Reply to CMI vs YY for PK3?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "CMI vs YY for PK3?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Two questions:
1. What is the difference between dual immersion and one-way immersion?
2. Why are Chinese-American parents called "heritage speakers" but we don't call Guatemalan or Salvadoran parents "heritage speakers"?[/quote]

In the US context, dual immersion, or two-way immersion, is a language teaching and learning model where English-speaking students are taught/learn a language not just from teachers, but from peers and other members of a school community (parents, grandparents etc.).

Oyster-Adams is the only true two-way public immersion school in DC, because the popular school runs a "Spanish dominant lottery" filling around 40% of seats. Applicants can't enter the lottery simply because at least one parent is a native speaker - they must clear an interview bar. Mundo Verde and LAMB are not far behind Oyster, with around a third of students mainly speak Spanish at home (with percentages dropping year on year).  In dual immersion programs, many of the conversations outside classrooms happen in the target language, and kids do a good deal of code mixing.  At YY, where an estimated 1-2% of students mainly speak Chinese at home, one-way immersion rules the day.

I'm guessing the reason YY community uses the term "heritage speakers" to refer to Chinese Americans is because language dominant lotteries aren't allowed in DC charters. It's not a term I've heard in ABC circles, or college Mandarin-for-Chinese-speakers classes. Without any screening of students for native-speaking ability, it's impossible to know how well Chinese-Americans (and a few Chinese speakers who aren't American) in the community speak Chinese. So they are termed heritage speakers to avoid offending anybody, other than the children adopted from China by non-Chinese parents.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics