Abstract

Childhood is critical for language development, which makes quality of bilingual programs at kindergartens the priority of parents’ and teachers’ concern. However, as a “later comer” to bilingual education, Chinese kindergartens tend to either replicate the Chinese language teaching model or blindly implant the western models in their bilingual programs. How to improve the quality and efficiency of English education at Chinese kindergartens has already become an urgent question that could only be solved through an in-depth understanding of different models of bilingual education. The thesis compares and contrasts two bilingual models, the traditional and the immersion, along the dimension of goals, methods and impacts in order to highlight the most optimal elements essential for Chinese bilingual education programs.
Chapter two through four analyze different goals, teaching methods and impacts of the two models on English education at Chinese kindergartens. Chapter five comes up with several suggestions on English teaching at Chinese kindergartens.

Key words: education of English, model of education, traditional model, immersion

摘要

幼儿时期是语言发展的关键时期，这个时期幼儿的语言发展十分迅速,词汇量日益增加,通过发展,孩子可以简单、连贯地叙述见闻、表达思想。幼儿语言的培养关系到孩子今后的可持续发展，因此，学前英语教育逐渐成为学校、家长关注的焦点。然而,由于起步较晚，我国学前双语教育发展仍然十分滞后，目前我国的学前双语教育由于大多照搬国外已有的教学模式或迎合国内的升学考试机制,在实施过程中出现了一些问题，“费时较多，成效较低”是学前双语教育目前面临的普遍问题，如何提高学前英语教育的效果已经亟待解决的问题。在学前英语教育中，教育模式的选择直接影响着教育效果，英语教育模式在学前英语教育的研究中占据十分重要的地位，因此，研究两种主要的英语教育模式具有十分重要的意义。本文欲从英语教育模式入手，来进一步分析、比较、研究学前英语教育中两大教育模式的特点、区别以及产生的不同影响。
论文第一章先简要阐述两种主要的学前英语教育模式的教学目标。第二章介绍两种教育模式采用的不同方法。第三章结合两种教育模式在实际中的运用，对两种教育模式的特点进行重点分析，全面分析不同教育模式对幼儿英语学习产生的不同效果和影响。

关键词：学前英语；教育模式；教学式；浸入式   

Chapter One Introduction
 There are two major bilingual teaching models at kindergartens, one is the traditional model and the other one is immersion. Traditional teaching model refers to the instruction of a second language (L2) through children’s mother tongue or home language. Children learn L2 without a natural language environment. At most Chinese kindergartens, children learn English through teachers’ intentional teaching, which lacks actual and natural language environment. Following syllabuses and materials, English teachers make lesson plans and execute a sequence of activities in a relatively fixed time frame.
Language immersion, or simply immersion, is the use of L2 as the medium of instruction either for L2 itself or other content area. Through this method, learners study school subjects, such as math, science, and social studies, in their L2. Language is not only the content of learning, but also the medium of instruction.