Category: Mandarin

In order to be considered for an excellence award in languages learning, the following criteria must be met:

• ‘G’ standing
• 80% or higher
• Uses the target language to effectively communicate with others
• Active member of the classroom community
• Demonstrates strengths outlined in the Core Competencies
• Takes initiative to further their language learning
• Cumulative; cut-off date will be in April

Accurate pronunciation is a very important aspect of language learning. However, studies show that fluency is actually more important when it comes to understanding a speaker.

See http://phys.org/news/2014-05-fluency-outweighs-pronunciation-non-native-english.html for more information.

Click here to read an article on the many benefits of multilingualism

“Benefits of learning a second language include brain growth, staving off dementia, boosting memory, improving attention and more…” Click here to read the full article

“Today, more of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual than monolingual. In addition to facilitating cross-cultural communication, this trend also positively affects cognitive abilities. Researchers have shown that the bilingual brain can have better attention and task-switching capacities than the monolingual brain, thanks to its developed ability to inhibit one language while using another. In addition, bilingualism has positive effects at both ends of the age spectrum: Bilingual children as young as seven months can better adjust to environmental changes, while bilingual seniors can experience less cognitive decline.” – See more at: http://dana.org/Cerebrum/2012/The_Cognitive_Benefits_of_Being_Bilingual/#sthash.NSn4Gly0.dpuf

See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/100218-bilingual-brains-alzheimers-dementia-science-aging/ for more info