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Elementary and
Secondary Levels
U.S. Elementary and Secondary Immersion Survey
In 1994 a questionnaire
was mailed to 140 immersion schools in the U.S. to collect
information on a number of key program dimensions including:
- demographics
- program structure
- hours of instruction in the target vs. native languages
- articulation
- language and cultural background of students/administrators/faculty/staff
- estimated language proficiency of administrators/faculty/staff
- parental support
- use of aides
- who teaches English
- social and academic language use
- tests and curricular materials
- professional development
- assessment
- program evaluation
The results of this
survey are available in:
Fortune, T., & Jorstad, H. L. (1996).
U.S. Immersion Programs: A National Survey. Foreign
Language Annals, 29, (2), 163-190.
Language Use and Acquisition in an Elementary Spanish Immersion
Program in a Large Midwestern City
Research conducted
in a fifth-grade classroom looked at these primary research
questions:
- what languages are used by students in immersion classrooms
for academic and non-academic topics?
- how do students use the irregular preterite in Spanish?
- how much vernacular vocabulary in English or Spanish is
used by students when conversing in the classroom on academic
or non-academic topics?
- what factors are related to the language choices made
in 1 and 3 above?
A dissertation based
on the data collected was completed in 2000. In February 2001
this dissertation was also published as CARLA Working Paper
#18, "Impact
of Interlocutor and Task on First and Second Language Use
in a Spanish Immersion Program", By Maggie A Broner.
An overview
of this research was published in the ACIE Newsletter, June
2000.
Getting the Big Picture of Language Immersion Education
by Working with Teachers on a Micro Level
The purpose of this
study was to enlist practitioners in language immersion programs
in the identification and elaboration of issues and challenges
in immersion language teaching. Through focus groups and extensive
individual interviews, six elementary Spanish language immersion
teachers in three school settings (a suburban full immersion
school and two inner-city magnet programs, one partial and
one full immersion) served as informants. Five major themes
emerged: the primacy of language, the balance between language
and content, the spectrum of learners in immersion programs,
and the sociopolitical context of immersion schooling. Within
each of those themes teachers describe the particular challenges
of immersion teaching, and illuminate the complexity of immersion
classrooms on a micro level. In a complex setting where the
learning of curricular content and second language acquisition
are expected to develop concurrently, teachers are in a unique
position to add to our knowledge of immersion schooling.
A Research
Synopsis (PDF) (requires Acrobat®
Reader) is available from this site that briefly summarizes
this research conducted by Constance L. Walker and Diane J.
Tedick at University of Minnesota as part of a research project
of the National Language Resource Center at CARLA. An article
on this research written by Walker and Tedick is included
in the Modern Language Journal, Volume 84, Number 1.
The synopsis is excerpted from a presentation made by the
authors at the University of Minnesota in November 1999.
Developing Content Curriculum for Language Immersion Education:
A Group Studies Abroad Project to Develop Science Curriculum
for U.S. Spanish Immersion Programs
With support from
the USDE Fulbright-Hays Group Study Abroad Program, a group
of Spanish teachers, under the direction of Professors Diane
Tedick and Constance Walker at the University of Minnesota,
traveled to Ecuador in July 1999 to study issues of biodiversity
and environmental protection in Spanish. Based on their research,
the immersion teachers worked together with the project leaders
to create a high quality science curriculum for use in Spanish
immersion programs around the country.
The objectives
of the project included:
- the development of Spanish-language science curriculum
by immersion language teachers for use in instructional
settings at levels K-8; and
- dissemination of curricular materials to teachers
and schools in the United States which offer Spanish-language
immersion education or bilingual education programs.
The project leaders
worked with a group called CIMAS (Centro de Investigaciones
en Medio Ambiente y Salud) in Quito, Ecuador. CIMAS is well-known
for its work with the Minnesota Studies in International Development
(MSID) through the Learning
Abroad Center at the University of Minnesota.
In July 2002, the
curriculum guide was published as CARLA working paper #22
Bringing
the Biodiversity of Ecuador to Spanish Immersion Classrooms
by Diane J. Tedick and Constance Walker with Spanish Immersion
Teachers. This unique Spanish-language science curriculum
is tailored for K-8 immersion classrooms.
An overview
of this project was published in the ACIE Newsletter,
December 1999.
Learning Language in a Non-school Environment: The Case
of the Language Immersion Village
One approach to
enhancing language learning is the language camp or "village"
experience. The rationale for promoting such programs is that
they may be uniquely structured to allow for the development
of different kinds of language because they provide more than
classrooms in the woods. Rather, they are intended to offer
a residential, mini-village experience in an alternative setting/context,
as well as putting emphasis on alternative instructional practices.
The issue for research, then, is to explore the similarities
and differences between such language villages and an immersion
school experience, and ideally to identify what is unique
about the language village setting as a language/culture learning
program.
The research that
is being envisioned would identify one language camp program
that has a strong track record for providing language skills
for learners, and proceed to conduct a rigorous study intended
to identify what contributes to language acquisition. The
ultimate goal would be to apply insights from studying this
special environment to teacher education and to further enhancing
current language classroom situations.
A full
overview (.doc) of this research project is available.
Expressing Cognitive Operations Through the Language of
Immersion
This research aimed
to promote the development of more complex academic language
and linguistic structures by giving immersion students the
opportunity to enhance their inner voice in that language.
Since the development of L2 inner voice in elementary immersion
students has not been investigated to any extent, this study
set out to determine how the enhancement of the students L2
inner voice in the immersion classroom might influence linguistic
knowledge and the ability to comprehend and produce language.
It was posited that it might be possible to stimulate increased
use of the immersion language by students while also enhancing
the academic vocabulary and grammatical structure of the language
that they use for specific tasks. More specifically, the pedagogical
intervention included: (1) modeling by the teacher and the
research assistant (RA) in the use of Spanish academic language
to solve problems in science and history, and (2) supporting
the students in developing their own L2 inner voice in Spanish
through modeling and follow up activities.
A full report of
the research has been published as a CARLA Working Paper and
is available as a PDF document. (Requires Adobe
Reader)
Enhancing
Academic Language Proficiency in a Fifth-Grade Spanish Immersion
Classroom
by Andrew D. Cohen & Tania Gómez
CARLA Working Paper Series Technical Report · September
2004
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