The immersion track is for students who want to devote themselves to Chinese language training fulltime, through 23 hours in class instruction per week, and lots of time for homework and other activities. It is a perfect opportunity for those who want to challenge themselves and test the limits of their courage, endurance and excitement.

        ■ Immersion Track         ■ 1st Year Immersion Chinese

Requirements:
    • 3.0GPA
    • One recommendation letter
    • At Least 2 semesters of Chinese in a rigorous program

Class Size: Under 5
    We believe individual attention is essential in language acquisition. Therefore, the largest immersion class is capped at 5.

Language Pledge:
    To help students fully immerse themselves in Chinese language and culture, a language pledge is enforced both inside and outside the classroom.

Chinese Roommates:
    They are available upon request in off campus apartments.

Levels:
    There will be 3 levels of language studies, corresponding to 300, 400 and beyond at US universities.

CH-I 302 (12 credits, spring & fall)

The immersion Chinese Language classes are designed for advanced language students. They normally meet three hours in the morning and one and half hours in the afternoon daily, five days a week, except Friday afternoon. Each student has a one-on-one session on every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.

In addition, there is a language table and a Chinese movie appreciation session every other Friday afternoon. Students should be aware that the immersion course is very demanding. The above-mentioned hours aside, students should expect to spend at least another three to four hours in class preparation and self-study daily.

Class schedule:

Courses	Textbooks	Time
Comprehensive Chinese	New Practical Chinese Reader Book3	9:00pm-12:00pm (Mon-Fri)
Listening Comprehension	TBA	1:00pm-2:30pm (Mon, Tue)
Oral Chinese	TBA	1:00pm-2:30pm (Wed, Thu)

CH-I 402 (12 credits, spring & fall)
The format is the same as CH-I 302, except that this is more advanced.

Class schedule:

CH-I 403: Chinese Folklores( 1 credit, spring & fall )
This course is for students on Chinese immersion track. The instructor will discuss Chinese cultural traditions, religions, and all kinds of social practices that permeate Chinese life. It is four weeks in length and readings will be selected from books, articles, and contemporary news.

CH-I 404: Social Issues(1 credit ,spring & fall)
To understand contemporary social issues by reading and discussing is the purpose of this course. Among the major topics are peasant laborers in cities, education, environment, etc. Students will conduct interviews, by using Chinese, as part of this class.

CH-I 405: Popular Culture(1 credit, spring and fall)
The focus of this course is on the youth culture, music, movies, TV programs, and the immerging internet culture. Interactions with college students forms part and parcel of this attempt to understand China's youth.

CH-I 406: Language Internship(1 credit, conducted in Chinese)

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First Year Immersion Chinese

Goals
This Immersion program is designed for pure beginners. By fully utilizing an environment that is ideally suited to language training this program aims to build up students’ foundation of the Chinese language (i.e. basic fluency, daily vocabulary and functional structures). A language pledge further challenges students in all courses to push their potential learning capacities to the maximum. Some culture courses also expose students to social and cultural issues outside of the classroom, and go beyond simple language acquisition.

Teaching Methodology
We adopt a mixture of the communicative approach to language learning and the audio-lingual approach with many intensive exercises. We are flexible, applying different approaches depending on the type of class that is offered. No matter the method, our guiding philosophy and most important objective remains student-centered learning. Hence, class size is always maintained at fewer than five students.

Course Features
    Student-Teacher Ratio: 5:1
    50 new vocabulary words daily
    Efficient drills
    Real communicative context
    Information-based tasks
    Practical language activities

The Language Pledge
The Language Pledge is a promise that students make to only use Chinese; specifically at locations with a sign that reads ‘Chinese only,’ or when involved in a conversation with faculty and staff members. The Pledge drives students to enhance their language acquisition in daily life. Students can have breaks on weekends and when they contact people who are not able to speak Chinese.

Chinese Roommate
2-3 students will have 1 Chinese roommate who can assist them with everyday Chinese and also help them to be accustomed to Chinese life.

Practical Language Activities
The purpose of organizing language activities is to make a link between the language acquisition in classroom and the outside world. Implementation of language activities also embodies the idea that students acquire implicit socialization through the process of language internalization.
    •Campus Discovery
    •Interviews
    •Project Design

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