Language teacher education is widely identified as one of the most important areas that needs addressing in order to improve early language instruction, yet research into teacher education for early language teachers remains relatively sparse. This volume responds to this gap by compiling studies with diverse methodological tenets from a wide…

According to 2016-2017 school enrollment data, 31.6% of K-5 students were English Learners (ELs) in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Of the many languages spoken at home by students, the most popular languages other than English are Spanish (19.14%) and Cantonese (15.88%). To respond to their needs, SFUSD offers programming that…

The Atse Kituwah Academy (New Kituwah Academy) houses the new Cherokee immersion school in Cherokee, North Carolina. Cherokee is located on the Qualla Boundary in the mountains of the western part of the state, the contemporary homeland of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). In 2005, a comprehensive study of the health of the Cherokee…

This article describes the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (PVCICS), a regional public charter school in western Massachusetts, which opened in 2007 and the only Chinese immersion school in New England. The school draws students from over twenty-five towns and cities in a predominantly rural area of Massachusetts that includes the…

The impetus to begin Bilingual Buds came about six years ago when the author, pregnant with twins and commuting into New York City, was reading about the numerous cognitive benefits for children of acquiring a second language early in their lives. She was surprised to learn that even by the age of six months, children begin to lose the ability to…

Immersion programmes in primary schools have gained more and more recognition over the last decades. Every new immersion school faces the problem of providing a concept which will be put into practise with the help of personnel who have normally not been trained specifically for this task. The purpose of this guide is to answer frequently asked…

Presents an overview of 14 immersion education programs in the United States. Discusses (1) program origin, (2) program format, (3) program articulation, (4) student background, (5) program funding, (6) factors contributing to program focus, and (7) research results. (EKN)

Examines several of the key decisions to be made when designing a program model for an elementary school foreign language program and relates them to the three most common forms of elementary school programs: FLES, FLEX, and immersion, and to the resources that may be available to a local community. (SED)

Presents an evaluation of the partial French immersion program offered in the English schools of the Ottawa Roman Catholic Separate School Board from grades one to four. Variables under study include pupil skills in English and French, teacher ratings of classroom behavior, and parental views. (Author/MES)

About 360 students in 5 schools write, read, or speak only the Hawaiian language while they are at school. English is not introduced into the curriculum until the fifth grade. Although the four-year program has its critics, by most accounts it has been successful. (MLF)

This workbook is intended as a text for the learner of German as a foreign language. The workbook is complete with exercises that require students to provide information about themselves. Students provide information by reading questions and filling in the blanks. Questions are asked about families, friends, likes and dislikes, hobbies, and even…

The purpose of this study was to enlist practitioners in language immersion programs in the identification and elaboration of issues and challenges in immersion language teaching. Through focus groups and extensive individual interviews, 6 elementary Spanish-language immersion teachers in 3 school settings served as informants. (Author/VWL)

Describes immersion programs currently in operation in Finland and Spain. Both are based on the Canadian model and are perhaps the start of an overall trend in Europe toward multiculturalism and multilingualism. (LET)

This guide contains daily lesson plans for a 4-week, 4-hour a day immersion program for an introductory German-as-a-foreign-language program. The program uses repetition, gestures, realia, puppets, and comprehension-based activities such as Total Physical Response; it also uses illustrations designed to promote the goals of comprehension,…

Although foreign language education has much to offer this nation, few educators or parents support such programs. Possible reasons for this situation are discussed. Immersion programs for foreign language education have achieved success with elementary school children. (DF)