Language immersion education has emerged as a uniquely constituted, highly effective program model for launching students on the road to bilingualism, multilingualism and intercultural competence. School-based immersion programs follow a variety of paths, including one-way foreign language immersion, two-way bilingual immersion, and indigenous immersion for language and culture revitalization. While each pathway targets distinct socio-cultural contexts and educational needs, all are grounded in a set of core characteristics with a strong focus on subject matter learning as well as language development. (Read more about how conference organizers further define immersion program models based on the literature.)

Under the leadership of two national centers in the U.S., CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota) and CAL (Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, D.C.), this third international conference on immersion education brings these various immersion pathways together to engage in meaningful dialogue and professional exchange across languages, levels, learner audiences, program models and sociopolitical contexts.

The conference is organized around four overarching themes:

I.	Immersion Pedagogy
II.	Culture and Identity
III.	Policy and Advocacy
IV.	Program Design and Evaluation

Conference Sponsors:

The conference is sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) and the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). The conference is also supported by Minnesota Advocates for Immersion Network and the following University of Minnesota co-sponsors: College of Education and Human Development; College of Liberal Arts; Office of International Programs; Center for German and European Studies; China Center; Institute for Global Studies; Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Second Languages and Cultures Education; Department of French and Italian; Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch; and Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies.

Conference Planning Committee:

Iran Amin (Montgomery County Public Schools), Nicole S. Boudreaux (Lafayette Parish Foreign Language Immersion Programs), Donna Christian–Co-Chair (CAL), Maureen Curran Dorsano (Normandale Elementary French Immersion School), Diane Dagenais (Université Simon Fraser/Simon Fraser University), Tara Fortune–Co-Chair (University of Minnesota - CARLA), Mary Hermes (University of Minnesota-Duluth), Mandy R. Menke (University of Minnesota), Kimerly Miller (CARLA), Julie Sugarman (CAL), Diane Tedick (University of Minnesota), Luis Versalles (Richfield Public Schools)