ABSTRACT
Chinese is currently a popular choice for school language programs in English-speaking countries and, in elementary schools especially, it is increasingly often taught in immersion mode in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program, in which the language is learned as it is used for the learning of one or more curriculum subjects, such as for example, Science or Mathematics. While benefiting from extensive work done in European language CLIL curriculum and pedagogy (e.g. Marsh 2002; Coyle 2007), Chinese as a Second Language presents several challenges new to the field and has required scholarship, diligence, and creativity from those who have developed, resourced, and taught it in CLIL programs. This chapter explores the aims and means for establishing a CLIL Chinese program and the issues that need to be resolved in its curriculum and lesson design. Samples of lessons, teaching methods and student work that illustrate what has been discussed and proposed are presented.
