Immersion Education

Practices, Policies, Possibilities

Edited by Dr. Diane J. Tedick, Donna Christian, Dr. Tara Williams Fortune

Publication date:

05 July 2011

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781847694034

This volume builds on Fortune and Tedick’s 2008 Pathways to Multilingualism: Evolving Perspectives on Immersion Education and 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 programs. Contributors present new research and reflect on possibilities for strengthening practices and policies in immersion education. Questions explored include: What possibilities for program design exist in charter programs for both two-way and indigenous models? How do studies on learner outcomes lead to possibilities for improvements in program implementation? How do existing policies and practices affect struggling immersion learners and what possibilities can be imagined to better serve such learners? In addressing such questions, the volume invites readers to consider the possibilities of immersion education to enrich the language development and educational achievement of future generations of learners.

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 Kamanā: Insights from Indigenous Language Immersion in Hawaiʻi: The Case of Nāwahī 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

This collection of cutting-edge research into different immersion contexts and student types around the globe - many of which the field has never read about before - will be of interest not only to researchers, but also to parents, teachers, administrators, program evaluators, and community members. Kudos to the editors for a fascinating compilation.