The next generation of University students may be far more prepared than their peers for work in the international community, thanks to a one-of-a-kind program just started this year.
The Chinese Flagship Program, the only program of its kind in the nation, provides students with a chance to develop fluency in Mandarin while studying their chosen major, Carl Falsgraf, director of the University’s Center for Applied Second Language Studies, said.
The program is funded through a grant from the National Security Education Program created in 1993.
“Security requires intelligence – an understanding of other languages and other cultures,” he said.
Problematically, very few Americans know “critical languages” like Chinese, Arabic, Persian and Korean, Falsgraf said. In the coming years, Chinese proficiency will become a vital skill because China is becoming either a U.S. rival or a partner in most industries.
“Any field is going to have to deal with Chinese people in the future,” he said. “You’re going to need folks like this who can help manage that relationship by understanding the language and culture.”
Students accepted into the program must have an advanced-level fluency in Mandarin and take one class per term taught entirely in Mandarin, Falsgraf said. They also take a language strategies course where they have extra help with the vocabulary and skills needed for that term’s course. They spend their junior year at Nanjing University in China, where they take classes in their chosen major.
Madeline Spring, Chinese Flagship Program academic director, said the program is unique because students aren’t just majoring in language, they are learning to apply the language skills to other disciplines.
“When they’re in China, they’ll be taking classes in Chinese (in their major),” she said. “Usually, all the language type classes are in a literature or language department.”
Falsgraf said the Flagship program’s technique changes the way people learn language.
“This is radically different,” he said. “They’re learning through a language, not about a language. It’s very similar to the way you learn a first language.”
The program accepts anyone who qualifies, but many of the applicants will probably have attended the K-12 Mandarin Chinese immersion program founded nine years ago in partnership with Portland Public Schools, Falsgraf said.
Students in that program with no prior skills start speaking Mandarin in kindergarten and continue taking courses taught in Mandarin such as biology, computer science and humanities through high school. Students with Chinese heritage who speak some Mandarin at home take classes on Saturdays as part of a “heritage” program to expand their language skills.
When the students graduate, those applying to the University’s Flagship Program take classes specifically designed around what they learned in high school.
“We will know what these kids come in with and will design the program so there’s no gap,” Falsgraf said. “We’re making a very conscious effort to make sure we’re totally (aligned) with what they do in the heritage program and immersion programs.”
Some of the immersion program’s original students are now in 8th grade and there are 24 students now in 7th grade who have been in the program since kindergarten, Spring said. When these students come to the University, the Flagship program will be the first program in the nation to teach Chinese immersion from kindergarten all the way through college.
“We’re one of 15 (learning resource centers) around the country and the only K-16 Flagship,” Falsgraf said. “This is a place where Oregon is really out in front and we’re getting a lot of national attention.”
Spring, who has been traveling around the nation giving talks on the Flagship Program, said the idea that someone can function fluently in a second language isn’t “in the realm of consciousness” for most Americans.
“We don’t think there’s anything unusual when students come from any country in the world and they come to the United States and take classes in English, get degrees in English and we expect that,” she said. “Yet, we don’t think Americans should even consider anything similar to that. This program is extreme in the case that we’re really wanting them to be able to do those exact things.”
The Flagship program model has aroused the interest of other universities because it seeks to change that mindset.
“Nationally people are very excited about this program,” she said. “People are really excited about both seeing how they could learn something from the program in terms of setting up things at their own universities and also in terms of seeing if any of their students might be able to qualify for our program.”
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