Mandarin Immersion

The Mandarin Chinese Dual Immersion Program at Ohlone is designed to develop full bilingualism in Mandarin and English. English-speaking students and native Mandarin speakers are taught together using Mandarin and English instruction to develop bilingual academic fluency.

The program began as a 3-year pilot program in the fall of 2008 with two K-1 classes at Ohlone. In the 2012-2013 school year, the expansion was complete with two classes at each combined-grade level (K/1, 2/3, 4/5).

The program aims to:

• Develop bilingual proficiency and literacy in Mandarin and English
• Promote academic achievement at or above grade level in both languages
• Foster positive cross-cultural attitudes

Grade-level descriptions are available for download:

• Kindergarten MI Language Arts.pdf
• Grade 1 MI Language Arts.pdf
• Grade 2 MI Language Arts.pdf
• Grade 3 MI Language Arts.pdf
• Grade 4 MI Language Arts.pdf
• Grade 5 MI Language Arts.pdf

In November 2013, Professor Amado Padilla of Stanford's Graduate School of Education shared results of a study of students in the MI program. An article will be published in the Foreign Language Annals shortly. To learn more about his study and the results, click here.