Immersion Programs and Language Learning

Every May, Creighton students travel to Peru as part of the Discovering Peru: Church, Society and Language in Context program. While in Peru, they directly engage and accompany people in the Villa El Salvador district of Lima, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet die Auswirkungen von Zweisprachigkeit auf die kognitiven Fähigkeiten von Kindern, die im zweisprachigen Unterricht oder in der Familie eine weitere Sprache erwerben. Dazu wird zunächst erläutert, was unter verschiedenen kognitiven Fähigkeiten zu verstehen ist. Dann wird darauf eingegangen, wie diese in zweisprachigen Familien und in verschiedenen Formen von bilingualem Unterricht erworben werden. Zum Schluss wird die Bedeutung dieser Ergebnisse auf den Unterricht mit CLIL Modulen übertragen.

La situation sociolinguistique du Chili, historiquement marquée par un processus de glottophagie (Calvet, 1974, 1997, 1999), place actuellement le mapudungun parmi les langues originaires minorisées de cet Etat-Nation officiellement monolingue (espagnol). Le statut de cette langue mapuche et l‟abandon progressif de sa transmission intergénérationnelle posent la question de sa « revitalisation » (Hinton & Hale, 2001 ; Costa, 2010) au sein de mouvements militants.
Cette thèse de doctorat se fonde sur une recherche ethnographique et collaborative au long cours dans un contexte d'enseignement/apprentissage du mapudungun en direction d'un public urbain de jeunes adultes de Santiago du Chili. Analyser les pratiques pédagogiques contemporaines au sein d‟un mouvement militant mapuche et en dégager des pistes pour la didactique des langues minoritaires ont constitué les objectifs prioritaires de cette recherche.
Il ressort que l'enseignement du mapudungun, comme celui d‟autres langues minoritaires, concerne autant la praxis d‟une didactique contextualisée que la prise en compte, dans cette même perspective, d'une tension entre tradition vs modernité qu'il s'agit d'intégrer pleinement à la réflexion didactique pour que le parler des « gens de la terre » ait quelque chance de devenir aussi celui des « gens du bitume »

English-medium academic publications concerning bilingual education (BE) in China, which involves using a foreign language (usually English) to teach part of the subject matter of non-language subject(s), are emerging. This paper aims to clarify some misleading information and to challenge a number of viewpoints arising from these publications. It proposes Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) as a more accurate label than immersion for the most widely used Chinese-English BE model, takes issue with the claim that there is no sign suggesting the strong popularity of BE will dissipate in the foreseeable future, and challenges the evidence used in a discussion of driving forces behind the BE “craze”. It concludes with some suggestions for future research, such as identifying good practices of CLIL.

Full version of paper presented at the conference “The Preservation of Indigenous Languages & the Role of Dictionaries,” the “1st International Academic Forum hosted by UNESCO & The Joint Board of South and North Korea for the Compilation of Gyeoremal-keunsajeon.” Hosted virtually in both Seoul and Paris, Feb. 22-23, 2021

This literature review explores the issues surrounding the integration of language and content specifically in second language immersion classrooms. It explores the struggles immersion teachers face to integrate language and content due to the persistent idea that immersion programs offer second language proficiency as an added, incidental benefit of content instruction in a second language. Teachers also face challenges due to their perceptions of themselves as content versus language teachers and the push for accountability in the United States for English and content-area proficiency which ignores multilingualism. Sheltered instruction in English as a second language (ESL) contexts faces similar challenges. Therefore, in order to help students attain proficiency in both language and content areas, teachers must focus specifically on language through curricular planning, comprehensible input and output, and repeated linguistic practice at increasingly challenging levels. Teachers must see themselves as both content and language teachers, and more research needs to bridge the gap between immersion and ESL contexts.

2015 Trends and Supports on French Immersion and Bilingual Education. A Report of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy to the United States.

French dual language programs in the United States take on many shapes and forms to answer the needs of the community. The two dominant trends in program creation are state-led initiatives and grassroots initiatives.

The amazing benefits of a dual language education speak for themselves, and the growing body of research on bilingualism confirms the lasting impact that these immersion programs will have for generations to come. Dual language programs prepare students for a successful intellectual, multicultural and global future.

Fluency in French opens many doors to students throughout their academic professional careers. From the very foundation of the United States, France the United States have shared strong ties. These historical bonds have proven robust over the years and continue to unite both countries in front of major global challenges. A testament to this close relation is the fact that 9 million Americans claim French ancestry and that French is currently spoken by 1.3 million people at home in the United States. French is also the second most commonly taught language in American schools after Spanish with over 1,2 million students.

The French Embassy has taken and can take on many roles to help support and expand opportunities to learn French in schools across the United States. Below are some ways we can support you in starting and developing your program.

El presente artículo pretende aportar algunos elementos de reflexión en torno a las iniciativas de enseñanza/aprendizaje del mapudungun observadas a lo largo de una investigación etnográfica de larga duración.
Un primer acercamiento nos permitirá comprender el contexto sociolingüístico actual en el cual se enseña el mapudungun a un público adulto en Santiago de Chile.
En segundo lugar, podremos analizar las dinámicas de enseñanza/aprendizaje puestas en marcha para formar neo-hablantes (Bert y Grinevald, 2010) de esta lengua al interior de un movimiento más amplio de «revitalización» (Hinton y Hale, 2001). En este contexto, se han ido creando proposiciones desde las bases para la creación de políticas y planificación lingüísticas de esta lengua indígena.
Para finalizar, analizaremos algunas proposiciones desde el plano de las didácticas de lenguas que pretenden entregar nuevas pautas para apoyar el proceso de aprendizaje y de revitalización del mapudungun.

Alejandra Vergara. 11/2016. "Aprender lenguas indígenas hoy en día: el caso del mapudungun en Santiago de Chile ; entre revitalización, enseñanza/aprendizaje y transmisión familiar. ".
La Clé des Langues (Lyon: ENS LYON/DGESCO). ISSN 2107-7029. Mis à jour le 8 décembre 2016.
Url : http://cle.ens-lyon.fr/langue-et-langues-+-/aprender-lenguas-indigenas-hoy-en-dia-el-caso-del-mapudungun-en-santiago-de-chile-entre-revitalizacion-ensenanza-aprendizaje-y-transmision-familiar--325260.kjsp

In this article, the author describes her experiences as a North American student in a six-month intensive Breton language program in Brittany. Topics include choosing the right program, the application process, obtaining a long-term stay French visa, finding housing, the different stages of the language immersion program, the dialect focus of the program, the internships, the instructors, the students, and everyday life during the program.

This paper discusses two assessments designed to evaluate the progress of students in the Kaqchikel immersion program at Nimaläj Kaqchikel Amaq'. Picture-naming production and comprehension tasks were used to test for proficiency in phonology and morphology as well as lexical acquisition. The tests targeted basic contrasts which are important to Kaqchikel grammatical structure. While students are still struggling with many aspects of the language such as the phonology and positional verbs, many are able to understand and use singular vs. plural intransitive verb morphology. Results are being used to improve the program and inform future methodological and curricular decisions.

The Development of L2 Proficiency and Literacy is examined through a systematic review of pre-/post- program proficiency test results across languages (Arabic, Chinese, Russian and other LCTLs), levels of study (ranging from early-stage, intermediate and advanced-level learners,  and program durations: summer, semester and academic year.  Subjects (N = 600) range in age 15 to 23.  Among the most notable areas of language gain are year-long program targeting early- (NSLI-Y) and late-stage (Flagship) learners, although results of the summer intensive programs (e.g., NSLI-Y, CLS, and Fulbright-Hays) demonstrate higher mean gains across languages than previously reported in the literature.

La première section de ce rapport de recherche présente les objectifs de l’étude. Elle est suivie par une brève définition de ce qu’est l’immersion en français au Canada de même que par un état de la situation du décrochage enseignant au Canada. Une revue de la littérature est ensuite présentée afin de bien comprendre pourquoi, selon d’autres études réalisées en Amérique du Nord ou ailleurs, les enseignants quittent la profession au cours de leurs premières années de pratique. Puis suit la méthodologie de recherche qui explique comment il a été possible de trouver des réponses aux questions de cet important projet d’enquête. Les résultats de l’étude sont ensuite présentés. Ces derniers sont regroupés en deux principaux points : la présentation et l’analyse des données statistiques de l’enquête, composée principalement de statistiques descriptives et inférentielles; puis la présentation et l’analyse des données qualitatives. La conclusion de ce rapport comprend à la fois des recommandations pour le milieu scolaire et des pistes de recherches futures qui constituent ce qu’il n’a pas – encore – été possible de faire dans cet ambitieux projet.

ABSTRACT English-medium academic publications concerning bilingual education (BE) in China, which involves using a foreign language (usually English) to teach part of the subject matter of non-language subject(s), are emerging. This paper aims to clarify some misleading information and to challenge a number of viewpoints arising from these publications. It proposes Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) as a more accurate label than immersion for the most widely used Chinese-English BE model, takes issue with the claim that there is no sign suggesting the strong popularity of BE will dissipate in the foreseeable future, and challenges the evidence used in a discussion of driving forces behind the BE "craze". It concludes with some suggestions for future research, such as identifying good practices of CLIL.

Parent involvement in schools is often developed through one-way, deficit-oriented relationships, where information flows from schools to families and parents are perceived to lack some capacity or knowledge. However, little is known about the conditions facing Spanish-speaking families at Spanish language immersion schools, which presumably might employ fewer deficit perspectives due to the language and culture focus of their educational model. In turn, this study asked: How does school climate discourse shape Spanish-speaking parents' abilities to engage at a Spanish immersion elementary school (SIES)? Do parents enact relational power at SIES, and if so, how? Data analysis centered on school climate surveys completed by 19 Spanish-speaking mothers. Framed by Ecologies of Parental Engagement (EPE) and Foucault's concepts of power, the study ultimately examined not only parent perceptions, but also the research project and its own deficit-driven norms. Findings include: While parents reported trusting the school and teachers, many felt discouraged in

Since the publication and wide dissemination of Mark Prensky’s (2001a, b) articles, the term “digital natives” contrasted with “digital immigrants” has become a de facto trope in educational technology literature and debates.  It is clear that those who grow up with technology are far more comfortable with it and learn it more quickly; it is equally undeniable that today’s student body is vastly different than the one our systems were designed to educate.
However, as numerous practitioners have observed and several scholars have documented, the natives vs. immigrants distinction is based primarily on claims without evidence, and thus may be a false dichotomy.  Further, the delineation isn’t as neat and clear as when first proposed, since some technological commonalities transcend the dichotomy while other purported distinctions aren’t as clear.  So although much rhetorical effort has been contributed in the blogosphere critiquing or defending the characterizations, empirical and sustained critique has been minimal and impartial objective analysis is next to impossible. 
This presentation proposes a new angle on the issue, in hopes of finding a more robust and viable approach to technology integration processes.  Following the logic of Prensky’s argument without the unsubstantiated baggage, and co-opting the concept of “immersion,” this research argues that technology is a language which can come with innate predisposition (ala Nativist theory) or be learned, and that the ease with which one becomes acclimated to it closely follows the principles outlined in the literature of “second language acquisition” (SLA).
This approach sustains the concepts that even critics seem to agree on, rejects the claims that aren’t as clear-cut, and provides a better explanation for adoption challenges and resistance than the presumptive logic of behaviorism and the generational appellations that echo it.  There is also a sizeable body of literature on SLA (for example, Chomsky, Vygotsky, Bruner, etc.), which provides clear assimilation models and teaching methods which could serve well the challenges we face with technology adoption in higher education.

In recent years, early language learning has become increasingly popular in Germany. However, there are no uniform guidelines as to the implementation of immersion programs; consequently, school officials seeking to set up an immersion program are confronted with the difficult task to plan and implement their ideas. This paper gives an overview of important issues and strategies to consider when establishing a language immersion program. After providing a definition of the concept of immersion teaching, the article turns to important aspects of practical impementation and addresses a number of issue such as logistical considerations, choice of immersion language, teacher recruitment and parent participation. The implication is to plan comprehensively and to follow established best practices when starting an immersion program.
(Language of chapter: German.)

This paper tackles the important question of practitioner engagement and is the first to present an overview of relevant Gaelic medium education (GME) research. Following the formal inception in 1985, GME is now more widely available across Scotland. An overview of GME is presented and situates provision within the other Celtic minority languages of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. While considerable achievements have been achieved in the provision of GME, it does mean that researchers have had a finite number of teachers to work with. Given the well-known difficulties of conducting research in applied settings, the noteworthy engagement and participation suggests Gaelic medium teachers are particularly eager to contribute and should be recognised when Gaelic is viewed internationally. The article ends withan outline of potential directions for future work and the scope of research needed to strengthen the developing body of research regarding GME.

In keeping with its initial objective of contributing to reflection on the legal and social management of languages and its commitment to the Catalan language, the Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law has decided to publish a monograph issue on languages and education that goes beyond mere circumstantial reflection and provides thought-provoking ideas and guidelines for action in a context of stress for the current linguistic conjunction model. This is the issue that we are now offering you and, while it is not exhaustive, it combines an entire series of hot topics that may be useful to both agents and researchers. It is an interdisciplinary monograph issue with broad participation of young authors, which explores some of the challenges of the linguistic conjunction model from different perspectives and with very different voices.

Vuonna 1987 Vaasassa alkanut ruotsin kielen kielikylpyopetus on kahdessakymmenessä vuodessa saavuttanut suuren suosion ja levinnyt eri puolille rannikkosuomea. Ensimmäisen kymmenen vuoden aikana kartoitettiin kielikylpylasten taustoja lähinnä ryhmittäin tutkimusprojektien taustatiedoiksi. Nämä tiedot koottiin ensimmäiseksi
valtakunnalliseksi kartoitukseksi 1990-luvun alkupuolella. Kielikylpyopetuksen tarjonta on siitä lähtien tasaisesti kasvanut sekä paikallisesti että laajentunut entistä useammalle paikkakunnalle. Tämä raportti selvittää 2000-luvun alun kielikylpyperheitä käsittelevän valtakunnallisen kielikylpykartoituksen tuloksia.

The state language of the Republic of Estonia is the Estonian language, with all the official procedures, documentation and paperwork conducted in the state language. At the state level there are requirements to the state language proficiency for employment: for instance the education sector requires the state language proficiency at the level from B2 to C1. At the same time the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia comprises about 30% of the population. In Estonia there are Estonian-medium and Russian-medium kindergartens and basic schools, education at the upper-secondary school level is Estonian-medium either fully or partially (taking up 60% of the instructional time). Due to the complicated situation with the Estonian language proficiency of alumni of the Russian-medium schools at the end of the 1990s, the Ministry of Education and Research made a decision to launch the language immersion program in November 1998. That decision was the beginning of the wholesale and systematic approach to Estonian language teaching and learning, which was, and still is, based on the needs of society. The first forms of the total early language immersion were opened in 2000, followed by late language immersion classrooms. The Language Immersion Centre that deals with coordination and methodological development of the program was opened also in 2000. The first kindergarten groups of total early language immersion were opened in 2003. The success of the total early language immersion model lay in a number of factors: it was a state program from the very beginning, it was thoroughly planned and prepared and it had a clear social message of integration. The program developed and underwent changes responding to updates in the needs of society: to address parents' concerns for the development of the children's mother tongue and to cope with the lack of teaching, the partial language immersion model was launched in kindergartens in 2008; the two-way language immersion model was introduced at the preschool level in 2015 to offer all children, both Estonian and Russian speakers, equal access to possibilities for early multilingualism and to respond to the recent changes in the labour market that indicated the growing need for Russian language proficiency. There is also a growing interest towards language immersion from the side of the Estonian-medium school, which recognizes the immersion experience as valuable in the situation of working with children from families of refugees and asylum seekers. Thus the future seems to be the multilingual school using the best of immersion and CLIL methodology and experience.

The Language Centre is organizing this symposium in order to stimulate reflection on best practice in intensive language teaching and learning, with a particular eye to curriculum design, teaching methods, efficacy, and effects on motivation in this and similar contexts. Are “intensive” language programs as effective as traditional “extensive” language courses in terms of fostering language acquisition? How and when can intensive courses best be organized? Which pedagogical approaches are the most effective for an intensive course? How do teachers and students perceive intensive courses in comparison to extensive courses? The symposium aims to stimulate discussion on these and other questions by bringing together university language instructors and researchers in order to share and explore approaches, methods, and practices which have emerged within diverse contexts of intensive language teaching and learning.

Early total immersion in Swedish is provided in eleven communes in Finland. The learning results are in general excellent, but immersion teachers, headmasters and education authorities also report that grammatical accuracy is a major problem for Finnish immersion students. Regardless of this, in-depth studies about the development of the grammatical competence have not previously been made in Finland.

My study concentrates on how 15-year-old Finnish-speaking immersion students from all regions in Finland having immersion schools (Ostrobothnia, Southwest Finland and Uusimaa, n=87) master complex Swedish NPs compared to non-immersion students (n=50). The material consists of a multiple choice test concentrating on both phrases with complex form (particularly definite NPs with adjective attributes) and phrases with an opaque relationship between form and meaning (cf. DeKeyser 2005). There is a multitude of studies in other countries showing that immersion students generally do better than non-immersion students (e.g. Lyster 2007) because of the early starting age, rich input and the meaningful interaction the immersion provides. Previous Swedish studies, though, have shown that the NPs are difficult for even high-level (non-immersion) learners of L2-Swedish (e.g. Hyltenstam 1992). It is thus interesting to explore how Finnish-speaking immersion students master these at the end of the immersion. Furthermore, Swedish NPs are especially difficult for L2-learners who have a L1 that lacks morphological definiteness, such as Finnish (e.g. Axelsson 1994).

Firstly, I will analyse the data from the point of view of context-related difficulty to explore whether the immersion method favours the acquisition of certain structures. Secondly, I will analyse the problematic structures from the point of view of feature-related difficulty to study the inherent properties (e.g. saliency, frequency and complexity; Goldschneider & DeKeyser 2005) making certain NPs especially difficult. (See Housen & Simoens 2016.) My presentation summarises the results from these analyses and their implications.
Literature
Axelsson, M. (1994). Noun phrase development in Swedish as a second language. A study of adult learners’ acquiring definiteness and the semantics and morphology of adjectives. Stockholm: Stockholm University Centre for Research and Bilingualism.
DeKeyser, R. (2005). What Makes Learning Second Language Grammar Difficult? A Review of Issues. Language Learning 55(S1), 1–25.
Goldschneider, J. & DeKeyser, R. (2005). Explaining the ”Natural” Order of L2 Morpheme Acquisition in English: A Meta-analysis of Multiple Determinants. Language Learning 55(S1), 27–77.
Housen, A. & Simoens H. (2016). Introduction: Cognitive Perspectives on Difficulty and Complexity in L2 Acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 38(2), 163–175.
Hyltenstam, K. (1992). Non-native Features of Near-native Speakers. On the Ultimate Attainment of Childhood L2 learners. In Harris, R. (Ed.), Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals (pp. 351–368). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.
Lyster, R. 2007: Learning and teaching languages through content: A counterbalanced approach. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

The current study presents a project in which a bilingual pre-school teacher in Finland worked bilingually in Finnish and in Swedish with a class of Finnish-speaking monolingual children. The data consist of video-recorded observations of the teacher interacting with the children and interviews where she reflected on her bilingual practices. The results show that the bilingual practices relied on responsible code-switching with pre-planned principles for language use and allocation. An important principle in the teacher’s language practices was the equal use of the two languages and the avoidance of direct translation between them. The teacher further used the two languages for different purposes. She used Finnish to give complex and important instructions and to initiate discussion. Swedish was used when giving shorter instructions and in routines, to talk about concrete and observable objects and to engage children in activities. The teacher also employed scaffolding strategies to help the children understand their second language.

Adults are notoriously poor second-language (L2) learners. A context that enables successful L2 acquisition is language immersion. In this study, we investigated the effects of immersion learning for a group of university students studying abroad in Spain. Our interest was in the effect of immersion on the native language (L1), English. We tested the hypothesis that immersion benefits L2 learning as a result of attenuated influence of the L1. Participants were English-speaking learners of Spanish who were either immersed in Spanish while living in Spain or exposed to Spanish in the classroom only. Performance on both comprehension and production tasks showed that immersed learners outperformed their classroom counterparts with respect to L2 proficiency. However, the results also revealed that immersed learners had reduced L1 access. The pattern of data is most consistent with the interpretation that the L1 was inhibited while the learners were immersed.

The aim of this paper is to analyse some aspects of development of Basque as a second language (L2) in children for whom Spanish is their first language (L1) who attended immersion school in Basque in a Spanish-speaking sociolinguistic context. Data consist of oral story retellings produced in a classroom setting where the same children participated at ages 5, 8 and 11. Another group of children for whom Basque was the L1 and who lived in a strong Basque-speaking environment also took part in the study. Two aspects are analysed in the stories: lexical difficulties and the production of text organisers. According to the results, the Basque L2 children seemed to have acquired a linguistic competence quite comparable to L1 capacity: the lexical aspects studied show a clear development in L2, since lexical gaps were frequent at age 5, diminished at age 8 and were practically non-existent at age 11. The production of text organisers also shows a clear developmental pattern and, with increasing age, the children produced a higher variety of text organisers, providing precise temporal links to different segments of the story. It is concluded that Basque immersion seems to foster the development of Basque L2 in contexts where the use of Basque is quite reduced.

While immersion research is a well-established field, few studies have been conducted on immersion programs in Central America. This paper considers the perspectives of students, teachers, and the researcher on the teaching and learning of English in an immersion program in Honduras. Research in bilingual education has identified the importance of including the perspective of both students (Hamacher, 2007)
and researchers (Schulz, 1996). Through the use of Richardson and St. Pierre’s (2008) model of crystallization, these perspectives were considered in order to further illuminate
aspects of the teaching and learning of English at The Pines Bilingual School in Honduras. As part of a larger study, data were collected through written reflections, focus group and
individual interviews, classroom observations, and a research log. An inductive analysis revealed two complementary themes: students’ language use inside of the classroom and
students’ language use outside of the classroom. The perspectives on each theme were compared to relevant research in the field of immersion education and then key implications for practice were explored.