At first, it sounds like a normal Thursday morning at Tyler Elementary as a chorus of kindergarten voices fills the classroom with "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
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But the kids are actually singing days of the week.
And in Chinese.
It's during the "east" half of the kids' "east-west" day structure in which they learn Chinese through an immersion program brought by the efforts of Van Buren Public Schools, the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University and the Chinese government.
"China is growing very rapidly economically," explained Linda Olson, director of personnel at Van Buren Public Schools, who sought the program for Tyler.
"They have a huge population base, and, as we look at that population base down the road, we need students who can work jointly and communicate with other countries that are going to be players in the world,"
Under the tutelage of Liu Jianxiang, an English major from a Chinese university, the four to five-year-old students will be fit to converse about the basics of their day in Mandarin, were they in Shanghai or Belleville.
Jianxiang employs a method of teaching involving a great deal of movement. It's proving helpful as the kids pick up their second language, and a day in this classroom will see a lot of extra singing, jumping and clapping.
"The kids really learn fast," Jianxiang said. "I teach a lot of Chinese using total physical response. It's useful for the kids and it's better to use the methods with hands, movement and dancing."
On the wall are pictures of her family members with the Chinese name for each member written below- for example, underneath a picture of Jianxiang's grandma is the word "nai nai"
One of things children can already say is "Wo ai nai nai" or "I love grandma".
During the middle of the morning on Thursday, Brendan Hands, who goes by his Chinese name "Dan Dan" while in class, stood up, pointed at characters on a board and rattled off numbers in Chinese up through 60.
Jennifer Xu, who works as Jianxiang's parapro, congratulated Dan Dan, and commented, "they can even speak better Chinese than my own kids because they have a half day of it."
Yan Li Hao, mother of Raymond Hao, who is the class's only Chinese student, said she is thrilled for the opportunity because Raymond is now truly picking up his parents' native language.
"We speak Chinese at home but he is more fluent in English," she said. "We tried to teach him Chinese, but the teacher's delivery is so much better for him."
Hao said Raymond used to have an American accent when he spoke Chinese, but since starting the class he speaks as if he learned in China.
Hao said Raymond comes home and sings songs in Chinese to her. The singing and dancing, it seems, is a favorite among the students.
"Learning is fun, and so is the jumping jacks," said student Andrew Love.
Olson provided a definite advantage to starting the kids out young with a second language.
"By starting early they have the advantage to hear sounds that an adult can't hear," she said. "That gives tem the ability to articulate a language much more like a native."
The program largely rests on its success this year, and the target is having starting in kindergarten will have Chinese all the way through 12th grade.
"This is a pilot program, so were trying it out to see how it works," Olson said. "Assuming things progress as they have, we could expand it a year at a time up through elementary school."
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