1. FIRST TO BEST AND NEXT PRACTICE IN MANDARIN CHINESE TEACHING AND LEARNING Jill Shepherd The Chinese Staffroom http://www.thechinesestaffroom.com/ jill@bamboolearning.com + 44 1622 630533 Taking Mandarin Further 4 th October 2011 Brighton College

2. Structure  PART 1 What is first, next and best practice  PART 2 Taking Mandarin Further  PART 3 What is your next practice?

3. Q – How has the introduction of Mandarin Chinese into schools changed over the years and why? PART 1 – What is first, next and best practice?

4. First practice  It used to be after school clubs  It tends now to be  Celebrations through the year or..  Curriculum teaching WHY? Cultural distances matter Language progress matters Money matters

5. Next practice  It used to be curriculum teaching or failure of Chinese programme  It tends now to be  Curriculum teaching more directed and integrated and monitored for achievement WHY? Better resources Learning around what works

6. Future practice?  To be informed about Mandarin Chinese  To take steps to make it sustainable within the school including testable results and motivational teaching  As a teacher to publicise its success beyond the Chinese community  As a teacher to become Head of MFL WHY? Needs to become the most popular language Adult myths about difficult need to be overcome Change can only be broader if we become part of the broader community

7. Q – What might this involve and why bother? PART 2- Taking Mandarin Further

8. Issues and solutions  Supply of good quality teachers but hold on…  Resources (especially Westernised ones) better and more online with teachers becoming more demanding and selective  More assessment to show linguistic progress  More noise about how much children and young people enjoy the language

9. What could you do?  How can you inform yourself?  What type of teaching and learning do you want to engage with?  How to access a teacher?  How to monitor success?  Can I improve the resources I use?  Can I make progress more assessable?  Can I integrate with other areas of the curriculum?  How can I build on the motivational quality of learning Chinese?  Can I step out of my everyday role?  How can I network better? First practice? New to ChineseNext and Future?

10. Q – Deciding what actions you can take when and why? PART 3 – Group work