There are more children in day care and preschool learning Mandarin than in college and graduate school. So you’d think there would be more research on Mandarin language acquisition in early childhood than in college. In reality, most academic conferences and journals that deal with language education focus on older learners, and there is almost nothing on best practices for teaching Mandarin to toddlers in a daycare or preschool environment. When I first arrived in this city almost 15 years ago, I was struck by the number of Mandarin preschools and daycares there were, and they seemed to be multiplying daily, sprouting up like mushrooms in neighborhoods all over the Sunset and Richmond. Many families employed Mandarin speaking babysitters, nannies, and au pairs. Where could these teachers and caretakers go, I wondered, to learn more about Mandarin learning for their little ones? At CAIS we talked about this a lot, and even spoke with some professors about using our preschool as a laboratory for their research. As it turned out, the rigors of academic research weren’t practical for us—who wanted their child to be lab rats? Or even worse (maybe), part of the control group?
Finally, after several years of conversations and hand-wringing, we started the Early Childhood Chinese Immersion Forum (ECCIF), an online forum and annual in-person conference for early childhood Mandarin immersion educators to come together and share ideas about best practices. From the initial gathering of 35 or 40 local educators, the ECCIF has grown into a national and international conference with upwards of 150 participants from coast to coast, and as far away as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. This year CAIS hosted the 8th Annual Early Childhood Chinese Immersion Forum. Working with a committee from a number of Bay Area Mandarin Immersion schools including PKS, Silicon Valley International School, Yu Ming Charter School and Shu Ren International School, CAIS leaders Cindy Chiang, Chu Hsi Tseng, and Wei Qian put together the 2025 program with the theme “Fostering Inclusion in Early Childhood Chinese Immersion Education: Practices for Supporting Diverse Learners.” In addition to a keynote and workshops on supporting diverse learners, participants were able to select breakout sessions and round table discussions that aligned with the conference theme. CAIS’s Preschool Director Dr. Chu Hsi Tseng, Chinese Learning Specialist Ena Chen, and all preschool lead teachers—Tingting Fu, Jessie Fangping Dong, Zhidan Chi, Ya Ju Tsai, Ruiting Feng, and Vivian Dahlstrom were all presenters at the conference.
We are proud that CAIS is leading the way in early childhood Mandarin immersion teaching and learning.
