If you live in the Portland area and want to take classes in spoken Chinese, then take a look at this iniative. It was inspired by ChinesePod learner, Eric Grimm and his friend, D’Arcy Owen, from Everest College.
I wish them the best of luck and we will follow their progress.
Ken Carroll
Wow. How did you do that?!
I wasn’t even done typing it when you posted this. You must be wired to the blogsphere. It’s uncanny. I was actually hoping to get some feedback from my partners before I told anyone about the site. ah, well.
Hopefully this site gives people a good idea about what our program is intended to do. In a nutshell: want to facilitate language acquisition. To make this work we need great facilitators and a great program. I am confident we can make it work, but not because of anything that D’Arcy and I bring to the table. Our third partner is Tien Whyte who has lots of experience in teaching adults and teaching grade school. She is well acquainted with teaching methodologies that involve the participants and engage cognition, but she has never heard of Aston, Blain, Terrell, Krashen, Ellis or the like. However she would like to know more about their theories. Can anyone point us to analysis of these theories written in Chinese or English by Chinese authors about Chinese language teaching?
Also if you do live near Portland and know anyone who is thinking about learning Chinese, please let them know about our site. Thanks!
Eric,
As soon as you post this stuff people start to pick up on it. We have automatic feeds that alert us when anyone post a link to ChinesePod.
Blogging is so immediate there ain’t nothin’ like it. Of course, this speed can get you into trouble at times!
The project sounds great. Keep us posted.
Ken Carroll
Quick question here, fellas. Did Eric and crew get your blessing before making ChinesePod part of their business model, or is the Creative Commons license just that flexible?
How would ChinesePod feel about formalizing this program and creating satellite schools in other areas? I have a tutor here in South Florida that I could wrangle into making some extra money…
Frank,
You can click on the “Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License” link at bottom of Cpod home page to find the legal parameters of the license. It is remarkably simple. Chinesepod has been very generous to release their art work under such an unrestrictive license.
I did get input from Ken before proceeding. He was encouraging, but warned that I should not expect Cpod to do any work for me. I guess he thinks they have something better to do
My goal is to structure the course with one Chinesepod lesson per week and build a vocabulary and grammar scaffold around that. Of course, the final format of the class will be determined by the teacher. Tien is excited about the program and looks forward to teaching adults again. I think as a grade school teacher she has lots to offer in the way of engaging learners in communication activities.
If you do set up a program, I would be interested in collaborating. I think it would be great to share classroom experiences, activity plans, homework, and other materials.
Eric,
Chinese pod is designed for self-study or 1-to-1 study with a teacher who oversees your progress. I’m curious what you believe you can in a offer that isn’t currently offered by Chinese pod and whether you see Chinesepod as a possible (albeit passive) competitor to what you are trying to do?
Hi Michael,
I think that a taking a class is a perfect compliment to Chinesepod. There are a number of benefits to a class, particularly for beginners. It is a chance to work with a native speaker so you can get good feedback on pronunciation. It is fun to meet other people who are studying, so you can compare notes and gossip about Ken and Jenny. It also helps you to pace yourself and stay on track.
Chinese classes are not always designed for the benefit of the student, but this one is. The format will be highly interactive, giving you a chance to hear and speak language that is relevant to your level. The instructor has lots of experience teaching adults and children, so you can expect a fun and engaging experience.
If you like studying by your self then a class is not for you. But, I personally feel that language is all about communication - and this class is the great way to get that experience. Speaking personally again, I never would have reached even the modest level of skill that I have without friends who were studying it.
Chinesepod by itself works great for people who are living in China and immersed in the language by default. Working 1-1 with a tutor can be an excellent option also, but I have found that a good tutor is rare. For people who are stuck in an English speaking country, a well designed class that meets one or more times per week, combined with Chinesepod is a very effective way to learn.
Dear Eric,
I completely agree with you about the importance of providing students with feedback on pronunciation and tones. However I personally believe that classes as large as you are sugggesting (10 students) are a bit too big to allow for “strong” personalization. It is clear however that this kind of feedback is missing from Chinesepod.
As a teacher I have experienced classes where class members resolutely encouraged each other and made sure that as a class they were having fun and supporting each other. It sounds like this is the kind of class that you are shooting for. It is a worthy goal and this kind of class makes group learning extremely rewarding.
One of my questions has to do with the issue of money. Will you suggest that students sign up for the premium service with Chinesepod? If some do and some don’t might this create a gap in student ability over time (even as short as 2 months)? Or will you suggest to students that they don’t sign up for premium services? Or will you be neutral on this issue?
I’m also very interested in what units you will be teaching and in what sequence. I imagine you will be creating a fixed path for your students to follow. Since Chinesepod doesn’t do this, I assume you will be charting your own path. Do you consider your sequencing proprietary or is it something you feel people in your shoes should share (this is my most difficult question)?
I wish you the best of luck with your business!
Michael,
Thanks for your well wishes. I will be happy to share the details of the course in hopes that others may find it useful. But I am also interested in getting feedback from other teachers and thoughtful learners.
I will advocate that learners make good use of the resources available to them. I think all learners make choices, some chose to study hard and move ahead quickly, others are more relaxed or have less time available. The question of primium, or not, is up to the individual.
ONE to MANY - Hi Michael,
I don’t see anything inherently 1-1 about Chinesepod. I think it could easily form the core curriculum of a typical school Chinese class, or be a supplemental. I’m curious if you think there are parts that aren’t ‘group’ or ‘class’ material?
In fact, as it stands, I think Cpod content already surpasses most BLCU (Beijing Language and Culture) materials which are quite widely used. The contemporary language Cpod uses, plus some current existing texts, and a teacher seems a powerful combination to me.
Best of luck Eric!
(this was a non-paid, non-Cpod staff blogvert!)
I also see this as a splended idea.
I tried to convert a friend to become a CPoddy in order to built up a peer learner to practice with. But he did not catch fire. So I am for the most part still the lonely wolf type of learner. At least I have someone to try out my Chinese once in a while (as long as her teaching batteries aren’t empty…).
Eric,
I’d be happy to offer whatever feedback I can. The best thing you can do to solicit feedback is to tell people whether you will need open-ended feedback (the most difficult) or feedback on a specific issue (easier).
Lantian,
Happy New Year! I agree with you. I don’t see anything inherent in Chinesepod that makes its materials “wrong” for a group class (quite the opposite in fact). I do believe that Chinesepod has been optimized for one-to-one learning. All the tools that have been created so far are best used in that context. My concern here is whether a school can offer enough value beyond what Chinesepod already offers, to allow the school to continue to retain students in the face of all these great one-to-one offerings.
Actually, I’m curious how a paying customer would view this situation and how they would decide to spend their limited dollars. I’m also curious what the optimal size of a group class would be when faced with this inherent one-to-one competition from Chinesepod.
In the materials writing field, I’m not aware of entire curriculums that simultaneously try to target (and market to) both individuals and group classes but are optimized for individual use.