9/27/2007

by Mrs. Joyce Smith

Foreign language has always been part of the core curriculum at Viewpoint School where students may study the same foreign language for six or even 13 years. The School introduces French in Kindergarten and continues it through high school; Spanish is added in Grade Three; and Latin in Grade Seven. What sets Viewpoint apart from many independent schools is its offering of Mandarin Chinese that begins in Sixth Grade and culminates with the college level Advanced Placement Chinese Language course. The School has taken a leadership role in foreign language education by requiring all students to continue their study of one foreign language for three years in Upper School, resulting in many students attaining fourth or fifth year level in a specific foreign language.

This past spring, Mrs. Ming Hodgson, lead teacher of Viewpoint’s Mandarin Chinese program, realized that the video iPod, the hand-held media device which most of her students already owned, would make her instruction even more accessible.

 “Unlike other languages where students can sound out the words by reading the Western letters,” she explains, “each Chinese character has a unique sound that can be learned only by seeing the character and hearing its sound simultaneously.”

Mrs. Hodgson had previously developed a PowerPoint presentation that was available on her classroom’s Web site. She converted this into an mp4 file that her students could download into their iPods and listen to during the summer break wherever and whenever they wanted. By the end of the first week of school, Mrs. Hodgson reported that she had to spend less time reviewing and was able to move the curriculum along faster than in years past.

Currently, a total of 115 students are now studying Mandarin Chinese at Viewpoint. This year, Mrs. Helen Li joined the faculty and is helping Mrs. Hodgson to develop the PowerPoint download for the new Sixth Grade curriculum.