Using Bridge to Teach English

As a senior at Mission High School, Terence Li joined CBE’s first bridge club. He and Edmund Wu were the first two students CBE sent to the Youth NABC. After graduating Mission, he attended Stanford and is now teaching at the Chinese Education Center Elementary School (CEC). Terence has kept in touch with CBE and was approached to see if he thought bridge would be a good adjunct to his teaching pro- gram. He did. Here is his report.

CEC is a school that offers a newcomer program serving the Chinese immigrant population. The main goal is to significantly improve the children’s English language skills and to develop their cultural knowledge. When CBE approached me about teaching bridge, I thought it might be a fun way for the kids to improve their English while learning an interesting game.

It was important to bring in a bridge instructor who could interact with the kids in their native language of Chinese. CBE found Bob Ng who volunteered to work with the students during their afterschool program time period.

The students who participated ranged from the age of seven to eleven (grades 3 – 5). They loved learning about bridge and they were very excited about the competitive aspect of the game. Bob focused mainly on getting the kids interested in the bidding and the card play aspect of the game first. This required use of Chinese to help the students understand the game first. He brought in powerpoints, diagrams, and many other materials to make the learning tangible and visual for the students. We made sure to provide the time to practice English. On the first day, we provided the visual aids of the suits and the English spelling. First, Bob told the kids what the suit was called in Chinese and then had the students pronounce and practice saying the suits in English. Later, Bob demonstrated one round of play, and he had the students name the number and suit of the card.

Aside from the language aspect that we had hoped to incorporate, bridge provided an intellectual outlet for many of CEC’s students. One student told me that he felt that he could master the game because there were only thirteen tricks. This student was one of eleven that started with me on the first day of school in August of 2013. Back then, he gave me a blank look when I asked him how old he was. Now, he is able to carry a basic introductory conversation. This student will be going to John Ye Hall Chin Elementary School next year.

Another student, who ended up winning the championship during a mock game, exclaimed to me that she had never won anything before! This particular student entered my classroom in February. By that time, my classroom had grown to 22 students. Since she entered my classroom quite late into the school year, she will actually be returning to CEC for another full year before needing to transfer to another elementary school. During and after the regular school day, bridge has the potential of providing a space for language practice and an arena for intellectual development.

For next year, we are already making plans to build in a stronger language component as well as include more students.