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Language Immersion

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    Wikipedia

    Language immersion

    Language immersion is a method of teaching a second language (also called L2, or the target language). Unlike a more traditional language course, where the target language is simply the subject material, language immersion uses the target language as a teaching tool, surrounding or "immersing" students in the second language. In-class activities, such as math, social studies, and history, and those outside of the class, such as meals or everyday tasks, are conducted in the target language. Todays immersion programs are based on those founded in the 1960s in Canada when middle-income English-speaking parents convinced educators to establish an experimental French immersion program enabling their children to appreciate the traditions and culture of French-speaking Canadians as well as English-speaking Canadians.Baker1993>Baker, C. (1993). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

    In the United States, and since the 1980s, dual immersion programs have grown for a number of reasons: competition in a global economy, a growing population of second language learners, and the successes of previous programs "Freeman">Freeman. Language immersion classes can now be found throughout the US, in urban and suburban areas, in dual-immersion and single language immersion, and in an array of languages. As of May 2005, there were 317 dual immersion programs in US elementary schools, providing instruction in 10 languages, and 96% of programs were in Spanish Potowski

    Educators distinguish between language immersion and submersion programs. In the former, the class is composed of students learning the L2 at the same level; while in the latter, one or two students are learning the foreign language, which is the first language (L1) for the rest of the class, thus they are "thrown into the ocean to learn how to swim" instead of gradually immersed in the new language.

    A new form of language related syllabus delivery cal read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language+immersion

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