Students in the Mandarin Immersion Program will:

• Develop fluency and literacy in Chinese (Mandarin) and English

• Achieve proficiency in all academic subjects, meeting or exceeding state and district standards

• Cultivate an understanding and appreciation of other cultures, and develop positive attitudes toward fellow students, their families, and their community

For the 2021/2022 school year, we have 14 classes; 2 each for grades kindergarten through sixth grade at Azevada Elementary School.  Starting in the 2021/2022 school year, due to limited space for MIP to grow at Azevada, 2 kindergarten, and 2 first grade classes have started at nearby Blacow Elementary School. Additionally, there are 2 seventh and 2 eighth-grade classes at Hopkins Jr. High School. We also have students enrolled at Mission San Jose High School. In total, there are over 600 children in the program.

According to the latest survey of parents representing 69% of the children in the program, 73% of the families speak English, 15% speak Mandarin, and 9% speak Cantonese as their primary language at home. 59% of the families surveyed also speak a second language in the home at least 10% of the time. Other languages spoken either as the primary or secondary language at home include Spanish, Taiwanese, Burmese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Gujarati, and American Sign Language.

Immersion education is an alternative educational model designed to provide students with fluency and literacy in two languages. In this program, all students develop literacy in Mandarin first with the gradual addition of English.

Students in the Immersion Program are taught the same California State standards as all other students in the district, at the same grade level, with the exception that the students in this program are taught in the Mandarin language for most of the school day. English is taught daily and the students are encouraged to interact in both languages.

The language immersion approach is a proven, effective method in providing children with a well-rounded, academically excellent education and full mastery of both English and any target language.  Several Bay Area public and private schools, including schools in Palo Alto, Cupertino, Berkeley, Los Altos, Hayward, and San Francisco, have reported phenomenal academic success in Chinese Immersion programs (CIP), and more and more are being established across the nation.

A great deal of research has centered on foreign language acquisition in various school settings. Over the past thirty years, due in large part to the success of immersion programs, there has been a shift away from teaching language in isolation and toward integrating language and content. This shift is based on four principles:

• Language is acquired most effectively when it is learned in a meaningful social context. For young learners, the school curriculum provides a natural basis for foreign language learning, offering them the opportunity to communicate about what they know and what they want to know, as well as about their feelings and attitudes.

• Important and interesting content provides a motivating context for learning the communicative functions of the new language. Young children are not interested in learning a language that serves no meaningful function.

• First language acquisition, cognition, and social awareness go hand in hand in young children. By integrating language and content, foreign language learning, too, becomes an integral part of a child’s social and cognitive development.

• Formal and functional characteristics of language change from one context to another. An integrated language and content model in an elementary school setting provides a wide variety of contexts in which to use a foreign language.

• Do you value bilingualism, bi-literacy, and diversity?

• Does your child need challenges?

• Do you want your child to have a linguistic edge in tomorrow’s global market economy?

• Are you willing to make a long-term commitment to the Immersion Program?