Bilingual/Immersion Language Programs

[Anonymous]

I have a question for the parents with children in bilingual or language immersion programs. We are looking at several different programs; however, our primary language is English. We are interested in having our child enroll in one of these specialty programs and would like to know how other parents are finding their experiences with these schools. Also, how do you reinforce the language at home? If there are any books you could recommend, we would greatly appreciate it. We are completely new to this, but we perceive such wonderful benefits in learning a second language.

[Anonymous]

Part of my job deals with early bilingual education, so although I don't have a child in a bilingual program, I do have a professional perspective about the issue.

Bilingual education is most effective (for producing fully bilingual, fluent speakers) when at least one parent speaks and reinformces the non-dominant language at home. This does not mean programs are ineffective for English speaking only families, but children raised in single language households seem to have different 'strategies' for learning and organizing a second language in their brain. If a child is introduced to a nondominant language at an early age (0-12 months) the potential for acquiring languages can be more greatly developed, or developed with greater ease. Toddlers and preschoolers are also able to grasp concepts of language development in foreign languages quicker because, unlike adults, who categorize languages in our brains, they are developing their language(s) capacity in a parallel manner and are able to switch back and forth with greater ease. It's as if young children who learn dual languages (or triple, etc) are simply filing new words, grammer, etc into a general language folder in their brain, whereas adults categorize languages into seperate folders (english, spanish, french, chinese). Of course it's never to late to be exposed to a nondominant language, but this can explain why learning a second or third language later in life is more difficult. Children with single language parents seem to have different techniques for incorporating the nondominant language into their life, and this is often unpredictable. Some children only speak the nondominant language at school because that is what they associate the language with, and actually refuse to speak with others in the 2nd language outside of the classroom. Others try to teach their parents the 2nd language and incorporate into all aspects of life. Others develop a great capacity for speaking the nondominant language at school, but only use words or phrases at home/outside of school instead of whole sentences. Depending on how much of an immerision experience they have at school, some have excellent comprehension and understanding of the language, but speaking skills are perhaps at a lower level. Overall, immerision programs are much more effective at producing bilingual children than traditional schools with foreign language classes, and these children have a greater chance of becoming bilingual adults, although it is not guaranteed.

[Anonymous]

I am the OP and I would like to thank you for the great information. My family thanks you as well.