Mother Tongue-based Literacy Programmes: Case Studies of Good ...

Kam Children SingThe singing classes are particularly worthy of note.A song has been written for each of the 80 weeksof the two preschool years, and for each of the 72weeks of the primary Grades 1 and 2. When youwalk through Jiasuo village on any particular day,you often hear children humming or singing oneof the school songs. Even pre-preschool children,younger than five years of age, can be overheardsinging the songs. The Kam love to sing, and thepreschool affords a wonderful opportunity foryoung children to be apprenticed early into the art.A VCD was produced in November 2001 showingZaidang preschool children performing 37 of thesongs from the first preschool year. This is verypopular in Kam villages (most of which now haveseveral VCD players).(Geary and Pan, 2003, p. 284)Building a Good Bridge to Mandarin Chinese© Dennis Malone A preschooler “reads” herstory to her classmates© Ana Fangonon A preschooler learns to readKam tones correctlyOne unique feature of the Kam preschools is the introductionof oral Mandarin. Traditionally, the national language wasintroduced through the written characters. However, since thechildren rarely hear Mandarin spoken to them, the Kam/ MandarinBilingual Education Pilot Project includes these lessons as a wayof preparing the children for instruction using Mandarin in Grade1. Bilingual Kam teachers employ a learner-centered, languagelearning method known as TPR (total physical response) to teachbasic vocabulary and grammar in an enjoyable, meaningful andnon-threatening way. These oral lessons are carried over into thebeginning of Grade 1 in order to make a good “bridge” for the Kamchildren as they enter the Chinese language classrooms.© Rick Waggoner A selection of Kam readingand instructional materialsTeaching Chinese reading and writing begins in Grade 1. TheKam children in the Bilingual Education Pilot Project havealready learned to read and write Kam by that time, includingfrequent opportunities to write stories and experiences in Kam.That experience helps the Kam children develop literacy skillsin Chinese. One Grade 4 teacher commented that in the pastKam children could not write stories in Chinese. However, now,the children who began their education in Kam preschool are inGrade 4 and they are able to write interesting and creative storiesin Chinese. Whether better Chinese writing ability is a generalbenefit of Kam/ Mandarin bilingual education will not be known© Norman Geary Kam children singenthusiastically both in andout of class[ 82 ]