Reply to Why does everyone prioritize language immersion?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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, [b]and the language isn't Spanish[/b], 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]

But almost all the bilingual programs are Spanish here. I imagine many in French at Stokes have a familial connection to French. So you're really just talking about Sela and Yu Ying. [/quote]

That said, I do think it's important to have a desire to really HAVE your child speak a second language, as your priority, not any of the "brain boosts" or whatnot. It's not a minor thing that just kind of makes the school better, abstractly. I wish those enrolling at bilingual schools all felt strongly about the language itself, and the accompanying culture, and weren't just applying because of the rankings (top level Tier 1's). I think that is pretty clearly the case with a few families.[/quote]

The problem is that there aren't enough good-quality schools in DC.  If there were, then parents who want language immersion could choose a good school that has language immersion, and parents who don't could choose a good school without language immersion.  But as-is, there are so few good schools that you have to get lucky to get into any of them.[/quote]

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