Reply to Immersion and other language classes in schools. Which language and why?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Once a wk language classes don't do much.  My BFF has had her son in a once a wk program in Mandarin for the past five yrs since he was five.  He is nowhere near fluent but maybe advanced beginner in speaking and certainly not literate.  It's a struggle to get him to speak Mandarin at all and almost always will answer back in English even when spoken to in Mandarin.  She is fluent in Mandarin but her husband does not speak it.  According to her, once a wk programs are not worth it.[/quote]

PP here, who made that distinction in the first place: That depends on the age (which of course I should have added to my post). The traditional second language acquisition does not start at age 3 or 4 but in upper elementary or middle school. It's a very different process (and currently undervalued I claim) from language immersion, which seeks to roll learning another language into the process of learning one's "mother tongue". If the second route is what you bank on - probably at some loss of pronunciation but with possible gains in other areas -  then it's still important to provide some early exposure to lay the ground work. That one hour a week does that at this age. Its goal is not fluency. The caveat of course is that language programs (and grades) for older children must matter and be high in quality.

That kids of foreign native speakers sooner or later address their parents in English while in an English-speaking context is as old as language mixing is, as old as civilization that is. No added hours will change that. It happens faster in families that also have English as a family language (e.g. because one spouse is American). There are few techniques that will stem this trend, even in the face of a parent who speaks not a word of English with their children.[/quote]

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