Group+6+(Chinese)


 * Kate Bellingar's TLRP Proposal

Frequency and Consistency of Activities: **
 * __Dinners with Wei__: Wei Qiu is a good friend of mine who is also a native Chinese speaker and fabulous cook. She’s agreed to get together with me at least twice a month to teach me how to cook a traditional Chinese meal and spend time speaking in only Chinese. Each time will probably span 3-4 hours.
 * __Walks with Wei__: Wei and I also work together and frequently go for 15 minute walks during our breaks. Currently we speak mostly in English, but for TLRP purposes we can make some of the walks Chinese only, amounting to at least .5 hours a week.
 * __Chinese Music__: I have Chinese music playing in the background on haoting.com while I’m working or doing homework, so I’m passively absorbing that at least 6 hours a week.
 * __Chinese Pen-pal__: This summer I was a chaperon for a summer camp in Jilin, China, and I still keep in contact with one of the students there. Writing her once a week usually takes about 15 minutes.
 * __Twitter Language Learning__: One of my co-workers is interested to see if language can be learned using Twitter, so he asked me to tweet him whenever I have a Chinese related question. I would probably spend about 30 minutes doing this over the course of a month.
 * __Work__: I work at the Confucius Institute, where at least half of the employees are native Chinese speakers and frequently converse with each other or on the phone in Chinese. I would say I passively absorb that around 3-5 hours a week. I can also sit down and talk with various co-workers from all over China for at least .5 hours a week.
 * __Watching Chinese movies/T.V.__: I can spend at least 3 hours a month watching Chinese movies or T.V. episodes.
 * __Confucius Library__: My work has a library of Chinese books, movies, and interactive cds that I plan to look through for a few minutes here and there, amounting to at least .5 hours each week.
 * __Cantonese Episodes__: The Chinese library has Cantonese t.v. episodes from China, which I will be able to follow since all dialects use the same characters. I can practice reading the characters and get exposed to other versions of Chinese at the same time.
 * Integration of Technology: **
 * Haoting.com, using the internet to stay in touch with my friend in China, twitter, and the Chinese movies and interactive cd games all require the use of technology.
 * Utilization of Native Language Speakers: **
 * My time with Wei and all my other co-workers/Chinese friends gives me lots of time with native speakers from different parts of China.
 * Attention to multiple varieties of the target language: **
 * The music featured on haoting.com offers a variety of artists from all over China. Many of my coworkers come from different provinces in China although they all speak Mandarin. Wei teaches me a lot of colloquial terms and we speak in informal Chinese, which is different than my scripted classroom experiences.
 * Potential for the plan to yield substantial improvement in my TL proficiency: **
 * I feel like it’s necessary to be not only proficient in the language, but also in the culture. Wei and I spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting American and Chinese culture and asking why we do things the way we do. I think that being able to discuss these things in Chinese will greatly boost both my vocabulary and my cultural knowledge. I will also be able to pick up a lot of things from watching the movies and reading the letters from my pen-pal to see how things are actually used in real contexts.
 * Activities go beyond classroom experiences: **
 * I get a lot of experience reading, writing, and listening within the classroom. My TLRP plans focus more on interaction and collaboration using the language to achieve a higher language proficiency. Hanging out with Wei is something I would do anyway and I don’t feel under pressure using the language the way I would in a classroom setting where my participation is being graded.