Is language immersion worth it?

[Anonymous]

I can't comment on delayed math/other subject learning if your child doesn't fully understand the language of instruction, but I wouldn't be too concerned about English reading and writing skills unless you have reason to believe your child needs extra help there anyway.
I grew up in a non-English-speaking household in this area, attended an international school where the only English instruction during elementary school was 3x/wk and few kids spoke English, and I still ended up fluent in English very quickly just from watching TV, going to local daycamp, talking to neighbors, and reading (once I learned in my native language, I taught myself to read English and promptly started raiding the local library). If your child is also speaking English at home, English acquisition shouldn't be a problem - maybe just make sure they figure out the transition from reading [other language] to reading English, if the school doesn't do any English instruction at all. (This could be more of an issue if the other language uses a different alphabet/writing system.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, children in other countries seem quite capable of acquiring two, three, or more languages. Why not here?

perhaps because those are multi-language countries and the US is largely mono-language?

I don't agree with this. I went to school outside of US, we started learning English in 1st grade (2nd language) and French in 3rd grade (3rd language). I speak both now in addition to my native language. Though not immersion, we had both languages on daily basis. Instruction time for English was allowed same time as that of native language, while instruction time for French was allowed bit less time. The result is that I speak fluently English, in addition to the native language, and French - though with less degree of fluency. The country I was in is not multi-language - all was the result of school instruction.

just out of curiosity which country was this? tks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:still smarter than low math or reading skills.

My child (Oyster) has amazing math and reading skills. DC is in the highest level English and Math classes at an area independent. This was after eight years at Oyster. No tradeoff whatsoever.

my point was math and reading are more critical then a second language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the language, though. French and Spanish? Easy (for the native English speaker.) Mandarin or Cantonese? Not so much...

Cantonese is yesterday's language. don't waste your time on it.

Inquiring mind wants to know. Why do you say this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the language, though. French and Spanish? Easy (for the native English speaker.) Mandarin or Cantonese? Not so much...

Cantonese is yesterday's language. don't waste your time on it.

Inquiring mind wants to know. Why do you say this?

The only reason Cantonese used to be useful was because of Hong Kong. Now in HK, everyone wants to speak Mandarin.

[Anonymous]

Thanks

[Anonymous]

We are raising our kids bilingual. We don't speak English at home. The majority of the books we have piling in the children's room are not in English either... Our children have a tutor twice a week to work on the language and math.
Kids are different. The boy is slower in reading in English (but still meets the criteria). He is only 7. His math is higher than the majority of his classmates. Overall, I believe, he is a well-developed boy.
The girl is very linguistic, she reads and speaks both languages perfectly.

[Anonymous]

I am glad to see discussion of learning a second language at an early age. Whatever option you choose for this important skill, your children will be grateful someday!

In the interest of full disclosure, my name is Denise Holmes. I am the director of Lango Montgomery County, an exciting and fun new foreign language program that will offer play-based, full-immersion classes and camps in Spanish, French and Mandarin for children from 18 months to 9 years of age. Children sing, dance, play games and listen to stories in the target language and reinforce the lessons with books, flashcards and CDs. This program has been implemented with great success for thousands of children elsewhere in the country. Lango will launch classes in the DC area this fall.

Lango MoCo will hold FREE demonstration classes tomorrow, Saturday, September 12th at the Round House Theatre Education Center at 925 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring. A Spanish class will be held at 9:30 AM and a Mandarin class at 10:30 AM. Come check it out!

We are offering a 10% discount on all enrollments through September 15th. Enrollment is through our website www.langokids.com/regions/montgomery-county/ Lango will also launch classes in Prince George's County and northern Virginia this fall.

Please call me at 301-655-5277 with any questions.

Thanks! Gracias! Merci! Xie xie!

[Anonymous]

Do we really know what immersion is and how it works in a school setting? I worked for a couple of years at a DC charter school that billed itself as being immersion. They had no idea what they were doing.

How does it work in schools that know what they're doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do we really know what immersion is and how it works in a school setting? I worked for a couple of years at a DC charter school that billed itself as being immersion. They had no idea what they were doing.

How does it work in schools that know what they're doing?

MCPS full language immersion programs have been around for over 30 years. All subjects are taught in the second language, all day, except specials (e.g. PE and art), which are taught in English by the regular specials teachers. The kids therefore learn the MCPS curriculum in the second language from K-5th grade.

They presumably know what they are doing, since the programs have been around for so long. The immersion kids generally meet or exceed testing criteria (in English-language standardized testing, e.g. the MSA).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am glad to see discussion of learning a second language at an early age. Whatever option you choose for this important skill, your children will be grateful someday!

In the interest of full disclosure, my name is Denise Holmes. I am the director of Lango Montgomery County, an exciting and fun new foreign language program that will offer play-based, full-immersion classes and camps in Spanish, French and Mandarin for children from 18 months to 9 years of age. Children sing, dance, play games and listen to stories in the target language and reinforce the lessons with books, flashcards and CDs. This program has been implemented with great success for thousands of children elsewhere in the country. Lango will launch classes in the DC area this fall.

Lango MoCo will hold FREE demonstration classes tomorrow, Saturday, September 12th at the Round House Theatre Education Center at 925 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring. A Spanish class will be held at 9:30 AM and a Mandarin class at 10:30 AM. Come check it out!

We are offering a 10% discount on all enrollments through September 15th. Enrollment is through our website www.langokids.com/regions/montgomery-county/ Lango will also launch classes in Prince George's County and northern Virginia this fall.

Please call me at 301-655-5277 with any questions.

Thanks! Gracias! Merci! Xie xie!

Where will your camp be located?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:still smarter than low math or reading skills.

My child (Oyster) has amazing math and reading skills. DC is in the highest level English and Math classes at an area independent. This was after eight years at Oyster. No tradeoff whatsoever.

my point was math and reading are more critical then a second language.

The MoCo public immersion programs will advance your kid in math if he/she is ready for it (in fact, math is one thing MoCo actually does right - the rest, like science and social studies, I'm much more ambivalent about whatever the language they're being taught in). It seemed like half of DC's immersion class was taking math at one or two grades above their actual grade level, although I don't know the exact stats. In 5th grade my immersion kid was taking 7th grade math, and is now in the Takoma math & science magnet with a number of other immersion kids.

So you don't have to trade off languages for math. I'm not sure if your point was that it's not possible for schools to provide both language and advanced math courses at the same time, or that doing a second language takes up too much "brain space" that could have been used for math. But either way, your kid can do languages and advanced math at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mono-lingual is the new stupid.

still smarter than low math or reading skills.

That's the beauty of being multi-lingual in general and of immersion education in particular: IMPROVED math and reading skills! There's no trade-off learning math and reading, in fact by teaching them in two languages the concepts are re-inforced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering whether the tradeoffs (delayed learning in English, lack of classroom involvement unless you speak the language, iffy writing/spelling in English) are worth it. Speaking a foreign language is a fantastic thing. But is it worth what you give up?

If it is early immersion (starting in Pre-K or K) there are no trade-offs. There are plenty of studies to prove that children who are bilingual have more advanced cognitive and logical skills, and even better reading skills - in their native language! Think about it, if you're learning math in both English and a target language (French, Mandarin, Spanish, etc.) then the concepts are being re-inforced by getting them in two languages. Young brains are wired to learn languages, that's why your 18 month old would wake up from every nap seemingly have absorbed 2 to 4 new words! Why not take advantage of it?

Now, if your child has cognitive delays or severe developmental delays which impede learning then it's probably not a good idea. But for the bright and intellectually curious child it is all upside.

[Anonymous]

We're in Arlington and DS goes to one of the dual-immersion schools. It's a fantastic program -- last year, they even started offering music or art in Spanish, depending on the grade. The dual-immersion schools don't have early release on Wednesdays. DS isn't missing out on anything. I'm always amazed to hear how afraid parents are of immersion programs.