National Database

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Institute

 Crofton House School in Vancouver

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Chinese Program

Mandarin courses offered by school’s Modern Languages Department

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Programs on Campus

Mandarin 9: semester courses
Mandarin 10, 11, 12 and AP Chinese Language and Culture: full-year courses

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Program in China

 Trip to China

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Director/ Coordinator

 Diana Leaney

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Enrolment

 It varies each year. Generally speaking, for Mandarin 9, there are 18 students per semester while the other courses have around 10 students each.

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Chinese Instructors

One part-time teacher.

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Teaching Assistants

Full-time: N/A
Part-time: N/A

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Events/Activities

Chinese New Year celebration; other events or activities with school’s Multi-Cultural Club to promote awareness of Chinese culture and history.

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Textbooks

 Mandarin 9: Learn Chinese with Me (Book One)
Mandarin 10: Chinese Made Easy (Book One)
Mandarin 11: Chinese Made Easy (Book Two) and Practical Chinese Reader (Book one and part of Book Two)
Mandarin 12 and AP Chinese Language and Culture: Practical Chinese Reader (Book Two) and Practical Chinese: One Lesson Each Day (Advanced Level One and Two)

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Course Description

MANDARIN 9
This is a course intended not only to promote the awareness of the Mandarin program offered in our school, but also to expose students to Chinese language and culture. Students will learn basic vocabulary and expressions in a communicative approach so that they can communicate in everyday situations. Students are also encouraged to explore their family backgrounds and cultural identities as a starting point for exploring a new culture: names, festivals, holidays, traditional values, etc.
MANDARIN 10
Mandarin 10 is an introductory level course of the three-year accelerated program in our school. Students learn how to speak, listen, read and write key Chinese characters in everyday situations. Students will also have the opportunity to learn Chinese culture through the celebration of traditional festivals, the exploration of the evolution of Chinese characters, and the readings of Chinese poems and legendary stories. This course will also help prepare students to further their studies in Mandarin 11.

MANDARIN 11

Mandarin 11 is an intermediate level course of the three-year accelerated program in our school. Students will learn how to express themselves more fluently and effectively with more sophisticated vocabulary and grammatical structures in real life situations. Students will also learn how to read with greater accuracy and write for communicative purposes. Students will continue to explore the cultural and historical aspects of the target language. This course will help prepare students to further their studies in Mandarin 12.

MANDARIN 12
Mandarin 12 is an advanced level course of the three-year accelerated program in our school. Students learn to exchange ideas and thoughts on topics of interest and to express plans, goals, and intention with more complicated structures. In addition to listening and speaking activities and reading assignments, written tasks (e.g. letters, reports, journal entries, short stories, etc.) are a regular expectation. Students are also encouraged to examine characteristics of Chinese customs and traditions as well as to demonstrate cultural sensitivity in everyday situations. Students will write the provincial examination in June after the completion of this course.

AP CHINESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
AP Chinese Language and Culture is intended for students who wish to challenge themselves in completing studies comparable in content and difficulty to a full-year course at the second-year university level. The primary goal for this course is to help students to improve their interpersonal communication skills, their abilities to present and interpret language in spoken and written forms, and their understanding of Chinese society and culture. It prepares students to demonstrate their level of Chinese proficiency across the three communicative modes- interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational, and five goal areas- communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. Also covered in this course are important elements of Chinese cultural traditions such as Chinese institutions, philosophical trends, religion, art, literature, family/marriage, science and technology, etc. Students in this course will be prepared to write the internet-based AP Chinese Language and Culture examination in May.

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Contact Information

Ping Li
Tel: 604-263-3255
E-mail: pli@croftonhouse.ca