普利西学校的目标是将语言浸泡式学习与围绕学生自选科目设计课程的教学模式结合起来。
小朋友们下周去普利西学校(Presidio Knolls School)报到开始第一天上课时，他们将仅被允许在操场上和其它几个为数不多的场合讲英语。学校的大多数课程都将以中文讲授。图为校长奥尔西尼(Alfonso Orsini)。
这所数年来一直提供汉语学前教育的学校将增开幼儿班。图为8月20日，幼师们正在进行教室内环境规划。
普利西学校在2008年开始招生时还只是一所中文浸泡式教育学前班，当时只有六名学生。如今它拥有150名学龄前儿童，本月晚些时候其首个幼儿班将有16名学生入学。这所学校计划最终将招生对象扩至八年级学生。
旧金山湾区现在有23所这样的中文浸泡式学校。有些是私立的，如普利西，有些是公立学校，还有些则是特许学校，即接受公费资助的民办学校。图为普利西学校内的一间教室。
Ruth Chou（右三）和其他老师正在讨论教室环境的布置。
和很多开展中文浸泡式教学的学校一样，普利西学校的学生并不一定来自具有中国背景的家庭。大约有20%的学生其父母以中文为母语，大约10%的孩子出生在中国，后被美国父母收养。其他的孩子或是父母为华裔（但其父母可能不会说中文），或是来自和中国没有任何关联的家庭。
Ruth Chou给三岁的学生布拉德利(Deavon Gao-Bradley)送上一个拥抱。
旧金山湾区的中文浸泡式学校在教学方式和方法上彼此不尽相同。有些学校会分不同时段分别以中英双语授课，有些则完全以中文授课。图为一个教室内的情景。
普利西幼儿班一年的花费为2.15万美元（合人民币约136,600元）。
学校内，奥尔西尼和一名前来申请的学生及他的父母聊天。奥尔西尼说，现在确实有对这种学习方式的需求。
普利西学校的目标是将语言浸泡式学习与围绕学生自选科目设计课程的教学模式结合起来。
小朋友们下周去普利西学校(Presidio Knolls School)报到开始第一天上课时，他们将仅被允许在操场上和其它几个为数不多的场合讲英语。学校的大多数课程都将以中文讲授。图为校长奥尔西尼(Alfonso Orsini)。
2012年 08月 23日 13:55
浸泡式中文教学受旧金山湾区学校热捧
小
朋友们下周去普利西学校(Presidio Knolls School)报到开始第一天上课时，他们将仅被允许在操场上和其它几个为数不多的场合讲英语。学校的大多数课程都将以中文讲授。
该校校长奥尔西尼(Alfonso Orsini)说，人们确实需要这种学习方式。普利西学校几年前以中文学前班的形式创办，现在即将增设幼儿园。建筑工人正在进行校园工程的扫尾工作，园区坐落在旧金山第10大道，以前是一个破败的教堂。该校计划最终招收从幼儿园到八年级的学生。
Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal
图片：旧金山的汉语幼儿园
一项统计数据显示，旧金山湾区现在有23所这样的浸泡式中文学校，其中很多都是在过去几年开办的。有些属于私立学校(如普利西)，有些是公立学校，还有些则是特许学校，即接受公费资助的民办学校。
威斯(Beth Wiese)经营的一家网站专门面向子女接受浸泡式中文教育的学生家长。据她说，美国大约有125所浸泡式中文学校。旧金山有五家，包括普利西、阿普托斯中学(Aptos Middle School)和一家浸泡式粤语学校。其中，阿普托斯中学也将于今年秋季开展浸泡式中文教学。
支持浸泡式语言教育的人说，学生会学到更多有关所有课程的知识，为未来的学习打下更好的基础。目前几乎没有什么测试可以来证实这种说法，但实际情况显示，接受中文浸泡的学生，其英文能力最初可能不及接受英文教育的同龄孩子，但他们后来在所有学科方面的表现往往好于那些只接受英文教育的同龄人。
父母们认为除此之外还有别的好处。威斯的女儿在金司达小学(Starr King Elementary)上学，这是旧金山一所展开浸泡式中文教学的公立学校。她说，每个人都认为中国将在本世纪变得极其重要，如果孩子长大后能说中英双语，他们就会有优势。
施文(Chrissy Schwinn)是位于美国加州奥克兰市的育明中英双语学院(Yu Ming Charter School)的董事会成员，她自己的孩子也在这所学校念书。施文说，之所以选择让女儿来这里，是因为她和丈夫都经常出差，而且也没有融入中国文化的有效语言技能。
育明中英双语学院去年创校。今年，该校收到的入学申请是创校时的四倍。
旧金山湾区的浸泡式中文学校在教学方式和方法上彼此不尽相同。有些学校会分不同时段分别以中英双语授课，有些则完全以中文授课。
普利西学校的目标是将语言浸泡与该校的一种教学方式结合起来。这种教学方式会围绕学生选择学习的学科设计课程。如果学生们对钓鱼有兴趣，那么在学校学习鱼的解剖之前，他们所在的班级可能会先到一个码头以及唐人街的鱼市走一圈。在儿童进入幼儿园的第一天，按照教学计划孩子们将动手装饰教室。
奥尔西尼说，很多浸泡式中文教学采用传统方法，这些方法有很多优点，但对那些不想与时代脱节的孩子来说，也存在很多问题。
和很多开展浸泡式中文教学的学校一样，普利西学校的学生并不一定来自具有中国背景的家庭。
大约有20%的学生其父母以中文为母语，大约10%的孩子出生在中国，后被美国父母收养。其他的孩子或是父母为华裔（但其父母可能不会说中文），或是来自和中国没有任何关联的家庭。
想要找到一位中文流利且对普利西学校希望采用的教学方法感兴趣的老师并不容易。今年秋天将要任课的老师包括一名研究中国文学的博士以及一位来自新加坡一所中文学校的老师。
普利西学校在2008年开始招生时还只是一所浸泡中文式教育学前班，当时只有六名学生。如今它拥有150名学龄前儿童，本月晚些时候其首个幼儿班将有16名学生入学。普利西学校已经将办学地点搬到一个前教会学校所在地，以适应入学人数的增加。普利西幼儿班一年的花费为2.15万美元，上课时间从早上8:30至下午4点。
普利西学校的幼儿班能够顺利开班主要应归功于佘琼馨(Wendy Xa)的工作，她的女儿也将成为幼儿班首批学生之一。在美国出生且中文流利的佘琼馨曾经是金融服务业的一名高管，四年前她辞去工作，全身心投入到普利西学校的开办工作中。
佘琼馨说，普利西学校第一批教室的装修费用大约为63万美元，其中大部分资金由学校董事会成员捐赠。她希望最终能将校园里其它两栋建筑物变成教学楼和其它教学空间。
佘琼馨聘请奥尔西尼管理学校。奥尔西尼曾是佘琼馨在新泽西一所私立中学的老师。奥尔西尼从今年7月开始任职。他说自己虽然只能讲一些很简单的中文，但他希望这不会成为一种障碍。
本月，建筑工人正忙着将校园里的一栋老建筑改建成教学楼。他们还在老建筑外动工搭建一个大型平台。站在平台上可以俯视学校操场，平台同时可以作为演出和其它聚会活动的舞台。
佘琼馨自豪地看着正在进行的校园改建工程。她说，我们将会同时关注孩子和中文的发展。
2012年 08月 23日 13:55
More Area Schools Embrace Chinese-Immersion Method
When kindergartners arrive at the Presidio Knolls School next week for their first day of class, they will be allowed to speak English only on the playground and at a few other times. Most classes will be taught in Chinese.
'There's a real demand for this kind of learning,' says Alfonso Orsini, the head of the school, which is adding a kindergarten after several years as a Chinese-language preschool. Construction crews are working to finish the school's campus, a former run-down church on 10th Street. The plan calls for eventually enrolling students through eighth grade.
The Bay Area is now home to 23 such Mandarin Chinese-immersion schools, according to one count, many of which have opened in the last few years. Some of the schools are private─Presidio Knolls among them─while others are public. Still others are charter schools, which are privately operated but receive public funding.
There are approximately 125 Mandarin-Chinese immersion schools in the country, according to Beth Wiese, who runs a website for parents of Mandarin-immersion students. Five are in San Francisco, including Presidio Knolls and Aptos Middle School, which also begins a Mandarin-immersion program this fall, as well as a Cantonese-immersion school.
Proponents of language-immersion education say the students learn more about all subjects and are better prepared to learn in the future. There's little testing to substantiate the claim, but what exists shows that students may not perform as well in English early on but tend to perform better than their English-only peers in all subjects later.
Parents cite other benefits. 'Everybody gets that China is going to be hugely important in this century,' says Ms. Weise, who has a daughter at Starr King Elementary, a public school in San Francisco with a Mandarin-immersion program. 'If your kid grows up speaking English and Chinese, they will have an advantage.'
Chrissy Schwinn, a parent and board member at Yu Ming Charter School in Oakland, says she chose to send her daughter to the school because she and her husband 'both traveled extensively and had noneffective language skills to participate in that culture.'
Yu Ming opened last year. This year, it received four times as many applications as there were openings.
The Mandarin-immersion schools in the Bay Area have different styles and approaches. Some split the day between teaching in English and Chinese, while others teach exclusively in Chinese.
At Presidio Knolls, the goal is to combine language immersion with a teaching style that designs lessons around subjects the students choose to study. If students are interested in fishing, the class might travel to a pier and a fish market in Chinatown before dissecting a fish back at the school. On the first day of kindergarten, the plan is for the children to decorate the classroom.
'A lot of Chinese immersion takes a traditional approach to which there is a lot of merit but also a lot of problems for kids who want to live in this century,' says Mr. Orsini.
As at many Chinese-immersion schools, the students at Presidio Knolls don't necessarily come from families of Chinese backgrounds.
About 20% of the students are children of native Mandarin speakers. About 10% are kids who were born in China but adopted by American parents. Others either have parents of Chinese heritage, but who may not speak the language themselves, or come from families with no connection to China.
Finding teachers fluent in Mandarin and interested in the educational techniques Presidio Knolls wants to use has been a challenge. Those who will teach the kindergartners this fall include a Ph.D. student in Chinese literature and a teacher from a Chinese-language school in Singapore.
Presidio Knolls opened as a Chinese-immersion preschool in 2008 with six children. Today, it has 150 preschoolers and will enroll 16 later this month in its first kindergarten class. It moved from the Presidio to its new home on the former church campus to accommodate the growth. Kindergarten will cost $21,500 a year and run from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Getting the kindergarten open is largely the work of Wendy Xa, whose daughter will be one of the first students. Born in the U.S. and fluent in Mandarin, Ms. Xa a former financial services executive, quit her job four years ago to dedicate herself to opening the school.
The renovations to build the first classrooms cost about $630,000, most of which was donated by members of the school's board of directors, Ms. Xa says. She anticipates turning two other buildings on the campus into classrooms and other school space eventually, as well.
She hired Mr. Orsini, who was once her teacher at a New Jersey prep school, to run the place. He started in July. He says he speaks only rudimentary Chinese, but he doesn't expect that to be a handicap.
This month, crews were busy gutting one old building on the campus, hurrying to convert it into classrooms. They also are building a large deck outside the building that overlooks the school's courtyard and can serve a stage for plays and other gatherings.
Ms. Xa looks proudly at the transformation underway. 'We're going to focus on the development of the children as well as the language,' she says.
BEN WORTHEN
