Bilingual Immersion Education Essay

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Monoglossic type: A monoglossic model starts with the student’s first language and supports the acquisition of a second language, but as a separate entity (Garcia, 2009, p. 129).
Bilingual Immersion Education is an example of a monoglosic model. The first Bilingual Immersion Education program was developed in the 1960’s in Canada. This program was developed as a response to middle -income English speaking parents in Canada who wanted their children to value the French culture and their traditions as well as the traditions and values of the English speaking Canadians. Immersion programs utilize the target language in the curriculum and in the delivery of instruction. The content of the instruction is the same as the majority curriculum. There is an explicit support for the home language as well as culture. The teachers are bilingual, but instruct the students in the target language. This model type consists of the stages. The first stage is the early immersion stage in which students begin second language learning from the ages of 5 to 6 years old; the teachers speak in the target language utilizing strategies to help the children acquire the target language. The middle immersion stage the students begin from ages 9 to 10 years old. During the late immersion stage, students begin from the ages of 11 to 14 years old and have already been educated in their home language. Bilingual Immersion includes three types of immersion programs; total immersion, partial immersion and two way immersion. In a total immersion program, students are immersed in the second language 100% of the school day. In a partial immersion model the students typically spend half of their school day utilizing the target language. Another model is ...

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...uage while learning English with the end results being academic proficiency in both languages. The premise of this type of program is that first language skills are transferred to a second language. The change in bilingual education policies at the end of the twentieth century came about due to the understanding that it was essential to develop the home language and not just to maintain it. Academic proficiency in the home language is a must in order for those proficiencies to transfer to a second language. The late exit program falls under the developmental model umbrella. Students in this program remain in the program throughout elementary school. Content as well as literacy is taught in the native language while learning English. These students are placed in all English classes after elementary (Garica, 2009, p. 128).

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