Mandarin Program

Students participating in the Mandarin program at SIS are divided into three streams based on their Mandarin language abilities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Mandarin lessons cover 180 minutes during the school week for each grade level.

Language A
Language A students have full oral fluency and literacy in Mandarin. They have good Mandarin communication and comprehension skills both in daily life and academics. These students typically have a cultural heritage that is Chinese.

Language B
Language B students may have oral proficiency or a high level of conversational fluency in Mandarin. The major focus of Language B classes is to develop students' literacy skills in Interpretive Reading, Presentational Writing and Language Convention.

CAL (Chinese As an Additional Language)
CAL students are beginners to Mandarin language or have a very basic level of communication in Mandarin. The major focus in CAL class is to develop students’ listening and speaking skills. Basic reading and writing skills are also introduced.

PYP Integration in Mandarin Program

At SIS, we share the philosophy of the International Baccalaureate (IB), and therefore integrate the PYP (Primary Years Program) into the Chinese Program. In our PYP units, we closely collaborate with homeroom UOI (Unit of Inquiries) to provide inquiry-based learning which not only fosters language learning but also develops and demonstrates students’ approaches to learning and the learner profile.

We focus on five ATL (Approaches to Learning) transdisciplinary skills: thinking, research, communication, social, self-management. During Mandarin classes at SIS, students are not only learning the Chinese language, they are also exposed to skills to be self-regulated learners and life-long learners.