In the exploration of Kaiwen’s advanced international teaching mode, English is considered as an integrate part in education. After comprehensively investigating overseas education resources, Kaiwen Academy first tried the “conditional admission” teaching mode in the spring semester of 2017-2018 school year. Students who want to strengthen their English should first receive a one-semester immersion study in American high school and go back to continue their study in Kaiwen.

After more than four months, the students and teachers who participated in the project for the first time returned to China in July. What is the learning experience of this semester? The team leader Zhao Wei recorded her experiences with words and photos.

The one-semester conditional admission project was successfully completed on the last day of June. The 8th grade students and I finally returned to China to start the summer vacation. The study and life in the United States impressed us greatly.

The fully immersive English environment brought great challenges for children who just arrived in the United States. ESL is an assisted language tutoring program which helped and supported children a lot. American schools developed corresponding curriculums according to the language test results of students when entering the school, and adjusted the courses according to the actual study level of Chinese students, such as mathematics, the difficulty of math was relatively low in the class at the beginning, the students gave feedback to school and the school transferred them to the classes taught more difficult math.

ESL courses are available every day, including debates, "Chinese"-themed lectures, drama scripts, storytelling, and role-reading. At the same time, the school also invited other foreign teachers who do not teach such courses to participate in the evaluation and instruction of the students' performance. The students got improvement in terms of vocabulary, grammar and language.

In terms of Chinese courses, the school used the unified Chinese textbooks published by the Ministry of Education to conduct Chinese-speaking courses synchronous with domestic level. Therefore the children’s Chinese would not fall behind while immersed in English learning.

 The school also holds a variety of activities every semester. For example, on “Career Day”, the school will invite people from all walks of life to  give students a job introduction and let them know about the work in different industries. Although their career goals may change with growth, the elite’s presentation will be of great help in their future planning. They will also give students good advice with their own experiences.

The library selected some books for charity sale, and many teachers contributed their own books.

Reading novels is very helpful in improving the language. The students started with some simple and interesting books to enhance their reading confidence. When reading more and more, it will be a great help of listening, speaking, reading and writing in English. The older books represent the borrowed most, which means that the children love to read this book. There are many best-selling books in the charity sale. With the guidance of library staff, our students bought many original books.

The school's drama club performed Shakespeare's classic play "Romeo and Juliet" to the teachers and students in performance class.

Sports 

The school organized the students to participate in the multinational language contest held by Brigham Young University

In the language contest, the students were deeply impressed by the passion of foreign students learning Chinese, which also inspired them to learn English with the same enthusiasm.

The students visited the famous Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. The school also invited missionaries from China and the United States as guides.

We had to say it was a very wise decision that we chose Utah to carry out the project, on account of the worship of Mormonism, most people are very friendly, the humane environment is very open and it’s very safety here, and the school environment is relatively simple.

After the holiday starts, Chinese students still had a one-month study schedule. During this time, the students went to Thanksgiving Point in the morning, many manual and group projects over there were needed to be completed together with the foreign children. In the afternoon, the students returned to the school to take ESL courses. In the last week, the students took part in local cooking courses. Using the second half of two weeks, I paid a visit to Yellowstone Park and Southern Utah with the local students.

At the old faithful center of Yellowstone, the children received the Junior Ranger Book. After completing the Q & A on the booklet, the children won the Yellowstone Park Medal.

After more than four months of study and life, as a led teacher, I witnessed the rapid growth of my classmates. The fully immersive English environment not only allowed students to improve their English academic ability and adaptability, but also enhanced their interest and motivation in learning. Students learned spontaneously, which was a happy thing for educators.

‍‍One semester’s study made children adapted to American life and school, which also laid the foundation for their future application to American universities and four years of college life in the United States. This precious experience would also become an unforgettable growth sign in their whole life.

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