Session 1 How does my child learn Japanese/Spanish/English in immersion class...Mike Yamakawa
presented during Immersion Parent Partnership meeting. The presentation explains how immersion students learn their L2 in foreign/dual language immersion classrooms.
This series of parent meetings are titled “Demystifying Immersion Education.” Some of you may be wondering how these children, being as young as 5 years old, start developing a second language while we adults struggle to remember only few words in another language? What is really happening in these so-called Spanish/Japanese “immersion” classrooms? Well, today, it is my intention to show you that how your child learns a second language in one of these classrooms is not mystery, but it is the result of a very effective bilingual teaching method called language immersion.
This series of parent meetings are titled “Demystifying Immersion Education.” Some of you may be wondering how these children, being as young as 5 years old, start developing a second language while we adults struggle to remember only few words in another language? What is really happening in these so-called Spanish/Japanese “immersion” classrooms? Well, today, it is my intention to show you that how your child learns a second language in one of these classrooms is not mystery, but it is the result of a very effective bilingual teaching method called language immersion.
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In a immersion classroom, a student is being immersed in a very language-rich context. However, this does not translate into becoming proficient in that language, as much as being in the water makes anyone to become a good swimmer. The person in the water needs to move her hands and feet and kick water trying to move forward. When a student in an immersion classroom tries to pay attention to her surroundings and to “make sense” of what is going on by picking up second language input, she is benefiting from being immersed in the language.