Immersion Education Practices, Policies, Possibilities

by Tedick, Diane J.; Christian, Donna; Fortune, Tara Williams

• ISBN13: 9781847694027
• ISBN10: 1847694020
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-05
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Summary

This volume showcases the practice and promise of immersion education through in-depth investigations of program design, implementation practices, and policies in one-way, two-way and indigenous immersion programs. Contributors present new research and reflect on possibilities for strengthening practices and policies in immersion education to increase programmatic impact and promote higher levels of language proficiency and literacy among learners.

Author Biography

Diane Tedick is Associate Professor of Second Languages and Cultures Education at the University of Minnesota. For over 20 years she has worked in the preparation of preservice teachers and ongoing professional development of inservice teachers representing a variety of language teaching contexts: immersion and bilingual programs, world languages, and ESL. Her professional and research interests focus on the pedagogy required for successful integration of language and content instruction, student oral language proficiency development in immersion programs, and language teacher development.Donna Christian is a senior fellow at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC (www.cal.org). Her work focuses on the role of language in education and society, with special interests in dual language education, second language learning, dialect diversity, and public policy.Tara Williams Fortune is an Immersion Teaching Specialist and Coordinator of the Immersion Projects at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota. She is founding editor of The American Council on Immersion Education (ACIE) Newsletter, a publication written for and by immersion practitioners that is currently in its 14th year of dissemination. Her professional and research interests focus on struggling immersion learners, K-8 oral proficiency development of immersion students, and language and literacy development in early total Chinese immersion programs.

Table of Contents

Merrill Swain: Foreword

Diane J. Tedick, Donna Christian and Tara Williams Fortune: Acknowledgements Introduction to the Volume

Diane J. Tedick, Donna Christian and Tara Williams Fortune: The Future of Immersion Education: An Invitation to ‘Dwell in Possibility'

Section I: Practices in Immersion Program Design

Siv Björklund and Karita Mård-Miettinen: Integrating Multiple Languages in Immersion: Swedish Immersion in Finland

William H. Wilson and Kauanoe Kamana: Insights from Indigenous Language Immersion in Hawai?i: The Case of Nawahi School

Gareth Diaz Zehrbach: Two-Way Immersion Charter Schools: An Analysis of Program Characteristics and Student Body Compositions

Section II: Program Outcomes and Implications for Practice

Kathryn Lindholm-Leary: Student Outcomes in Chinese Two-Way Immersion Programs: Language Proficiency, Academic Achievement, and Student Attitudes

Ester J. de Jong and Carol I. Bearse: The Same Outcomes for All? High School Students Reflect on Their Two-Way Immersion Program Experiences

Sandra Burger, Alysse Weinberg, Carla Hall, Parvin Movassat, and Amelia Hope: French Immersion Studies at the University of Ottawa: Program Evaluation and Pedagogical Challenges

Section III: Language Use and Assessment Practices in Immersion Programs

Pádraig Ó Duibhir: ‘I thought that we had good Irish': Irish Immersion Students' Insights into Their Target Language Use

Maggie Broner and Diane J. Tedick: Talking in the 5th Grade Classroom: Language Use in an Early, Total Spanish Immersion Program

Lizette Peter, Gloria Sly and Tracy Hirata-Edds: Using Language Assessment to Inform Instruction in Indigenous Language Immersion

Section IV: Policy and Practice in Immersion Education

Philip Hoare: Context and Constraints: Immersion in Hong Kong and Mainland China

Lisa Dorner: US Immigrants and Two-Way Immersion Policies: The Mismatch between District Designs and Family Experiences

Tara Williams Fortune: Struggling Learners and the Language Immersion Classroom

Concluding Synthesis Chapter for the Volume Fred Genesee: Reflecting on Possibilities for Immersion