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What is Immersion?
"Immersion is defined as a method of
foreign language instruction in which the
regular curriculum is taught through the
medium of the language. The foreign
language is the vehicle for content
instruction; it is not the subject of
instruction." (Center of Applied
Linguistics)
Benefits of Immersion
- Immersion provides children with an
expanded vision of other cultures,
insight into themselves, and new and
different ways of thinking.
- Immersion programs produce students
who speak the second language as
naturally as their mother tongue.
- Results from immersion programs
reveal that their students score equal
to, or better than, non-immersion
students on reading and math tests in
their native language.
- Results from Canadian and U.S.
research show that most children in
immersion programs not only learn the
second language, but also their own
language with clarity.
- Learning a second language
facilitates the learning of a third
language.
- Students of foreign languages have
access to a greater number of career
possibilities and develop a deeper
understanding of their own and of other
cultures
Bilingual teaching - "the best of the two
worlds."
Journal Français published in America, September
1997
Acquiring a second language implies that the
child starts learning at a young age. Then,
acquiring French is done without any difficulty:
after more or less a year, the children will be able
to express themselves correctly, without accent.
The best way to insure a well-balanced bilingualism
is to insure a regular and stimulating contact in
both languages. The richness of their expression
will also depend on their family environment, their
involvement in their studies, and the vacations
spent in France.
At the end of their school years, the children
will be able to live in one country or the other,
because language is a vehicle for culture too.
Generally speaking, the French system offers an
academic excellence and structure, really
appreciated by a lot of concerned American parents.
In French-American schools, they teach children "the
best of the two worlds". They associate the
French discipline and thought structure to the
American thinking and oral skills, which develops
autonomy, creativity and self-confidence in the
children. Bilingual children can learn other
languages later far more easily; according to
different Head of schools, they are one or two years
ahead of the other children in American schools.
Local and national tests put them among the best
American students. Children learn thinking tools
from each culture, and are thus learning that
each problem can be seen from different
perspectives.
Thinking diversity thus mastered, they go
further in their intellectual process. Moreover,
the children are able to go beyond their
ethnocentrism and are ready to multiculturalism.
This sensibility is obviously reinforced by the
multicultural environment provided by schoolmates
and teachers.
Understanding several language and several
cultures enables to be more open to diversity, and
also leads to a better self-knowledge.
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