Immersion program

Immersion program
Oct.8 MCPS bulletin of 2007.Vol 50 of no 7
This week I attended a training that on how to reach our second language learners. It was very interesting to note that some of educators do not appreciates that partial immersion will be helpful to them. Many of them believe that it was a waste of money, however, and they fail to recognize the fact that many of these students that their parent pay taxes and they are entitled to learn as other students in an environment that will help them learn better .I was happy that the instructor was able to lay it flat on the table about the need for bilingual education and partial immersion.

There is a need to make all students that English is there second language to master English so that they will be able to integrate into the main stream classes. There are so many problems and a lot of issues facing immersion program, its objective and outcomes. The article was very interesting to me as it touched a lot of aspect about how to reach them and make them learn. A lot of research has been done and is still ongoing about this issue in many of our school district all over the country. The story continues to unfold about immersion, is it effective? Has it worked? And if it has worked to what extent?Many of our students that English is their second language has made it without bilingual education, however, the environment has a lot to do about it.

This partial immersion program teaches math, science, reading/language arts and social studies in Spanish to kindergarten students. Students in Grades 1–4 are taught math and science in Spanish, and fifth graders receive science and social studies instruction in Spanish. Culture classes also are integrated at all levels. Enrollment in the program is 235, a little more than a third of the school population.

The issue is do we like to have total immersion or partial one where the student will have another class to connect with his language to understand the material. The article talks about total immersion as the students start school, these students are not given instruction to help them cope with the problem of language barrier. To me there need to me classroom or a program that will act as a bridge between their mainstream class and their first language in the first and second year, of the students schooling in this country depending on the individual students’ need. However as time goes on the student will start dropping the bilingual program or classes depending on the Standard English proficiency of the student. The exit need to be gradual, the students need to receive some of his/her instruction in the primary language as well as English during the first year of their school, later changes can be made on how instructions are given depending on the students .Immersion can then follow at this time as the student can read, write and communicate to some extent in English.

I read another article by Stephen Krashen Education?” in it I think this is good in the sense that the research orientation is combination of both interpretive and critical, it touches various ways our bilingual students must be reached and also stresses on the implication of each method. It impacts education because if our bilingual students are not reached it will affect our schools and the society as a whole. The teachers will have a high time with them and they, the bilingual students will be struggling in schools and this might eventually lead to their dropping out of school and eventually become a nuisance to the community and the society as a whole. The author’s theoretical framework is that of developmental as these students need to receive the write education in order to be integrated in the main stream class room. There is also a relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives here as he said that research is ongoing. In this country bilingual education has been an issue .Every state operates a different bilingual education program rang from ESL instruction, sheltered subject matter teaching, immersion and instruction in the first language. Many researches have been done and are still on going research to see the importance and how effective it is going.

This article contribute to my understanding of the problems as it made me to think about how I will be able to reach all my students and make them move further and be successful in school and in the society. This will affect my instruction in the sense that I will diversify in my instruction and integrate it in my curriculum; one can explore different customs and teach students. I can teach them basic languages of their peers like greetings. This will make the students interested in learning. I can ask the students to bring something from their culture and explain its importance to other students in class. I will create a classroom environment the same as what they are use to. Celebrate the different cultures and countries festivals, dress and music’s. As an educator I will embrace all cultural, I will inquire about the different cultural and include the different customs in my warms ups. Partial immersion is very good as it include some good bilingual educations that have yielded good result in different states .