Immersion School Research Articles

An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Spanish Immersion Education on the Acquisition of Pronominal Subjects in Child Heritage Speakers

Studies have found that aspects of grammar that lie at the syntax–pragmatics interface, such as the use of pronominal subjects in null-subject languages, are likely to undergo cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of Spanish immersion academic instruction on the comprehension of null subjects in English-dominant, Spanish-heritage children living in the United States. Two groups of bilingual children aged 4 to 7 (those attending a Spanish immersion school and those not) completed an acceptability judgment task in both English and Spanish. English monolingual children and monolingually raised Spanish children of the same ages also completed the task in their respective languages. The findings revealed that children in the Spanish immersion school performed on par with their monolingual peers in Spanish, but accepted significantly more ungrammatical null subjects in English than the other groups. These results suggest that immersion schooling plays a role in extending the English null subject stage in bilingual children due to competing input and cross-linguistic influence.

Language attitudes of primary school teachers in Vitoria-Gasteiz

ABSTRACT Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital city of the bilingual Basque Autonomous Community of Spain, is a largely Spanish-speaking city: over 90% of the city’s population claims Spanish as their native language and less than one-fifth of the city’s adult population is bilingual in Basque and Spanish (compare with more than one-third of the population of San Sebastián). Nevertheless, enrollment in Basque immersion (Model D) schools has grown over the last three decades and continues to grow. As of the 2018–2019 school year, 80% of primary and secondary public school students in the Basque Autonomous Community were enrolled in Model D schools. The goal of this study was to investigate the linguistic attitudes of primary school teachers in different school models in Vitoria-Gasteiz for the purpose of identifying factors in the positive growth of Basque as a minority language, as well as current challenges for growth, in this sociolinguistically adverse environment. Results are then related to opportunities and challenges for other minoritized languages undergoing language revitalization.

Solasaldi literarioak haur hezkuntzan: Donostiako ikastola batean burututako esperientzia

Literatura unibertsalaren lanik onenak partekatzeko, elkarrizketan eta gozamenean oinarritutako hezkuntza-jarduera arrakastatsuenetako bat da solasaldi literarioa. Ikerketaren helburu orokorra da solasaldi literarioak, Oinarrizko Zeharkako Konpetentziak eta Esperientzia Eremuak, Haur Hezkuntzan garatzeko egokiak diren frogatzea. Esperientzia hau Donostiako ikastola batean landu da eta bost urteko 21 ikaslek (15 neska eta 6 mutil) parte hartu dute. Lau ipuinen solasaldiak aztertu ondoren, argi ikustenda solasaldi literarioak, estrategia metodologiko gisa, oso egokiak direla Haur Hezkuntzako Esperientzia Eremuak eta Zeharkako Oinarrizko Konpetentziak lantzeko. Gehien lantzen diren konpetentziak komunikazioa, elkarbizitza eta izaten ikastea dira. Ikasten ikasi eta ekiten ikasi konpetentziak, aldiz, askoz ere gutxiago lantzen dira. Lan honetan ondorioztatzen dena honako hau da: solasaldi literarioan irakaslearen rolak duen garrantzia, konpetentziak eta esperientzia eremuak garatzeko; kontuan izanik, hezitzailearen zeregin nagusia ikaslearen garapen osoa lortzea dela.

Language counts when learning mathematics with interactive apps

AbstractWhen available in multiple languages, educational apps can deliver the same mathematics instruction in the child’s first language or different language of instruction. This pilot study examined the feasibility of a maths app intervention compared to standard mathematical practice with 61 children aged 5–6 years attending a bilingual immersion school in Brazil. The apps were delivered in either the child’s first (L1, Brazilian Portuguese) or second (L2, English) language, while app content, time on task, and school setting were consistent across the two treatment groups. Time on task in the comparison group was less. After 10 weeks, results showed children made significant mathematical learning gains with the apps, for both languages of instruction, compared to standard practice: the finding is discussed in relation to the threat of time spent on task. Children using the apps in Brazilian Portuguese (L1) completed more app topics than children using the apps in English (L2) and proficiency in language of instruction correlated positively with app progress. As children’s L1 was significantly stronger than their L2 proficiency, this suggests the apps were most effectively implemented in their L1. This study advances the conjoining of bilingual educational theories to educational apps in a controlled, real‐world, bilingual immersion setting and highlights important directions for improving app‐based mathematics instruction for bilingual children. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Educational maths apps, available in multiple languages are increasingly popular. Emerging evidence demonstrates the benefits of maths apps for supporting children’s mathematical development. To understand “what works” in the use of maths apps we need to consider factors that may impact outcomes, including children’s proficiency in the language of instruction. What this paper adds When delivered in the child’s first or second language, maths apps can support the acquisition of basic maths skills. To maximise engagement and learning with maths apps, children should have a sufficient level of proficiency in the language of instruction. Implications for practice and/or policy When deciding to implement maths apps with young children, educational practitioners and parents should consider the individual child’s proficiency in the languages spoken.

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

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. Keywords : Teaching Strategies, Motivations, Immersion schools, Language acquisitions. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-5-07 Publication date: February 29 th 2020

Is native-speakerism impacting the Dual Language Immersion teacher shortage?

Abstract Although Dual Language Immersion Education is growing in popularity in the United States, staffing these programs represents one of the greatest challenges for school administrators. Ironically, this is the case even for Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion programs despite the fact that the United States has the second highest number of Spanish speakers of any country in the world. What barriers hinder Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion schools from filling their teaching positions? This exploratory article suggests that native-speakerism may be part of the problem. Drawing on literature from the field of English Language Teaching, this article goes further to suggest that notions of who is the ideal Dual Language teacher, unless carefully considered, may exacerbate the linguistic marginalization of U.S.-born Latinxs, a group whose Spanish-speaking abilities are too often stigmatized.

Morphosyntactic and morphophonological variation in Breton: a cross-generational perspective

AbstractLike France’s other regional languages, Breton has seen a steep decline, followed by a period of revitalization in recent decades. Today there are two largely separate communities of speakers: older, traditional speakers who grew up speaking Breton at home, and younger speakers, generally from French-speaking homes, most of whom have learnt Breton through immersion schooling. It is claimed that this ‘Neo-Breton’ differs from the language of older speakers, lexically, phonologically and grammatically. This article examines morphosyntactic (impersonal) and morphophonological (mutation) data to explore exactly how Neo-Breton differs from that of traditional speakers, and how the variability in the data might be explained. The data show that contrary to what might be expected, new speakers do not differ greatly from older, traditional speakers in these areas. Influence from French is more subtle than might be supposed. Children and teenagers who attend Breton-medium schooling seem to show an extended period of acquisition, but the data from adult new speakers suggests that with enough Breton input, these young speakers can reach full proficiency. However, as the number of older speakers decreases, Breton seems likely to see more widespread language change.

Findings from the first phase of developing a receptive vocabulary test for the Irish language

Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to develop and pilot a test of receptive vocabulary for bilingual Irish-English-speaking children, based on a model from Welsh. Design/Methodology/Approach: 310 typically developing children aged five, six and seven years took part. The children were all attending Irish-medium education in Irish-dominant Gaeltacht regions and in immersion education schools outside of these regions. Data and Analysis: Participants were identified as being from either bilingual Irish- and English-speaking homes or English-dominant homes. A mixed-factorial analysis of variance found a significant main effect of age and language background, but no interaction. Post hoc comparisons revealed that those from Bilingual-speaking homes had significantly higher Irish receptive vocabulary scores than those from English-dominant homes. Linear regression models showed that the receptive vocabulary scores of children in immersion schools grew by an average of 21 words per year between the ages of five and seven, compared to almost 12 words per year in Gaeltacht schools. Findings/Conclusions: The findings demonstrate the advantages of immersion education and the need for vocabulary enrichment of children in the Gaeltacht. However, the complexities of developing assessments for first language speakers of a minority language that is in conflict with a second language variety of that language and the majority English language are also highlighted. Significance/Implications: The implications of this study are that immersion schooling is advantageous to the Irish vocabulary of children, but that children from Gaeltacht schools may require vocabulary enrichment that is sufficiently complex to address their needs. Limitations: Limitations to this study include the uneven number of children from each language background/school location and incomplete background details from the children, such as socio-economic status and language use amongst peers.

Picturebooks: an effective tool to encourage children's English L2 oral production

The purpose of this research-to-practice paper is to delve deeper into the rich potential of picturebooks for eliciting children’s spontaneous speech production during face-to-face conversational interaction. Specifically, it analyses how children apply their existing communicative skills during exposure to the non-textual elements of picturebooks. This in turn enables to get wider understanding of how children learn and use English L2 at an early bilingual immersion school. The study examines the oral narrative production of Spanish-speaking English learners in an early bilingual immersion school. The analytical framework of the study is influenced by studies in the field of child language acquisition. The data are drawn from a 2.5 years longitudinal study of four children (aged 4-5 years at the first recording) from four different classrooms. The conversational interactions created by looking and talking about picturebook illustrations were audio-recorded and the utterances obtained through spontaneous elicitation were transcribed and analysed for emerging syntactic production and for communication strategies. Data analysis provides information on spontaneous oral created language which reflects children’s underlying linguistic competence influenced partly by the learning setting, by the type of input and by the amount of exposure time. Research findings reveal how children use illustrations as a language scaffold and how the English oral language skills develop over time for syntactic development. These findings suggest that picturebooks and even more, picturebook illustrations are ideal tools to elicit oral language from children as well as to support natural acquisition of language. Based on the research findings of this study and on observation of how picturebooks lend themselves to build children’s existing communicative skills, the paper provides several hints to maximize communicative interaction in the young learner’s classroom.

Bilingual language exposure and the peer group: Acquiring phonetics and phonology in Gaelic Medium Education

Aims and objectives:This paper aims to examine the acquisition of phonetics and phonology in the context of Scottish Gaelic immersion schooling. I explore the effect of differing home language backgrounds among primary school children on the production of laterals and stop consonants.Design/methodology/approach:Acoustic analysis was performed on Gaelic and English speech data collected from children in Gaelic Medium Education in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.Data and analysis:Word list data were collected from 18 children aged 7–11 and analyzed using measurements of formants and duration of stop phases. Half of the sample had little or no exposure to Gaelic in the home, while the other half had differing degrees of family input. Statistical analysis was conducted using Conditional Inference Trees.Findings and conclusions:This study finds that any initial differences between children who enter Gaelic Medium Education as fluent speakers and those who do not are leveled out by late primary school, at least in terms of pronunciation. I suggest that leveled varieties of minority languages can develop in pre-adolescence in peer group settings such as minority language education.Originality:This study is the first to examine phonetic and phonological acquisition in Gaelic-English bilingual children. It is one of a small number of studies to examine bilingual phonological acquisition in immersion schooling. The study supports recent research exploring the development of peer group varieties among young minority language speakers.Significance and implications:This research aims to expand traditional models that consider the extent of exposure to two languages as key in predicting phonetic and phonological production. I suggest that the impact of the peer group and the context of language use are also significant factors. Results suggest potential development of education varieties of Gaelic. These findings have implications for future revitalization strategies for minority languages across the world.

What Factors Affect Learners’ Ability to Interpret Nonverbal Behaviors in EFL Classrooms?

This study examined how learners’ age, English proficiency, and years of learning English, affect the accuracy of the interpretation of nonverbal behaviors among English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The participants consisted of four groups of Japanese students: (a) 32 sixth graders attending public schools, (b) 18 sixth graders attending English immersion schools, (c) 30 university students with lower English proficiency, and (d) 32 university students with higher English proficiency. They watched 48 video clips taken from EFL classrooms in Japanese elementary schools without sound and judged whether the teachers had asked a question. The accuracy of their judgements was statistically analyzed and their comments were qualitatively analyzed. Multiple regression analyses pointed to students’ years of learning English as the sole predictor almost significantly affecting accurate judgements but only when teachers’ utterances were accompanied by gestures. This indicates that learners’ ability to correctly decode nonverbal behaviors developed only for teacher gesture. In addition to this qualitative aspect, a quantitative aspect was also found to be affected by the duration of study. Precisely speaking, those learners with over 6 years of learning English noticed a larger number of nonverbal behaviors, including gestures, for correct judgements, which boosted the minimum accuracy of their judgements. This implies that the effect of age and nativeness observed in past literature on the interpretation of nonverbal behaviors may have been in fact under the disguise of the amount of exposure to the target language and culture.

Young learners’ language attitudes in a multilingual school

A renewed interest has arisen on the importance of language attitudes in the acquisition of an additional language. Variables, such as age, gender, mother tongue, and the sociolinguistic context, have been taken into consideration when exploring language attitudes. However, the research on young learners’ attitudes towards languages in English-based schools is scarce. The present paper focuses on young learners’ language attitudes in a high English immersion context in the province of Castello de la Plana, in the Valencian Community, where two official languages coexist, Spanish as the majority language, and Valencian as the minority language. However, English is the leading language of instruction in this international school context. Many studies have been conducted within the framework of language attitudes across ages. However, as far as we know, no studies have accounted for young learners’ attitudes in an English immersion context, such as international schools. Therefore, the present study aims at filling in this research gap by analysing children’s language attitudes in an English immersion school context. The aims of this paper are twofold: in the first place, to analyse the language attitudes towards the three languages under investigation (Spanish, English and Valencian) of multilingual children attending an English immersion school. And, in the second place, to investigate the effect of age on language attitudes. The findings derived from the present study confirm the impact of age on young learners’ language attitudes. However, the school context does not present a determining role in young learners’ attitudes.

Effective Dual Immersion School Transitions: An Expert Panel Synthesis

Using the Delphi method, this study was designed and undertaken due to a lack of existing research regarding key factors that support successful transitions of TWI students from elementary to middle and high school. The purpose of this study was first to identify the opinions of experts and practitioners in the field of TWI programs on key factors that support these transitions, and then to rate the importance of these factors as they pertain to the student’s designation as a dual language student. Subsequently, based on the results from the panel of 16 experts, the researchers investigated how a group of parents ranked the key factors that the expert panel identified as most and least important for successful transitions. The experts identified teacher qualification, curriculum and program planning, communication among school personnel, and administrative support as the most important factors to support student transitions. The group of parents rated the factors determined to be important by the panel highly, generally more highly than the expert panel itself, but parents also deemed

“They Want the Spanish but They Don’t Want the Mexicans”: Whiteness and Consumptive Contact in an Oregon Spanish Immersion School

Drawing from in-depth interviews with 18 white, black, Latinx, and multiracial parents whose children attend a Spanish immersion elementary school, the author examines the politics of race, class, and resistance in a historically white community that is experiencing an influx of nonwhites. Parental narratives reveal that many whites enrolled their children in Spanish immersion to capture cultural and economic benefits they associate with bilingualism and diversity. Interviews also suggest that white support for diversity is contingent on the condition that nonwhites provide carefully controlled diversity: one that benefits whites without threatening race and class hierarchies. The maintenance of white spatial and social segregation allowed whites to engage with families of color at the school primarily through consumptive contact, a form of interracial contact predicated upon whites’ perceptions about the material benefits their children will acquire through exposure to diversity and bilingualism. Consumptive contact allows whites to selectively consume aspects of Latin American cultures without facilitating the social and institutional inclusion of the groups associated with those cultures. Findings illuminate distinct economic motivations behind whites’ engagement communities of color, adding a material dimension to our understanding of whites’ racialized consumptive practices.

The influence of L1 Dutch and L2 English on L3 French: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study investigates negative transfer from L1 Dutch and L2 English into L3 French in the first three years of French education in a Dutch/English secondary immersion school. We focus on two word order constructions in declarative root clauses where the three languages differ: V-to-C movement (+Dutch, −French) and V-to-T movement (−English, +French). The results of a grammaticality judgement task and a gap-filling task show that the L3 learners transfer a large amount from L1 Dutch in the initial stages of the first year of French education followed by a dramatic decline in the second and third year of French education. At the onset of L3 learning, L2 English is less activated; however, its influence intervenes and stays stable in later years of learning.

Student attitudes and Cantonese proficiency in a Cantonese dual immersion school.

Previous research reports the positive impact of dual immersion programs on students' language proficiency, yet fewer studies have examined students' attitudes in such programs. The current study examined student attitudes and language proficiency in a Cantonese dual immersion school and explored relationships between students' attitudes and language proficiency in Cantonese. Language proficiency results showed that, on average, Cantonese immersion student performances indicated attainment of Intermediate High level in listening, Novice Mid level in reading, and Novice High level in writing. In addition, heritage learners outperformed non-heritage learners in reading and listening skills. Survey data revealed that heritage learners held more positive attitudes toward learning Cantonese compared to non-heritage learners but that there were no differences in attitudes toward the focal school between the two student groups. Regression analysis revealed that students' attitudes towards the dual immersion school explained significant variance in their Cantonese reading, listening and speaking skills. Qualitative data also revealed that students' positive attitudes toward their school were shaped by their experiences with their principal, teachers, and school activities. These findings shed light on the role that positive school and learning environments play in helping dual language immersion school students acquire proficiency in the partner language.

Teaching and Knowing in Nepantla: “I wanted them to realize that, that is being bilingual.”

ABSTRACTBilingual teachers’ professional identity inquiry may open up possibilities for agency and equality in U.S. dual language contexts. Deploying Borderland, Agency, and Position theories, this article narrates the life histories of three nepantlera Chicanx/Latinx dual language bilingual teachers—Jessica, Roberto, and Marta—who work in different English-Spanish dual language immersion (DLI) schools in a Midwestern city. Jessica self-identified as Chicana and the other two participants as Latinos. The purpose of the study was to examine the complexity of these teachers’ professional identity development and their possibilities for agency within nepantla—their negotiating of their linguistic and cultural identities as English- or Spanish-only teachers in a dual language program with a strict language separation model. Data included three life history interviews with each participant over four months. Findings suggest possibilities for teachers’ assertion of their silenced bilingual voices, for reclaiming their linguistic and cultural identities, and for further developing their “bilingual pedagogical noticing,” as well as conscious leveraging of their aesthetic and deeply personal understanding of themselves—of nepantla—to assert more holistic bilingual and bicultural identities in DLI programs. Through sociopolitical consciousness and the leveraging of educators’ and students’ identities, the context for teaching and learning can be (re)imagined to allow for (re)presenting teachers’ fuller, holistic professional identities and for opening up potential spaces for agency.

Bringing parents together: an innovative approach for parental involvement in an immersion school in the Basque Autonomous Community

ABSTRACTIn this article, I analyse the programme and pedagogy of Karmelo Ikastola, a Basque immersion school that promotes parental involvement and language use within the family. The Karmelo case is noteworthy due to its success at effectively promoting the use of Basque among students inside and outside the school along with its promotion of curricular separation between L1 native speakers and L2 learners of Basque. With support from the EBETE language cooperative, Karmelo launched an innovative approach to increase parental involvement in 2008. The school considers distinct pedagogical frameworks for different profiles of parents: Basque-speaking parents, mixed families (in which only one of the parents speaks Basque), and Spanish-speaking parents. The Karmelo programme also fosters parental participation and engagement via curricular adaptations that differentiate the needs of L1 and L2 speakers. The focus group data offer insights into the programme’s approach to language instruction and acquisition, highlighting the role that linguistic attitudes and socialisation play during the various stages of L2 acquisition.

Language Policies and Linguistic Culture in Galicia

National language policy which is implemented from the top is perceived as official legislation designed to influence people's linguistic lives . In the Castilian-dominated Galician linguistic landscape, this paper examines the impact of last thirty years' top-down language policies on the “linguistic culture” (Schiffman, 1996) of the Galicians and analyses the role of grassroots level actors or agents who play a significant role in interpreting and implementing language policy on the ground. Linguistic culture, as Schiffman (2006, p. 112) describes it, is the “sum totality of ideas, values, beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, myths, religious strictures, and all the other cultural ‘baggage' that speakers bring to their dealings with language from their culture”. This will inevitably lead us to an examination of the essential macro level linguistic and non-linguistic variables such as socio-political, socio-economic, socio-cultural, sociolinguistic factors present in the Galician society influencing the ideological construct and revitalisation practices of the community. Concurrently, this article offers a brief overview of the sociolinguistic history of Galician, as a means of contextualising existing debates related to language policies since the outset of the Galician Autonomy. It starts with a discussion on the significance of the 1983 Linguistic Normalisation Act, the immediate effects it had on Galician and on its public visibility which will be further related to the various understandings of notions such as linguistic normalisation and societal bilingualism which have been an integral part of LPP discourse over the course of last three decades. To conclude, the chapter will also offer a critical account of the recent developments in grassroots level Galician language activism such as the creation of Galician medium pre-primary immersion schools through co-operative mobilisations and crowd-sourcing; these schools came about as a reaction to the contemporary state-imposed language policies from the present centre-right wing government (2009-present).

Language in a global world: A case study of foreign languages in U.S. K–8 education

Over the past decade, there have been numerous calls to update U.S. education to reflect an increasingly global world (Hull & Hellmich, 2018). Foreign languages (FLs) are often perceived as central to these efforts (American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2017). Despite this centrality, less is known about how FLs are understood in U.S. K–12 education today, particularly at the individual and school levels. Using an ecological theoretical frame and a case study research design, this article focused on one K–8 immersion school and examined (1) the discourses that teachers, administrators, parents, and students used to understand FLs in education; (2) how their understandings impacted the learning environment; and (3) how local beliefs and behaviors aligned with larger societal philosophies and practices. Findings revealed areas of both alignment and divergence from previous literature and highlight the complex understandings that are used to position and guide FL education.