Two‐Way Immersion Education: Students Learning Through Two Languages

Abstract

In a growing number of schools in the U.S., students are learning through two languages in programs that aim to develop dual language proficiency along with academic achievement. These two‐way immersion programs integrate language minority and language majority students and provide content area instruction and language development in two languages. This article provides a picture of the current state of two‐way immersion education in the U.S. based on a study (undertaken between 1991 and 1994) of over 160 schools. Two‐way programs typically share the goals of bilingual proficiency, academic achievement, and positive crosscultural attitudes and behaviors, but they vary a good deal in the approaches and strategies they use to work toward those goals. A host of local factors affect such issues as student enrollment, program design, and instructional features. Emerging results of studies of two‐way immersion programs point to their effectiveness in educating nonnative‐English‐speaking students, their promise of expanding our nation's language resources by conserving the native language (L1) skills of minority students and developing second language (L2) skills in English‐speaking students, and their hope of improving relationships between majority and minority groups by enhancing crosscultural understanding and appreciation.

How deep is your immersion? Policy and practice in Welsh-medium preschools with children from different language backgrounds

“…Lewis (2006) considers the significant international research in the last forty years which has raised a number of important considerations which are of particular relevance to contemporary Welsh-medium education (e.g., Mougeon and Beniak 1989, 1994Long and Porter 1985;Wong Fillmore 1985;1991a;1991b;Ramirez and Merino 1990;Watson 1989;Lambert 1990;Lindholm 1990;Landry and Allard 1991;Christian 1996;Arzamedi and Genesee 1997;Baker 1997;Valdés 1997;Hickey 2001Hickey , 2007and Lasagabaster 2002) The first issue concerns the advantages and disadvantages of teaching L1 (minority) pupils and L2 (majority) pupils in the same class; and the implications of this for both cohorts.…”

Code-Switching Patterns in the Writing-Related Talk of Young Emergent Bilinguals

“…The TWI model aims for a balanced mixture of English-speaking and native-speaking children of another language (in this case, Spanish). The presence of native speakers of both languages provides opportunities for all students to communicate with native-speaker peers of the two target languages (Christian, 1996). The focal program differed from the two major variants of the TWI model with regard to the distribution of languages, as children in this program were initially instructed in their (respective) native or dominant language (L1) for approximately 80% of the time and in the second language (L2) for the remainder of the time.…”

Vers un nouveau profil des enseignants et des enseignantes au primaire en Suisse : bref portrait d’un futur dispositif de formation initiale entièrement bilingue

“…Son concept repose sur l' enseignement par immersion réciproque (Buser, 2014;Lindholm-Leary et Hargett, 2007), c'est-à-dire que le programme s' efforce de promouvoir le bilinguisme ainsi que l'alphabétisation dans les deux langues d' enseignement en plus de la réussite des études pour tous les étudiants (Christian, 1994). L'enseignement sera diffusé pour moitié en français (HEP-BEJUNE) et pour moitié en allemand (PHBern) avec des classes se composant d' étudiants francophones et germanophones.…”