The Chinese Immersion Program at Elder Creek Elementary School
creates an interactive and engaging learning environment where
students will achieve bilingual proficiency in both English and
Chinese. Students will reach high levels of academic
achievement in both languages and become cross-cultural
ambassadors for our school, community and society. The
program uses an immersion method of instruction in which
English-speaking students and Chinese-speaking students are
placed together in the same class. Students in this program
will receive instruction in English and Chinese while having
equal access to the academic core curriculum.
Beginning in kindergarten and first grade, instruction is
provided using the 80/20 model: 80 percent Cantonese and 20
percent English. In second grade, it is 70 percent Cantonese and
30 percent English. In third grade, students are taught 60
percent of the time in Cantonese and 40 percent in English.
Beginning in fourth grade, the students will be introduced to
Mandarin, but still primarily taught in Cantonese. In
fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, students are taught 50 percent
of the time in Cantonese and 50 percent in English.
Students will then be prepared to further their learning of
Chinese in junior high and high school.