Teaching of Mandarin in an English comprehensive school: a case study

A group of English children in a rural comprehensive are learning Mandarin, taught by a Chinese teacher. This article describes the background to this development and follows three cohorts of students, giving the pupils' view s about learning Chinese and why they chose it. As a psychologist who has i nterests in education and who is also a part-time student of Chinese, the a uthor welcomed the chance to share the pupils' experience. In the final coh ort, sensation-seeking tendencies and intellectual achievement responsibili ty were investigated as personality traits which may influence a child's ch oice of foreign language study.