Teaching and Learning Chinese through Immersion: A Case Study from the North American Context

Abstract

With the promise of achieving bilingualism, biliteracy, and cultural pluralism, Chinese immersion programs for students from kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12) in North America, especially the US, have been proliferating in the past two decades. Research on this rapidly growing population of non-native Chinese learners is also growing. This research synthesis focuses on 35 selected studies published in recent years on Chinese immersion in both Chinese and English language journals and books. The review found that researchers are exploring a wide range of issues with respect to language and literacy development in Chinese immersion programs, including academic achievement in English, language and literacy acquisition in Chinese, instructional strategies and classroom interaction, as well as learners’ language use and its sociolinguistic variations. These studies reflect a growing interest in and demand for learning more about the lesser-researched Chinese foreign language (CFL) learner population, and this review concludes with suggestions for future research on Chinese immersion based on its curricular features as well as specific considerations for conducting research with young, emergent bilingual and biliterate learners.