Immersion Classes Research Articles

A Study on the Pedagogical Practices and Effect of Infusing Kanakanavu Arts and Culture into a Preschool Aesthetic Curriculum

<p>本研究採協同行動研究法，探討卡那卡那富族藝術文化融入幼兒園美感課程之教學實踐與成效。研究者帶領教保員規劃文化本位的原住民族美感課程、實施教學、進行觀察與省思、評估課程成效。研究參與者主要為12位三至五歲混齡班原住民族幼兒。資料蒐集包括：課程週誌、課程討論記錄、訪談、美感能力評量前後測、族群認同訪談前後測、教學省思札記等。質性資料以編碼與範疇分析，量化資料以描述性統計、無母數檢定進行分析。研究發現：一、教保員將卡那卡那富族藝術文化融入學習區及老幼共學活動，引導幼兒探索部落自然環境，創作相關藝術作品，並欣賞幼兒自己的作品。二、本課程有助於幼兒提升美感能力以及族群認同。三、透過協同行動研究，教保員在美感教學專業有所成長。</p> <p> </p><p>This study used collaborative action research to investigate the pedagogical practices and effects of incorporating Kanakanavu arts and culture into a preschool aesthetic curriculum. The researcher guided the childcare worker in implementing a cultural-based indigenous aesthetic curriculum within a Kanakanavu language immersion class. This process involved designing, teaching, observing, and reflecting on the new curriculum. The main participants were 12 indigenous children aged 3-5 in a mixed-age class. Data were collected through weekly curriculum journals, curriculum discussion notes, interviews, pre- and post-tests of aesthetic ability, pre- and post-interviews on ethnic identity, and teaching reflection notes. Qualitative data were analyzed through coding and categorization, while quantitative data were examined using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. The findings are as follows. First, the childcare worker effectively integrated Kanakanavu arts and culture into learning areas and intergenerational learning activities. She guided the children in exploring the natural environment in the tribe, creating related artworks, and appreciating their creations. Secondly, the curriculum positively impacted the children, enhancing both their aesthetic abilities and ethnic identity. Thirdly, through collaborative action research, the childcare worker advanced her professional skills in aesthetic teaching.</p> <p> </p>

대학 융합전공의 활성화 방안 연구

The purpose of this study is to analyze the phenomenon of the university's convergence major and to propose implications for revitalizing the convergence major by deriving a development plan. To this end, data were collected through an online survey of students and professors at University A, and priorities were derived by applying the independent sample t-test and The Locus for Focus Model to the collected quantitative data. The main findings are as follows. First, the degree of awareness of convergence majors was higher for professors than for students, and the necessity and expectation for career development help were higher for students than professors. Second, in terms of recognition of the direction of convergence majors, “acquiring convergence knowledge linked to various academic fields and providing opportunities for convergence thinking” was the highest rate for both students and professors. In the direction of convergence major education, “taking several major subjects according to the interest and need of students” for students and “a class that enables convergence thinking” for professors appeared as priorities. Third, for the focus on convergence majors, “class to learn communication and flexibility” for students and “internal motivation immersion class” for professors were the top priority areas. Innovation in class content” was the highest for both students and professors as an innovation factor required when operating convergence majors. Fourth, the demand for effective operation and activation of convergence majors was found to be strengthening interdisciplinary cooperation and strengthening an organization dedicated to convergence education. The results of this study are expected to be used as evidence for the establishment of specific strategies for the development and activation of convergence majors in the field of university convergence education.

Perbedaan Motivasi Belajar dan Prestasi Antara Siswa SMP Kelas Imersi dan Reguler

This study discusses how the implementation of the teaching and learning process with the facilities provided in the immersion and regular classes, the quality of students in the regular and immersion classes, so as to have an influence on student motivation and achievement, as well as what efforts can be provided by guidance and counseling services. on the effect of learning motivation and achievement between immersion and regular class students at the junior high school level. This study uses a qualitative descriptive research method. The research subjects in this study were students at SMP Negeri 1 Rembang with a sample size of 20 students. From the results of the analysis obtained, it can be concluded that the difference between the immersion class and the regular class greatly affects the level of learning motivation and achievement in students, such as there is a higher increase in motivation and interest in learning in the immersion class compared to the regular class after the provision of learning guidance and counseling services. , most of the responses from immersion class students stated that learning guidance and counseling services were able to improve students' academic achievement than regular classes, and in terms of providing class facilities it was different. However, it is possible that the quality of the regular class is also better than the immersion class, so that the regular class students will also have learning motivation and achievements that are not far inferior to the immersion class.

The Immersion Class

The Immersion Class

Returning to the Classroom: an Autoethnography

The following is an autoethnographic description of my participation, as a late-career French professor, in a summer language immersion class in Spain. My initial intention was to improve my Spanish and to assess how I responded to communicative pedagogy. I soon realized, however, that it was more intriguing to explore my L3 and professional identities, as well as the affective consequences of my experience.

Bilingual Ways with Words: Children’s Identity Enactment and Negotiation in a Dual Language Immersion Class

ABSTRACT This qualitative study examines strategies used by children in a kindergarten dual language immersion (DLI) class, when enacting and negotiating intersecting social constructions such as ethnicity, social class, and bilingualism. Drawing on data collected during the 2017–2018 academic year, this paper uses an intersectional lens to describe the ways in which children are actively engaged in sociocultural processes of language use and socialization. In addition, it employs the notions of identity and social class position to analyze how children's bilingual understanding and strategic language use is manifested in different ways. The paper ends by encouraging educators and researchers to reconsider the way they evaluate power at work in educational settings and children’s ways of displaying it. A more nuanced understanding of children’s interactions in bilingual settings is necessary in order to stretch our considerations of power and social relations in present-day school contexts.

L’harmonie de la musique et l’identité linguistique : l’a/r/tographie avec des futurs enseignants

En employant l’a/r/tographie, ce texte tissera le lien entre la musique et l’identité linguistique en éducation. À travers mes expériences en tant qu’enseignante du français au niveau secondaire en milieu minoritaire francophone au Canada et comme professeure à la Faculté d’éducation, j’évoque les possibilités de l’a/r/tographie et les risques de cette méthodologie. Exploiter la musique au moyen de l’a/r/tographie peut susciter un intérêt envers la langue française chez les élèves et les étudiants, pour ensuite contribuer à la valorisation de l’identité francophone. Ce parcours identitaire linguistique raconte la diversité des espaces dynamiques de l’enseignement et le potentiel d’échanges positifs dans ces espaces pour l’identité linguistique des futurs enseignants et des professeurs.

Teachers’ Perceptions on the Factors and Process of Promoting Children’s English Verbal Output in an Immersion Class at a Japanese Kindergarten

Teachers’ Perceptions on the Factors and Process of Promoting Children’s English Verbal Output in an Immersion Class at a Japanese Kindergarten

Teachers Talking in Very Young Learners Immersion Class: How They Did It

<div align="center"><table width="645" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="439"><p><strong>Abstract:</strong> This research aimed to describe the language used by the teachers namely teacher talk in VYL English Immersion class whose students’ age ranges from three to six years old and to describe how the language was used effectively in the class. The results showed that there were four types of teacher talk used frequently to help the teachers teach effectively in the class namely (1) giving directions, (2) giving information, (3) asking questions, and (4) praising and encouraging. Those four talks did not work alone in the class; the teachers also use gesture and demonstration to accompany the talks.</p><p class="Abstract"><strong>Abstrak:</strong><em> </em>Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan tipe-tipe bahasa Inggris yang digunakan guru dalam konteks pengajaran bahasa Inggris pada kelas imersi dengan siswa berusia antara tiga sampai enam tahun dan menjelaskan bagaimana tipe-tipe bahasa tersebut digunakan secara efektif di kelas. Hasilnya, terdapat empat tipe bahasa yang sering digunakan guru untuk menyampaikan materi, yakni (1) pemberian arahan, (2) pemberian informasi, (3) pertanyaan, dan (4) pujian dan dorongan. Keempat tipe bahasa tersebut tidak digunakan secara independen di kelas. Guru juga menggunakan bahasa tubuh serta demonstrasi kegiatan saat menggunakan keempat tipe bahasa tersebut.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div>

When Community Immersion Becomes Distance Learning: Lessons Learned From a Disrupted Semester

Community immersion is an effective way of bringing concepts to life while nursing students are engaged with community members in the real world. Opportunities to apply, observe, and clarify abstract health promotion ideas, including social determinants of health, abound when seen in everyday interactions with individuals outside of an acute care setting. This article details the experiences of a community immersion class as it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and had to transition mid-semester from an in-person course to a virtual format. Lessons learned from this unique experience provide a case for how to minimize disruptions to a health promotion class, maintain existing commitments with different community organizations, and adapt meaningful engagement to community needs during the pandemic.

‘You don’t speak Spanish in the cafeteria’: an intersectional analysis of language and social constructions in a kindergarten dual language immersion class

ABSTRACT Dual language immersion (DLI) programs have emerged in the U.S. as effective ways to bring together language minority and language majority speakers in school settings with the goal of bilingualism and bi-literacy for all. However, the proliferation of these programs has raised concerns regarding issues of inequity and dissimilar power dynamics in these spaces (Cervantes-Soon, 2014, “A Critical Look at Dual Language Immersion in the New Latin@ Diaspora.” Bilingual Research Journal 37 (1): 64–82; Flores, 2016, Do Black Lives matter in Bilingual Education [Web log post]. Accessed May 1, 2017. https://educationallinguist.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/do-black-lives-matter-in-bilingual-education/; Valdes, 1997, “Dual language immersion programs: A cautionary note concerning the education of language-minority students.” Harvard Educational Review 67: 391–430, 2018, “Analyzing the curricularization of language in two-way immersion education: Restating two cautionary notes.” Bilingual Research Journal). With this in mind, this study aims to shed light on the intricate social processes at work in DLI contexts. In particular, this paper examines first, how notions of language use, race, and ethnicity are socially constructed and intersect in DLI settings; and second, it explores how these ideas are discerned and re-shaped by young children into their own social and linguistic norms. Employing qualitative research methods, this year-long ethnographic case study uses the intersectional lens of raciolinguistics (Alim, Rickford & Ball, 2016, Raciolinguistics: how language shapes our ideas about race. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; Rosa & Flores, 2017, “Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective.” Language in Society 46 (5): 621–647), to examine the intricate cross-cutting dynamics at play in bilingual spaces. The exploration of these ideas helps to illuminate the ways in which language practices and interactions are shaped by social constructions from a very early age. Furthermore, it contributes to understandings of social perceptions and relations in multilingual/multicultural/multiethnic contemporary school settings.

Repeated readings and Chinese immersion students’ reading fluency, comprehension and character recognition

Abstract Although reading fluency instruction has been identified as an important literacy focus for English proficient students, little research has examined its role in foreign language settings, and it has not been studied in Chinese immersion education. The current research compared two seventh grade Chinese immersion classes. One class did repeated timed readings in student pairs, while the other class spent more time on comprehension activities. Both groups increased their correct Chinese characters per minute rates over the treatment period, but the repeated readings group outperformed the other group on reading fluency, character recognition, and reading comprehension measures. In addition, the students who engaged in repeated readings were better able to generalize reading fluency gains to new, but related, reading materials; they also reported more confidence and enjoyment when reading Chinese. Suggestions for integrating peer reading fluency procedures into language arts instruction are proposed.

Teachers’ perspectives toward the implementation of bilingual immersion program in Indonesian private schools

This research was to find out teachers’ perspectives of the immersion program. For the mathematics, science and social subject teachers, it could ascertain how teachers cope with new challenges because using English to teach was a professional development experience and also could establish baseline approaches for implementing the immersion program. This study provided a picture of non-English teachers’ perception on implementing an immersion program at SMA Islam Sultan Agung 1 Semarang. The data was obtained from questionnaires and observation. The main challenge facing non-English language teachers was teaching and learning Mathematics, Sciences (Physics, Chemist, and Biology) and Social Subjects (Sociology, Economics, and Geography) in English. The study also showed that there were specific situations when teachers felt frustrated teaching an immersion class. This frustration always relates to lack of English language proficiency. In conclusion, this study shows the lack of English language proficiency is the main challenge faced by non-English language teachers and students in immersion classes at SMA Islam Sultan Agung 1 Semarang.

Nominal and Verbal Agreement in Portuguese: Differential Outcomes of a Focus on Language in a Fourth-Grade Immersion Class

Immersion students' language abilities are generally characterized by strong receptive skills (listening, reading) and less developed productive skills (speaking, writing) when compared with L1 speakers of the immersion language (e.g., Allen et al. 1990; Cummins 1998; Harley 1992). In this paper we report results from a six-month mixed-methods case study of a fourth-grade Portuguese dual language immersion (DLI) classroom that had implemented a focus on language forms through noticing, awareness, and practice activities, with corrective feedback interwoven throughout the process. We discuss the evidence of immersion learners' emerging linguistic and grammatical competence as shown through a written pretest and posttest and pre- and post-interviews. Results indicate that the large majority of these learners do not yet show consistent nominal or verbal agreement in their speech or writing, although signs of improvement were observed during the course of the academic year with regard to nominal agreement. Additionally, we present evidence showing that these students tend to produce an extremely limited range of forms for each verb, with many producing only third person singular forms in the present tense. We end with suggestions on how to help immersion students develop stronger and more accurate productive skills.

Language and Linguistics

Language and Linguistics Orlando R. Kelm In this special issue readers will find articles that are roughly subdivided into two customary divisions: Language and Linguistics, and Literature and Cultural Studies. When a non-specialist hears the phrase "Language and Linguistics" what comes to mind is simply a coarse association with the word "grammar." Those who work in foreign language education know that language and linguistics actually cover a much broader range of specializations. In foreign language education we deal not only with teaching, but we also include knowledge and research about language acquisition. The field becomes even more complex when we consider social factors, such as the learning of heritage speakers, those who are learning a third or fourth language, and adult versus youth learners. The premise behind much of this research is that a better understanding about how languages are acquired makes an important contribution to society. If in society there is an actual need for something, society will find a way to meet that need. In the case of foreign language skills and language learning, the needs are real. In both professional and personal settings, society is enriched when people can communicate in multiple languages. It is within this context that the articles in this volume address a response to this societal need as it relates to Portuguese. Language acquisition research can and should guide our pedagogy. The more we understand first and second language acquisition processes, the more we can modify our teaching practices to coincide with those developments. Bridget Yaden and Eduardo Viana da Silva's contribution, "O papel da proficiência em programas de português como língua estrangeira" exemplifies this type of insight. Traditionally we have seen a disconnect between how we rank and test for proficiency and how we design curriculum and teaching materials. Yaden and Viana da Silva's call is to bring our methods, tasks, and assignments more in line with realistic proficiency objectives. A second area where linguistic-focused research contributes to our understanding of language is when we discover actual usage and variation. In the absence of data, we are often unaware of how languages are used in real-life scenarios. These variations can be based on a host of factors such as dialect, region, education, gender, age, etc. The present contribution by Camila Lívio and Chad Howe provide a superb example of this type of variation, "Intensification in Portuguese: A Cross-dialectal Study of Muito and Bem." Their data present evidence of variation among four varieties of Portuguese, namely Angolan, Brazilian, European, and Mozambican. Their results show that the choice between phrases such as, Maria é bem rica and Maria é muito rica differ from one dialect to another. Lívio and Howe also provide evidence that these configurations differ from similar patterns in Spanish dialects. A third area where linguistic-focused research contributes to our understanding of language is in the effect that one language has on another. For example, one assumes that a Spanish-speaking person who wants to learn Portuguese will have some type of advantage, given the similarities between the two languages. However, research indicates that there are [End Page 459] both advantages and disadvantages. Research also shows that the benefits depend on whether Spanish is a person's native language or their later acquired second language. Jamile Forcelini and Gretchen Sunderman's contribution, "When More is Less: The Effect of a Third Language on a Second Language" deals specifically with these issues. In "Nominal and Verb Agreement in Portuguese: Differential Outcomes of a Focus on Language in a Fourth-Grade Immersion Class," Michael W. Child and Blair E. Batemen address similar issues for Dual Language Immersion programs. They compare the gains among fourth-grade learners of Portuguese in listening and reading as compared to their gains in speaking and writing. Grammatical accuracy in areas such as verb and nominal agreement is one of the great challenges for young language learners. One of the characteristics of dual language learners is to exhibit high general fluency but also still maintain undeveloped accuracy in verb and noun agreement. One final area where society grapples with the need for foreign language learning is to determine the best...

What makes students speak Japanese in immersion programs?

Language immersion programs, which are a form of bilingual education, are shaped by multiple factors, including the specific characteristics of the region, the language, the community and the learners, as well as national and regional policies on language education. While the underdeveloped production skills of immersion students have been identified as the product of teacher-centred and controlled learning environments, it is not known what role background or heritage language students play in the Australian one-way immersion context, where their presence itself potentially enhances the speaking environment. This paper, based on a project on developing speaking strategies for a Japanese immersion program in Australia, argues that the speaking performance of students in immersion classes is also determined by other factors, such as peer interactions with background students, whose treatment in education systems in Australia remains ambiguous, reflecting the history of separation between foreign language education in schools and the maintenance of mother tongues in the community. By applying Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this paper analyses language policy and educational documents and discusses how the language performance of individual learners could be influenced not only by the curriculum but also by policy makers’ improved understanding of individual learners with diverse linguistic backgrounds within schools.

Analysis of Phonetic and Phonological Constraints of Saudi EFL Learners

This study explores the pronunciation difficulties experienced by Saudi EFL learners at Jouf University (JU) in the north of Saudi Arabia. To achieve this purpose, two main instruments were implemented: an experiment of pronunciation sensitivity response and two interview formats. The sample of this study was selected randomly and consisted of (n=20) students studying English major in their sixth level at JU, and (n=10) English language instructors from the same institution. A mixed-method approach was employed to find out the phonetic and phonological difficulties that participants encountered during the implementation of the experiment of pronunciation sensitivity response, and to interpret participant's responses to the interview formats. The findings revealed that EFL learners experienced six phonetic and phonological problematic patterns related to mispronunciation of: initial consonant cluster, final consonant cluster, multi-syllabic words, unfamiliar sounds, vowels, and voiced or voiceless phonemes. It was also found that EFL learners and instructors had different views regarding these phonetic and phonological issues. The limited time for practice, the lack of authentic materials and tasks, and the need for immersion classes, and effective instruction and learning were all found to be responsible about the phonetic and phonological problems EFL learners encountered and at the same time they were found to be the motives for overcoming these issues. It is believed that the implications and recommendations included in this study would improve the performance of Saudi EFL speaking abilities once they are incorporated effectively in their English learning settings.

Ready to read in two languages? Testing the native language hypothesis and the majority language hypothesis in two-way immersion students

Two-way immersion combines native speakers of the majority language with native speakers of a minority language and provides instruction in both languages. It remains unclear whether students have better reading comprehension in their L1 (native language hypothesis) and/or whether all students, irrespective of their L1, have better reading comprehension in the majority than in the minority language (majority language hypothesis). In this study of all fourth-grade two-way immersion classes in Berlin (N = 939 students), reading tests from a large-scale international student achievement study were administered in German and nine partner languages. The results of multivariate regression analyses supported the native language hypothesis, with L1 speakers outperforming L2 speakers on the interindividual level for both languages. The data also confirmed the majority language hypothesis: two-way immersion students, irrespective of their L1, scored significantly higher in German than in the partner language on the intraindividual level.

On a class of immersions of spheres into space forms of nonpositive curvature

Let \( M^{n+1} \) (\( n \ge 2 \)) be a simply-connected space form of sectional curvature \( -\kappa ^2 \) for some \( \kappa \ge 0 \), and I an interval not containing \( [-\kappa ,\kappa ] \) in its interior. It is known that the domain of a closed immersed hypersurface of M whose principal curvatures lie in I must be diffeomorphic to the n-sphere \( \mathbb {S}^n \). These hypersurfaces are thus topologically rigid. The purpose of this paper is to show that they are also homotopically rigid. More precisely, for fixed I, the space \( \mathcal {F} \) of all such hypersurfaces is either empty or weakly homotopy equivalent to the group of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of \( \mathbb {S}^n \). An equivalence assigns to each element of \( \mathcal {F} \) a suitable modification of its Gauss map. For M not simply-connected, \( \mathcal {F} \) is the quotient of the corresponding space of hypersurfaces of the universal cover of M by a natural free proper action of the fundamental group of M.

How the different policies and school systems affect the inclusion of Syrian refugee children in Sweden, Germany, Greece, Lebanon and Turkey

Since the war in Syria started in 2011, many children left their war-torn country, alone or together with their families, and fled to neighboring countries in the Middle East, to Turkey or to Europe. This article will compare how Syrian refugee children are included – or not - in school systems both in Europe (Sweden, Germany and Greece) and outside Europe (Turkey and Lebanon). These five countries represent very different ways of receiving children in their educational system. We will compare national institutional arrangements like access to compulsory school, access after compulsory school age, welcome or immersion classes, second language education and tracking mechanisms. Including children as soon as possible in regular classes seems to provide the best chances for school success, whereas educating refugee children in a segregated parallel school system for extended periods often results in early school leaving or not attending school at all.