Mandarin Chinese Dual Language Immersion Programs

The first dual language instruction book to focus on a non-alphabetical language, Mandarin Chinese.

This book discusses multiple aspects of Chinese dual language immersion (DLI) programs, with a focus on the controversial Utah model. The first part of the book focuses on the parents, teachers, and school administrators. It looks at the perceptions of the three groups toward the Utah model, how they build a supportive DLI classroom with an emphasis on teacher–teacher and teacher–parent communication, and how the teachers position themselves in teaching through their teacher identities.

The second part of the book emphasizes classroom research and explores teaching and learning strategies, corrective feedback and learner uptake and repair, translanguaging in authentic teacher–student interaction, and Chinese-character teaching.

As the first DLI book to include a non-alphabetical language, Chinese, it addresses the need for more research on DLI programs of languages other than Spanish. The book will benefit not only Chinese DLI educators and administrators in the US, but will also offer some useful suggestions and thoughts to educators and administrators of similar programs worldwide.

Ko-Yin Sung is Professor of Chinese at Utah State University, USA. Her research explores Chinese language teaching and learning, dual language immersion and language identities.

Hsiao-Mei Tsai is a Chinese teacher in the dual language immersion program in Cache County School District, Utah, USA. Her interests include instruction in dual language programs, language learning strategies and second language acquisition.