CSL - Chinese as a Second Language
This course is designed and suitable for bilingual student who has no Chinese background. It starts from zero level of Chinese basis. The whole course includes five levels. We use QTALK as our textbook in this class. The QTALK program teaches students the fundamentals of Chinese through visual symbols that represent all parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.). Students learn to associate a word or expression in the new language with its corresponding symbol. The symbols are simply an aid to help the learner encode information (in this case, the vocabulary) into long-term memory. Once it is there, the memory cue is no longer needed.
Our mission is to provide great language learning experience in Chinese language and culture, and prepare our CSL students to become global citizens and leaders in our interdependent world.
Books and Materials
Components of the QTALK visual memory language teaching system include complete online curriculum, audio flip books, interactive games, assessments, and physical books.
Methods of Students’ Evaluation
Students’ performance in speaking, listening, reading and writing will be evaluated periodically. It is expected that they will develop some basic comprehension and spoken skills in simple Chinese sentences on common objects and topics by the end of the first year such as numbers, colors, family, hobbies, and so on. By the end of the second year students will develop more complex comprehension and spoken skills in age appropriate concepts, such as schools, friends, and so on.