and grammar. When we sent our YY student to a summer immersion sleepover camp attended by a whole bunch of kids from Mandarin immersion schools in NY and NJ (both public and private weekend programs) after 3rd grade, we were surprised to learn that they had a lot of trouble keeping up on speaking and listening. They weren't just trailing campers who spoke dialects at home, they were behind the curve period.[/quote]

Which camp did you go to, was it Concordia?

I always sort of roll my eyes when people critcize YY students' Chinese speaking skills bc the school emphasizes reading and writing over conversation. If the school did the opposite, and focused on speaking/understanding at the expense of reading and writing, then the criticism would be "yeah the kids speak ok but are illiterate." [/quote]

There would also be a lot of criticism if the program emphasized speaking and listening because the students from families without a Chinese speaker in the home who supplement extensively (particularly by hosting Chinese au pairs year after year, to the tune of 15-18K a year) would have a big advantage in language studies over the others.

The problem is that writing and grammar flow from speaking and listening. Kids are a lot more likely to retain and use a language as teens and adults if they can really speak than if they can really read and write. If you look at curricula for language studies around the country, and indeed the world, the emphasis on speaking and listening has grown for both kids and adults. Indeed the IB Diploma exams put a lot more emphasis on speaking and listening than they did only a generation ago. YY is something of a throwback, emphasizing instruction in writing and grammar. [/quote]

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