Chinese Dual Immersion Teaching Techniques

Created on 14th October 2022

Conference: The Asian Undergraduate Research Symposium (AURS8)
Title: Chinese Dual Immersion Teaching Techniques
Stream: Education
Presentation Type: Virtual Poster Presentation
Authors:
Emily Suisse, Utah State University, United States

Abstract:

Chinese Dual Language Immersion (DLI) courses in Utah have spread all across the state over the past few years and are put in place to help students succeed in future business, education, and government positions (Asia Society). These DLI programs are growing in number and this perpetuates the need for more research. In order to improve upon math instruction given in Chinese DLI classes, I have observed various teaching strategies used by the Chinese teacher during two units of math curriculum in a second grade classroom in Utah. I used the language learning strategies framework (Oxford, 1990) to identify different strategies used when observing. This way, it is clear to see which strategies are used most often when teaching students. The next framework utilizing mathematical discussions (Smith, 2011) was the foundation needed to show different strategies used in teaching mathematics. I wrote down my direct observations and, according to the framework, categorized these actions into teaching strategies. These strategies were then counted and organized in least to most frequently used. In this research, I found that the most commonly used strategies in the classroom setting were attention strategies and checking for student understanding. These observations have also shown that many tactics are being used by DLI teachers to help students have the most academic learning time. Using this information, teachers can reflect on which strategies are used most often and adjust to the needs of their classroom.