The United States isn’t the only place grappling with the best way to teach students another language.

Eight graduate students from the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College traveled to China earlier this summer with their instructors and others to learn more about Chinese culture and how schools there teach English as a second language.

The group of 12 visited five cities and three education sites during their two-week trip and spoke with educators there about how they incorporate a second language in their instruction while maintaining their student’s first language.

They saw that schools in China too have their challenges in teaching students English, which is the primary second language taught in the world’s most populous country.

Cynthia Galvan, a teacher with the Mercedes school district and a student at UTB/TSC, said she was surprised to learn that Chinese schools also struggle with teaching students English as a second language.

“They’re teaching them to read and write English but they’re not exposed to the oral language,” she said.

One thing she and other teachers on the trip noticed was that Chinese schools teach children a second language at a much younger age than in American schools.

“They start in pre-kinder(garten). English is their second language. All the signs are in Chinese (with English below it),” Galvan said. “They’re very committed to learning English.”

The schools also teach students culture. During one visit she noticed a class did a lesson on coffee and how coffee is consumed more often in the United States rather than China.

“Part of it is understanding the culture,” she said. “Culture has to be part of the program.”

Weslaco High School Assistant Principal William “Trey” Roach said seeing how the Chinese schools used everyday situations to teach students English made him think how schools in the Rio Grande Valley can use community’s bilingual culture to teach students English.

“I think we need to understand the culture of the students we’re receiving,” he said.

Teachers should also be mindful of the level of education their students received in the countries from which they emigrated, he said.

“Just because a child can speak to us doesn’t mean (that child) can read and write,” Roach said. “We have to make sure they are able to read and write in their native language.”

UTB/TSC professors Bobette Morgan and Graciela Rosenberg developed the program to give their students the opportunity to experience another culture and understand better the frustrations some of their students learning English may face.

Usually, students at UTB/TSC are familiar with Mexican culture, which makes teaching foreign students coming to Rio Grande Valley schools — who mostly come from Mexico — a bit easier. But if those educators were to move to other parts of the state or to another state, they would encounter students from all other parts of the world who speak different languages, Rosenberg said.

“You have to be aware of other languages, you have to understand the (students’) cultural background,” she said.

Students received firsthand experience in what it was like to be in a country where they don’t know the main language. Though the group had interpreters during their tours, there were times where they had to rely on the kindness of strangers to translate for them, Morgan said.

“It was a good experience for (our) students to feel that level of frustration,” she said.

中文

美国大学生到中国考察双语教学
美国不是唯一一个绞尽脑汁想让学生多学一门语言的地方。

今夏，8名来自德克萨斯州大学的毕业生和他们的导师来到中国学习中国文化，考察当地的学校如何把英语作为第二语言来教授。

这个12人的考察组在两个星期内参观了5个城市和3个教育基地。他们与当地的教师们讨论，看他们是如何在教外语的同时保持母语的教育。

他们看到中国的学校在教授英语的时候同样有着困惑。英语是这个人口最密集的国家里最流行的外国语。

辛西娅·贾文是梅赛德斯学校的老师，同时也是德州大学的学生，她说她很惊讶地看到中国学校在教授英语的时候也有很多矛盾。

“他们教英语的阅读和写作，不过他们不怎么重视口语，”她说。

在旅途上，她和其他老师都留意到中国学校比美国学校更早地教孩子们外语。

“他们在幼儿园之前就教外语了。英语是他们的第二语言。所有的标示用中文写，但是都有英文注释在下面，”贾文说。“他们真的很重视英语学习。”

学校同时也跟学生讲授文化。在一次的参观她留意到一个课堂在讲咖啡在美国如何比在中国受消费者欢迎。

“这是在理解文化，”她说。“学习外语必须学习文化。”

维斯拉克高中的副校长威廉·罗切说，看到中国学校利用日常生活场景去教授英文，他觉得里约大峡谷的学校也可以利用社区的双语环境来教学生英语。

“我想我们需要理解我们学生的文化背景，”他说。

教师也应当考虑到他们学生来自的国家的教育水平，他说。

“一个孩子能说不代表他能读能写，”罗切说。“我们必须保证他们能用母语阅读和写作。”

德州大学教授波贝特·摩根和格拉斯拉·罗森伯格开展了这个考察计划，让学生去理解其它文化以帮助他们解决学习英语时产生的困惑。

通常来说，德州大学的学生都很熟悉墨西哥文化，这样能让到里约大峡谷学校读书的墨西哥学生学起外语来更简单。但是如果这个地区的老师到了德州其它地方或者美国其它州，他们就会碰到来自世界各地说着不同语言的学生了，罗森伯格说道。

“你必须认识到其它语言的重要性，必须去理解学生们的文化背景，”她说。

通过在中国考察，学生们体会到在一个他们不懂其语言的国家里生活是怎么样的。虽然考察小组有随团翻译，但是有时候他们不得不求助当地友善的陌生人给他们做翻译，摩根说。

“这是一个很好的机会让我们的学生去体现一下学习的困惑，”她说。

Graduate students travel to China to learn more about bilingual education