Immersion Research & Resources

• The Two Way Immersion Toolkit
  Click Here to Open PDF
  This Toolkit is meant to be a resource for teachers, parents, and administrators involved with twoway immersion (TWI) programs, particularly those at the elementary level.
• What Parents Want to Know About Immersion Programs
  Click Here to Open PDFThis digest answers some of the most common questions that parents and others ask about foreign language immersion education:
  • What is a foreign language immersion program and how does it work?
  • Why should I consider enrolling my child in an immersion program?
  • How will learning everything in a second language affect my child’s English language and literacy development?
  • Will my child become proficient in the second language? How long will that take?
  • Is immersion an appropriate choice for all children?
  • What can I do to support my child’s immersion experience if I don’t speak the second language?

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• Children’s Learning Strategies in Language Immersion Classrooms
  Click Here to Open PDF
  This paper reports on an investigation of learning strategy applications in elementary
  foreign language immersion classrooms. The focus of this paper is on identifying strategies more and less-effective learners use for classroom reading and writing tasks in the target language.
• What Parents Want to Know about Foreign Language Immersion Programs
  Parents who are considering an immersion program for their child usually have many questions. This digest provides introductory responses to some of the questions most commonly posed by parents.
• Raising Bilingual Children: Common Parental Concerns and Current Research
  This digest reviews common parental concerns related to bilingual child-rearing and shares the current science on bilingual child development.
• Chinese Language Learning in the Early Grades
  Resources and best practices for Mandarin learning.
• The Astounding Effectiveness of Dual Language Education for All
  This is a research report and a wake up call to the field of bilingual education.

Popular Press

• More Area Schools Embrace Chinese-Immersion Method
  When kindergartners arrive at their Mandarin Immersion classroom next week for their first day of class, they will be allowed to speak English only on the playground and at a few other times. Most classes will be taught in Chinese.
• Why Bilinguals Are Smarter
  In recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.
• Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Sort out Language
  Once, experts feared that young children exposed to more than one language would suffer “language confusion,” which might delay their speech development. Today, parents often are urged to capitalize on that early knack for acquiring language.
• The Bilingual Advantage
  Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.
• Being Bilingual May Boost Your Brainpower
  Research suggests that the growing numbers of bilingual speakers may have an advantage that goes beyond communication: It turns out that being bilingual is also good for your brain.
• The Benefits of Multilingualism
  The advantages that multilinguals exhibit over monolinguals are not restricted to linguistic knowledge only, but extend outside the area of language. The substantial long-lived cognitive, social, personal, academic, and professional benefits of enrichment bilingual contexts have been well documented.
• K-8 Foreign Language Demand Up
  Parents are increasingly requesting and demanding language immersion programs for their children – despite the red tape.
• Myths about Bilingualism
  Have you felt discouraged or overwhelmed at the prospect of pursuing a Mandarin Immersion education for your child. This site reviews many of the myths of pursuing a bilingual education for your child.
• Learning Languages ‘Boosts Brain’
  Learning a second language “boosts” brain-power, scientists believe.
• Bilingualism good for the brain, researchers say.
  The skill helps improve multitasking and prioritizing, and helps ward off early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, experts say.
• Foreign Languages Fade in Class – Except Chinese
  Thousands of public schools stopped teaching foreign languages in the last decade, according to government-financed survey, while a rush by schools in all parts of America to offer instruction in Chinese.
• Could Bilingual Education Mold Kids’ Brains to Better Resist Distraction
  This article explores new research that suggests that when people learn another language, they develop cognitive advantages that improve their attention, self-control and ability to deal with conflicting information.

All Mandarin Immersion K-12 Schools

The Mandarin Immersion Parents Council recently released an updated list of all Mandarin Immersion Programs nationwide.

Clicking on the link below will open an Excel spread sheet containing all the Mandarin immersion K – 12 schools they have been able to find in the United States and Internationally. It was last updated on Aug. 7, 2012.

This list is limited the list to full-time immersion schools which teach at least 50% of the time in Mandarin. That’s why there are no preschools or Saturday schools on it.

If your school is not listed, or is listed incorrectly, please contact MIPC.

by: Beth Weise, Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

MIP list 8-7-2012