In the present day Mandarin Chinese has become a commonly taught language in the U.S. Mandarin is widely taught in colleges and universities; K-12 Chinese programs, including immersion programs, have also grown rapidly. However, to date little research has been conducted on the latter programs. This study examines immersion programs in elementary…

Outlines a method for teaching Chinese character recognition which relies on the grouping of those characters with a common phonetic element that has the same modern pronunciation in all characters in which it occurs and which may thus give some ideas as to the meaning of the characters in which it occurs. Sample lessons are included. (FB)

The Language Play Method (LPM), a teaching method developed to systematically instruct preschool children in the structure of Japanese and Hiragana letters, is described in this paper. LPM develops three fundamental abilities which contribute to oral skill and literacy in kindergartners: the ability to recognize letters, the ability to decode…