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Two‐Way Immersion Education: Students Learning Through Two Languages
Author(s) -
CHRISTIAN DONNA
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4781.1996.tb01139.x
Subject(s) - immersion (mathematics) , mathematics education , psychology , computer science , mathematics , pure mathematics
In a growing number of schools in the U.S., students are learning through two languages in programs that aim to develop dual language proficiency along with academic achievement. These two‐way immersion programs integrate language minority and language majority students and provide content area instruction and language development in two languages. This article provides a picture of the current state of two‐way immersion education in the U.S. based on a study (undertaken between 1991 and 1994) of over 160 schools. Two‐way programs typically share the goals of bilingual proficiency, academic achievement, and positive crosscultural attitudes and behaviors, but they vary a good deal in the approaches and strategies they use to work toward those goals. A host of local factors affect such issues as student enrollment, program design, and instructional features. Emerging results of studies of two‐way immersion programs point to their effectiveness in educating nonnative‐English‐speaking students, their promise of expanding our nation's language resources by conserving the native language (L1) skills of minority students and developing second language (L2) skills in English‐speaking students, and their hope of improving relationships between majority and minority groups by enhancing crosscultural understanding and appreciation.