The Processes of Teaching Languages to Sixth Grade Students in an International Immersion School in a Midwestern City, U.S.A

Faisal S Alzahrani

doi:10.53935/2641-533x.v3i2.141

Abstract

This paper examines the teaching strategies used in an international immersion school in a Midwestern city in the U.S.A. A good number of teaching strategies are highlighted in literature review to provide context for this particular study. The immersion program is considered a teaching strategy and an additional name for bilingual schools in which students learn through a second language’s environment with the purpose of developing proficiency in two languages. The significance of this study is that students in immersion schools should have the same quality of education as their peers have in public schools. The participants in this study used the cognate, cooperative, structural strategies and other strategies in teaching the second language itself or when teaching subjects in the students’ second language. This study is a basic qualitative research and the data was collected though observations and interviews. The data was analyzed by using the ground theory approach. This study shows that immersion schools help students to achieve their second language acquisition and help them in the future to have the ability to access different languages of curriculum. Because the school is under development, this is one limitation that is presented in this study.

Highlights

Introduction and RationaleBilingualism is an important topic globally
How do sixth grade students acquire their second language in the immersion program? This paper introduced briefly some previous studies about the differences between students in immersion schools and regular schools, second language teaching methodologies, and motivation
Students in immersion schools have different characteristics than other students in regular education, and fourthly, there is a question about which teaching strategies are most usable in immersion school classrooms

Summary

Introduction

Bilingualism exists in every country around the world, regardless of social class or age. A great many young children live in bilingual or multilingual environments (Grosjean, 1982). Establishing a solid bilingual program in these sorts of environments is crucial. Research confirms that students benefit from bilingual education or immersion programs (Cummins, 2009; Cummins, 2007). There are approximately 5000 languages spoken in the world and two thirds of all children in the world grow up in a bilingual or multilingual environment (Cummins, 2009). Increasing bilingualism in a society, region or country can have numerous benefits educationally, economically, and socially. Cummins (2009) describes bilingual education by saying that a bilingual program is a program that uses two or more languages in instruction, and is used to teach subject matter or materials rather than merely teaching the languages themselves

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