MACMILLAN Chinese Literacy Learning in an Immersion Program

This book examines one-way foreign language immersion education in the United States. It provides a clear and rich description of a Chinese (Mandarin) immersion program, its curriculum, instructional materials, assessment activities, parental involvement and student outcomes. The author analyses two studies that document the development of the students’ reading skills in English and Chinese, and the progress of their vocabulary knowledge, lexical inference, and reading comprehension in Chinese. In addition, this book contextualizes the program in its eco-system, including its neighbourhood, school, and the school district, and discusses the importance of school leadership, parental involvement, neighbourhood support and language acquisition planning in making an innovative school program successful. Its concluding chapters offer recommendations for program- and classroom-level practices and suggest pathways for future research on biliteracy learning in Chinese one-way immersion programs. This book will appeal in particular to students and scholars of applied linguistics, second language acquisition and language education.                                                              Review “Her book is an excellent resource for many stakeholders – including, but not limited to, language researchers, teachers, and programme designers or directors.” (Yi Wang, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, November 2, 2021) “This study brings together current research on cross-language literacy learning and a report from the implementation of a Chinese as second language (L2) immersion teaching program. … Especially useful to teachers … .” (Norbert Francis, Applied Linguistics, May 11, 2019)   Review “In 2018, we find ourselves at a point in the history of the Chinese language teaching profession in the United States where 90% of students studying the language and culture in the PreK-16+ academic pipeline are doing so at the pre-collegiate level – and over 45% in K-12 programs. The urgency of designing better immersion programs in those primary and secondary schools is of paramount importance. Dr. Lu is to be highly commended for providing both a macro-analysis of the American language education theoretical and empirical context wherein programs such as Pacific Elementary School have been established, and a micro-level examination of how such a program may be better understood and enhanced. For program administrators to front-line teachers, and for literacy scholars to language policy advocates, this is a book of great insights and a source of true inspiration. I recommend it to the potential reader with great enthusiasm and appreciation.” (Scott McGinnis, Senior Academic Advisor & Professor of Chinese, Defense Language Institute, US) “Interest in Dual Language Immersion programs is growing rapidly throughout the United States and in an expanding number of languages, including Mandarin Chinese. Dr. Chan Lü’s book is one of the first to address the specific challenges of teaching and learning Mandarin Chinese in an early language setting with few, if any, native/heritage language speakers of Chinese. Her study addresses the major issue of developing literacy skills in two languages with very different writing systems in the context of a language immersion program teaching language through content instruction. In Seattle Public Schools we are using her timely and practical recommendations as guidelines for improving the quality and literacy outcomes of our K-12 Mandarin Dual Language Immersion programs.” (Michele Anciaux Aoki, International Education Administrator, Seattle Public Schools, USA) “In this compelling and deeply researched volume, Chan Lü describes and investigates the complexities surrounding bi-literacy development in English and Chinese.  Employing a case-study approach, Lü’s chapters supply a support structure to guide the reader throug