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Types of Immersion Education:
An Introduction
The ACIE Newsletter, February 1998, Vol.
1, No. 2
By Jack Brondum and Nancy Stenson, Parents,
Emerson Spanish Immersion Learning Center,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Immersion education can take a number of forms. These vary
according to the amount of the second language used per day,
when the second language is introduced, whether a third language
is used as well, and whether students come from one of two
native-language backgrounds.
The original model of immersion used in Canada and later
in the United States is called full (or total) immersion.
It is still in wide use today. Typically, students starting
a full immersion program are all English speakers. In a K-5
or K-6 elementary school, 100 percent of instruction is in
the immersion language in Grades K and 1. Children learn to
read in this language first. The amount of immersion instruction
then drops to 80 percent in Grade 2 with the addition of English
language arts, and continues to drop gradually to about 50
percent by Grade 5 or 6.
Another well known model is partial immersion. Here, less
than 100 percent of instruction (usually about 50 percent)
is pro-vided in the immersion language. This percent remains
constant throughout elementary school. Reading is taught in
both the first and the second language. When feasible, each
class has two teachers: one teaches in the first language
and the other teaches in the second. As with full immersion,
students are usually all native English speakers.
A third type of immersion is double immersion - essentially
a full immersion program with instruction in two non-native
languages. One example of double immersion is the French-Hebrew
program in Montreal, Canada.
All three of these models generally begin exposure to the
new language or languages in the earliest years of elementary
school. However, some programs start later, providing formal
instruction early on, followed by two years of 100 percent
immersion in Grades 3 and 4 or later. For a given type of
immersion, second-language proficiency doesn't appear to be
affected by these variations in timing.
The last type of immersion is called two-way (or dual) immersion.
This model was first developed in Florida's Dade County schools
and is still evolving. Two-way immersion is designed to serve
both English and non-English speakers. The latter group will
usually make up 25 to 50 percent of the student body. Children
from each language group are mixed in the same classroom.
The goals of two-way immersion are for both language groups
to become bilingual, succeed academically, and develop positive
inter-group relations. Two-way immersion programs, as one-way,
differ in the amount of time spent in the two languages per
grade level. In the upper grades, instruction is typically
half in Spanish and half in English. In theory, two-way immersion
allows English speakers to learn Spanish while continuing
to develop their English skills. Spanish speakers learn English
while becoming literate and maintaining oral skills in their
native tongue.
Students from full immersion programs are generally more
proficient in reading, writing, listening, and speaking the
second language than those from partial immersion programs.
Partial immersion students, in turn, are more proficient than
students who are taught the second language in traditional
foreign langu-age classes. Children from well-established
two-way programs appear to have skills most similar to those
of full immersion students.
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