Foundation to Year 2 Band Description
The nature of the learners
Children enter the early years of schooling with established oracy skills in one or more languages and varying degrees of early literacy capability. For young students, learning typically focuses on their immediate world of family, home, school, friends and neighbourhood. They are learning how to socialise with new people, share with others, and participate in structured routines and activities at school. Typically, they have little to no experience of Chinese language and culture.
Chinese language learning and use
The systems of writing and speaking in Chinese are distinct. The sights and sounds of Chinese are also quite distinct from English. Students therefore are immersed as much as possible in the sounds and spoken words of Chinese, the meaning of which is made clear through participation in active listening and action-related talk, gestures, dramatisation and games. Students are introduced to common characters associated with routines and their immediate experience, and draw on explicit models to communicate.
Contexts of interaction
Students socialise in structured situations and activities in the classroom and at school, with a focus on topics such as self, home, family, and daily routines. They begin to explore Chinese language and culture by participating in experiences such as celebrations; where relevant, they identify similarities and differences between Chinese culture and their own and other cultures.
Texts and resources
Students engage with a variety of texts and text modes, including picture and caption books, songs, cartoons and movies. They hear the different sounds of Chinese in stimulus material such as stories read aloud, multimedia resources and internet sites.
Features of Chinese language use
Learners are immersed in listening to, viewing and reading Chinese. They become aware of Chinese as an alternative code to English and that other languages exist within their own classroom, their country and overseas. They begin to recognise the importance of tone in Chinese speech and observe that the sounds of Chinese can be encoded in Pinyin using familiar letters. Students view characters through appropriate text types that may be glossed in Pinyin. They learn to recognise characters that represent familiar objects and ideas and convey significant cultural meanings.
Level of support
Visual displays, gesture, and specific and concrete contextual clues are continuously used to support understanding. Teachers model correct language use, which provides the main source of students’ development in Chinese. Learners will experiment with various software and technologies as communication tools.
The role of English
English is used by teachers and learners as appropriate for clarification, reflection, questioning and explanation, to support learners to comprehend and acquire Chinese.
