Is language immersion worth it?

[Anonymous]

I have to say that Arlington is so much more in the vanguard on this. Their programs are so together.

[Anonymous]

I've heard good things about Arlington, but really only for Spanish. FFX County is the national leader in immersion education, with options that include French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've heard good things about Arlington, but really only for Spanish. FFX County is the national leader in immersion education, with options that include French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

That's quite a statement. Where is this documented?

Dual-immersion is not nearly as effective as full immersion - study after study has shown that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard good things about Arlington, but really only for Spanish. FFX County is the national leader in immersion education, with options that include French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

That's quite a statement. Where is this documented?

Dual-immersion is not nearly as effective as full immersion - study after study has shown that.

I'm the Arlington parent. One of the strengths of the program is the emphasis on Spanish language arts (within the past couple of years). Many immersion programs neglect language arts in the target language, believe it or not.

I'd say, based on what I've seen, that dual immersion can be effective as full immersion, if a child sticks with the program through middle school. It also depends on whether the parent(s) support(s) the language outside of school. In this area, there are so many cultural opportunities in various languages, if you look around. We take DS to kids theatre in Spanish (usually bilingual), listen to Latin pop and read in Spanish. Parents often fret that they don't know the language - reading kids books in the language is a great way to learn!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Lango MoCo's December Mini-camp (12/28-12/31 from 9:00 AM to noon) will be at the Round House Theatre Educatioon Center in downtown Silver Spring. We are identifying suitable space for the Spring Break 2010 camp and will post that on our website when the information is available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard good things about Arlington, but really only for Spanish. FFX County is the national leader in immersion education, with options that include French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

That's quite a statement. Where is this documented?

Dual-immersion is not nearly as effective as full immersion - study after study has shown that.

The Center for Applied Linguistics. The top 5 states in terms of number of programs are: Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oregon and Virginia. However, the Hawaiian programs are almost exclusively Hawaiian and the Louisiana programs are almost exclusively French, so they're not really representative of the possibilities in immersion education. Of the next 3, Minnesota has 24 immersion schools spread out over 11 districts. Oregon is more concentrated with 25 schools spread over 5 districts. Virginia has 24 schools spread over only 4 districts. What's notable about the Virginia programs is the breadth of choices: French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. The Oregon programs (also notable) are interesting in that they skew towards the high grades - there are 6 Oregon high schools (mostly around Portland) that offer immersion, mainly because of the high Asian population and the desire for Mandarin. Since Mandarin is a Level IV language (the most difficult to learn as designated by the U.S. State Department) it takes more years of intense study to master.

Data summaries are at the bottom of the page. http://www.cal.org/resources/immersion/

[Anonymous]

As for the statement vis dual-immersion:

The only language in the U.S. (as opposed to Canada) that is taught consistently via dual-immersion is Spanish so it's not really applicable or acceptable as a comparison of methods, there are other variables (i.e., student populations) to take into account.

What is applicable is partial immersion vs. full immersion and most studies conclude that partial immersion is, in fact, just as effective as full immersion.

Perhaps you are thinking of early immersion vs. late immersion? Where studies exist for this comparison, the conclusions are consistently in favor of the superiority of early immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to throw my .02 in here - immersion seems to be all the rage these days but I acquired a second language by beginning to learn it a 2-3 times a week class environment in elementary school, continued studying it in middle and high school, college, and through a study abroad experience. I consider myself bilingual with near-native fluency.

Not to toot my own horn, but to remind people there are other ways of studying/acquiring foreign language skills that are just as valid and may, in some cases, have the added benefits of reinforcing grammar and spelling over time....

Thanks for posting this! Very reassuring to a parent who can't afford private school for DS. I'd love for him to learn another language though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

How do you get your child into one of these? Is it a lottery?

[Anonymous]

Yes, in MCPS it's by lottery. More families apply than the schools have slots, so we applied to several different immersion programs, which is allowed, and got lucky on one of them. It didn't matter too much to us whether our kid did French or Spanish, we both speak both.