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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please don't crucify me for asking, but I really don't understand why so many parents prioritize language immersion. I fell prey to this myself and was crushed when we didn't get our top pick in the lottery. However, now that i know my child better, I'm fairly certain DC would have struggled in a dual language environment. And as a result, we would have struggled as a family to support DC.

Are there academic studies that show immersion is really better? Or is this this just the current parent obsession?[/quote]

We had the option of a language immersion or English track and we chose the English track and it was the right decision.  We were more interested in the kids learning how to read and write well in English and be able to learn math and science in English.   The foreign language track can be another obstacle for some kids.[/quote]

Good for you.  Language immersion programs are faddish.  They come at the expense of learning English.  If an American family has no real connection to to the culture or language, and the language isn't Spanish, the likelihood that the kid will still speak the language as teenagers, let alone adults, isn't high.  New research indicates that the famous "cognitive boost" bilingual adults enjoy is pretty much BS. [/quote]

The problem really is that the quality of most of the language immersion programs in the US is not high and the society is monolingual, so there is no real culture context to support a second language learning. While kids in the multilingual part of the world might enjoy this "cognitive boost", kids in the US who have limited exposure might not.  [/quote]

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