You don't say whether these year 9s have had any exposure to Chinese already. I am assuming you are talking about complete beginners. It would be a push to get them to GCSE in two years, but possibly if they were able, well-motivated and you had 3 hours a week or so... Grades might be C/B rather than A*/A. I don't know.
I have had a pupil go from one year of after-school lessons (ca 30 hours) on to two years of GCSE course and came out with a B grade. (Full course).
If it were me having to teach the course, I would want to move the pupils onto the GCSE text book (we currently use Edexcel) fairly swiftly, so would probably teach the basics through flashcard work in the first half term or so and then move onto the book, supplementing it with further flashcard work as required.
Hope that helps. I am sure others will have useful experience which they can share with you.
Mary
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From: Mandarin Chinese Teaching [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Charlotte Cotton [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 January 2012 19:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: how long to get to GCSE Mandarin?
Just in from a governors meeting at our local comp where I was surprised to hear that Year 9s have been offered Mandarin as one of their options. I am thrilled they are offering it to this catchment but worried that they honestly think a GCSE is possible in two years. I do not want them offering something they cant deliver….They say offering it to year 9s is to ‘assess interest’ but as I am now going in to see the Head and Deputy tomorrow I want as many up to date facts as possible. Please help with your experiences. I am going in at noon tomorrow!
1. I have not taught GCSE since 2010 when it was all four skills. Since then I haven’t found anyone near here who is doing the GCSE so have been teaching at a lower level to get the Asset Languages Breakthrough levels. My understanding is that some schools do the Asset Langs levels using either the OCR books by Dragons in Europe or the Jinbu books, work their way up through the levels (how many before going over to GCSE?) and then take the GCSE. Is this the way everyone does it now? Starting which year? Year 7 preferably! But any success starting later?
2. Chat on this forum a year or so ago was that in a school setting it takes five years of three hours a week with lots of homebased e-learning from Language Global or similar to reach GCSE level. Do teachers still think this is the case?
3. If I was advising the school, would you suggest Jinbu 1, Jinbu2 and Edexcel Bird’s Nest Stadium book to finish? Or the OCR Dragons in Europe books first?
4. Now that you can do two skills for GCSE, is there a faster route? I would have thought Breakthrough for speaking and listening and going up through the levels and then the GCSE would be ok but is this any faster in practice?
Looking forward to a summary of your experiences so I can advise the school.
Thanks
Charlotte Cotton
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