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By Leslie Watson “It’s like my kids speak a language I just don’t understand!” It’s something most often heard from parents of teenagers. But for people with kids in a language immersion school, it’s a statement that can apply long before anyone clamors for car keys and dating privileges. And rather than a lament, it’s usually said with unrestrained delight. Foreign language immersion programs first appeared in Quebec, Canada, in the mid-1960s as a way of promoting bilingualism in French and English. The concept soon spread to the U.S., embraced by educators and parents who wanted to create intensive, second language education in elementary schools. Now, backed by more than forty years of research and data validating their effectiveness, language immersion programs are experiencing a wave of growth across the country. Immersion education is based on the premise that young children are cognitively predisposed to absorb language and that early learning in a non-native language can capitalize on that. In an immersion school, kids don’t just learn a foreign language, they learn in that language. Instead of memorizing non-English words for the numbers 1 to 10, for instance, they learn about addition and subtraction in a different language. Their spelling tests require correctly placed umlauts or precisely drawn Chinese characters. And when they read a simple storybook aloud for the first time, they may have to provide a translation for their parents. The approach generally works quite well, so that immersion students develop proficiency far earlier and more quickly than students in a foreign language program that begins in 8th or 9th grade, after the window of linguistic opportunity has closed. With over 11,000 kids enrolled in more than 50 immersion programs statewide, Minnesota is a leader in the immersion movement. The state’s first immersion program, St. Paul’s Adams Spanish Immersion School, began in 1986. Since then, dozens of immersion programs have sprung up within existing school districts or as independent charter or private schools. Many are Spanish programs, but there are also programs for Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Hmong, and Ojibwe. A Korean immersion charter school is presently under development, with an anticipated opening in fall 2011. Choosing Immersion People are often curious about why parents decide to send their English-speaking kids to a school where the primary language of instruction is not English. The reasons are complex, but when immersion parents are asked the question, a few dominant themes tend to emerge. Many will point out that elsewhere in the world monolingualism is not the norm, and they want their American children to have the advantage of bilingualism. This desire prompted Minneapolis parent Jen Shadowens to consider Yinghua Academy, a charter school that offers a full immersion program in Mandarin Chinese, for her daughter Lilly. “My husband and I both traveled a lot internationally before we had kids, and we were awed by how children in other countries are multilingual.” explains Shadowens. Finding a school close to home was also important, so when Yinghua moved into their Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood this summer, the family decided to jump in. Just a few months into kindergarten, Shadowens is delighted to see Lilly beginning to exhibit both Chinese fluency and an expanded sense of her own cultural horizons. “The other day Lilly [who is not of Chinese descent] came home from school and announced, ‘Mom, I’m really half Chinese and half American, you know,’” says Shadowens. Another of immersion’s big draws is its promise of academic and cognitive advantages. “In immersion, students are learning the content and the language at the same time . . . and that really does something for them cognitively,” says Claudia Bowman, assistant principal at Adams Immersion School. “They become flexible thinkers and problem solvers . . . because they are working so hard to learn in a language that is not their own.” Early on, parents must keep faith when their children’s non-immersion counterparts start reading sooner and more confidently in English. But by the fifth grade, immersion students typically have caught up and sometimes surpassed their peers on standard measures of English language learning. And after six or seven years, they will often exhibit near-native fluency in comprehension and conversational skills in their immersion language, although their grammar and writing skills may still lag behind those of native speakers. Many parents are also attracted to immersion because of the style of teaching that it requires. Immersion teachers use all kinds of techniques to convey meaning to kids, especially in the beginning. Songs, body language, exaggerated facial expressions, hand-on activities, intonation and drawing are all part of the repertoire, which is carefully designed to make sure that children understand the meaning of what is being said even if the language is unfamiliar. This makes for learning that is anything but rote, and often results in lively and dynamic classrooms. Kelly Carolan, whose son is a second grader at Edina’s Normandale French Immersion School, says that immersion wasn’t even on her radar initially. But as she learned more about Normandale she became convinced it would be a good fit. “I thought, how wonderful would it be to actually be bilingual,” she recalls. “And for my son in particular, the interactive style of teaching was really appealing.” Carolan, who studied French in college, admits that her son’s French is rapidly eclipsing her own ”He has certainly surpassed me in terms of his conversation skills, although I can still read a bit better than him, at least for now,” she laughs. Making the Cultural Connection Parents also commonly choose immersion for cultural reasons, either to forge connections to a family heritage or to develop a richer appreciation of other cultures. Minneapolis parents Heidi and Peter Zimmermann enrolled their children in the Twin Cities German Immersion School (TCGIS) so that they would learn their father’s native language. Although Heidi also speaks German, she realized that her young children wouldn’t achieve fluency just from hearing it at home. “It’s not enough for them just to hear German from their parents,” she says. “And if their friends aren’t speaking it, they really won’t use it.” The Zimmermanns were thrilled when TCGIS opened in time for their oldest child, Harry, to enroll in kindergarten. Now in third grade, his progress has more than met their expectations. “We really noticed it after first grade, when we went back to Germany to visit family,” recalls Heidi. “Harry jumped right in and was playing and talking away with his cousins, entirely in German. We were actually amazed at how much German he knew!” St. Paul parent Leslie Dwight, who has a 1st and a 5th grader at Adams, chose that school both for personal and broader cultural reasons. “My husband’s family is Peruvian and he grew up speaking in English in a household where they spoke Spanish. And I’m raising my kids in Minnesota and I wanted them to have a more of a diverse experience and also have some connection to their heritage,” says Dwight. “But we were also interested in the extra challenge of a language immersion school and the opportunity to broaden their horizons.” At Adams, like at many immersion schools, language serves as a backdrop for deeper cultural learning. The school’s service learning curriculum includes projects like helping schools in Peru, buying hygiene items for people in Guatemala, and raising money to buy farm animals for families elsewhere in Latin America. According to principal Judy Kaufmann, Adams students learn deeper lessons from these activities because they undertake them in Spanish. “In addition to sharing cultural pieces in terms of art and music and dance . . . the language allows our kids to really develop a global view,” explains Kaufmann. “[S]haring the language of kids in need helps them to have a true global perspective, and to really connect them to issues of world hunger and other world problems.” Weighing all the Factors For all its advantages, parents and educators both caution that immersion education is a long-term commitment, not to be made lightly. “It takes about seven years to learn a second language, which is something parents need to know when they come into an immersion program,” says Kaufmann. While its flexible teaching approach makes it suitable for many types of learners, it isn’t a good fit for every child. And because immersion kids initially lag behind in reading, parents sometimes worry that learning disabilities may not be diagnosed as quickly as they would in a traditional school. Establishing pathways for kids as they move into middle and high school is an emerging challenge as immersion programs mature. A few of the more established schools, like Adams and Normandale, have continuation programs in middle and high schools within their districts. But for the vast majority of immersion students, the opportunities to continue developing their language proficiency dwindle once they enter high school. Still, when asked about immersion, many parents respond with the kind of passion and enthusiasm that explains why these programs are on the rise. According to Judy Kaufmann, that energy echoes what happens every day inside many immersion schools’ walls. “At our school, like at most . . . it is truly a team effort with our parents, our teachers, and everyone,” she says. “Immersion requires you to be resourceful, and to try new ideas . . . and that creates a really vibrant place for learning.” Immersion programs come in many different flavors. But whatever the language, they share some typical common attributes:
There are two main varieties of immersion programs: Full or One-Way Dual-language or Two-Way Source: “Frequently Asked Questions about Immersion Education,” from the website of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research in Language Acquisition (CARLA), online at www.carla.umn.edu/immersion/FAQs.html Leslie Watson is a freelance writer in Northeast Minneapolis and the parent of two children at the Twin Cities German Immersion School. Sie spricht kein Deutsch. She can be found online at www.thebusypen.com.
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