The immersion experience in an international context

1
The immersion experience in an international
context

• Conference theme
• Strengthening the Gaelscoil
• November, 2007
• Richard Johnstone

2
Characteristics of immersion

• Immersion Maintenance Submersion
• Models of immersion
• Early middle late
• Total partial
• Social-cultural reasons for immersion

3
Outcomes Published examples

• Genesee review of published research (1987)
• EFI superior to MFI superior to LFI
• EFI children lagged behind mainstream
  counterparts in E reading, spelling and written
  vocabulary in Grades 1-3, but they caught up
  thereafter. Standardised tests of mathematics,
  science and English Language Arts showed that
  elementary schooling FI had no negative effects
  in these areas

4
Outcomes Published examples

• Lapkin, Hart Swain (1991)
• Compared EFI with MFI in metropolitan Toronto
  across 4 boards and 26 classes
• EFI outperformed MFI in L, S, R , W French
• EFI were nearer to NS on all four measures
• By Grade 8 the differences between the two groups
  were so significant that it would not be
  approriate for the two groups to be merged.

5
Outcomes Published examples

• Peel Board of Education (Canada, 1992)
• Compared EFI (5220 hours) with extended French
  (1260 hours) by end of Grade 8
• EFI significantly outperformed the extended
  learners in French L, S and R but not in W

6
Outcomes published examples

• Thomas, Collier Abbott (USA, 1993)
• EPI in Spanish, French and Japanese over grades
  1-3, compared with comparison . English
  language groups.
• All groups matched for cognitive abilities,
  economic status, ethnic grouping and first
  language
• In mathematics, the EPI groups did at least as
  well as the Comparison groups in Grades 1, 2 and
  3
• In English Language Arts, the EPIs were
  significantly outperforming the Comparison groups
  by end of grade 2.

7
Initial weaknesses in form-meaning connections

• Harley (1991) It is clear that although
  immersion students demonstrate excellent
  understanding of language in context, this cannot
  be taken as firm evidence that they have
  correctly identified all the form-meaning
  connections involved. They become adept at
  inferring global meaning, using clues in the
  surrounding discourse or in the external
  situation. One example of the discrepancy between
  global comprehension and oral production is in
  their use of conditional forms. Grade 1 early
  immersion student are readily able to comprehend
  conditional sentences and can translate them into
  English, but years later in Grade 10, we find
  some students still have trouble with
  conditionals in their oral production.
• Dicks (1994) found major errors in immersion
  learners command of the perfect and imperfect
  tenses in oral communication
• Since then, much development and research has
  been focused on finding ways of helping immersion
  pupils to refine and gain greater control over
  their internalised language systems.

8
Recent key processes of immersion education

• Comprehensible input is not enough
• Can lead to plateau-effect
• Interaction (unbalanced), with teacher playing a
  key role
• Going beyond mere praise and recasts
• Importance of negative feedback
• Encouragement of syntactic as well as semantic
  processing
• Learners learning to monitor their own
  spontaneous output

9
Outcomes of immersion

• Proficiency in the IL and the L1
• Learning of other subject-matter
• Metalinguistic awareness
• Intercultural awareness
• Cognitive flexibility (long-term)
• Self-esteem and self-awareness
• Attrition?

10
What immersion should not by itself be expected
to achieve

• Native-speakers
• Maintenance of a threatened speech community
• So, in what ways can Gaelic-immersion at school
  and the Gaelic community at large and the wider
  national community support each other?

11
Factors and Outcomes
12
Factors and Outcomes Education
13
What types of IL-related proficiency?
14
What types of IL-related proficiency?
15
What types of IL-related proficiency?
16
High Context / High CognitiveQuadrant 3

• Spoken language with social and cultural
  connotations, subtlety, metaphor, idiom etc in
  specific, concrete visual situations, maybe
  referring to written or visual (static or moving)
  products
• Spoken language in higher discourse functions
  ICT, e.g. PP presentations, e.g. marketing,
  persuading, selling
• Written language embedded in visual contexts,
  e.g. web-sites

17
Scottish Experience Gaelic Immersion

• Census decline for Scottish Gaelic
• 1981, 1991, 2001
• Introduction of bilingual education mid-1970s
• Subsequent strengthening of this to early total
  immersion, following HMI report
• Based very much on parental demand
• Most pupils from English-speaking homes
• Immersed in Scottish Gaelic from Primary 1 or
  earlier
• By 2000, some 54 primary schools with EM and GM
  parallel tracks
• Children tend to become literate in their L2
  (Gaelic) before their L1 (English).
• English gradually blended in but generally not to
  more than 50 by Primary 7.
• Many schools were small rural, so over 33 had
  mixed-age classes.

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Gaelic-Medium Primary EducationNational Research

• National research commissioned to ascertain the
  attainments of pupils receiving GM PE in Scotland
• 54 Primary Schools with GM track, 30 of which had
  reached Primary 7
• Models were either Early Total Immersion or (less
  likely) Bilingual Education
• GM compared with EM in same schools and also
  nationally
• Instruments
• Teachers own assessments of pupils progress
  towards national 5-14 curriculum levels
• National AAP assessments for Science (1996),
  Mathematics (1997) and English (1998)
• Aims
• To compare GM and EM pupils in respect of
  Science, Maths and English
• To ascertain GM pupils progress in Gaelic.
• Outcomes in Primary School Science (1996),
  Mathematics (1997), English (1998)

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Gaelic-medium Education Preliminary Conclusion

• GM Education based on early total immersion can
  help children
• Develop impressive levels of proficiency in two
  languages
• Gain real insight into another culture
• With no demonstrated loss of subject-matter
  competence
• BUT can a threatened speech community survive
• If it is mainly supported through X-medium
  education?

20
Early Partial Immersion (French)

• Walker Road PS, Aberdeen
• First EPI (MFL) in UK
• From Primary 1 onwards
• Limited Bilingual Education model, but much
  stronger than MLPS from P6 in terms of time and
  intensity
• School in area of multiple socio-economic
  disadvantage
• NS teachers qualified for PS teaching, working in
  collaboration with mainstream classteacher, so
  supernumerary provision

21
EPI (French) Outcomes by end P7

• Children able to cope very well with flow of NS
  French on cognitively-demanding subject-matter
• Fluent and confident command of production, both
  speaking and writing, though many pre-fabricated
  utterances
• No evident loss of subject-knowledge, e.g. in
  Mathematics or Environmental Studies
• Clear evidence of greater confidence and
  willingness to communicate in spoken English
• Well ahead of anything that MLPS from P6 onwards
  by drip-feed could achieve
• But ..
• Continuation into Secondary?
• Continuation of funding support from Scottish
  Government?
• Parents strongly in favour of EPI (French) but
  deeply concerned by lack of information about
  above two issues.

22
Partners in Excellence

• ML in the upper secondary school (S4-S6)
• 28 SS across three adjoining local authorities
• Special SEED funding from Excellence initiative
• Aim to establish a Virtual Languages Community

23
PiE Activities

• Residential film-making weekends
• Eventual trickle-down to younger classes
• Immersion visits abroad
• Annual gala dinner for students, parents, staff
  and local and other guests, with
  film-presentations and awards
• Summer schools, e.g. for Animation
• Language Zone website
• Resources for Teaching and Learning
• Information for students and also for parents and
  the public
• Blogs
• Language Surgery (evenings)
• Social networking
• Podcasting, e.g. Special listening texts 25
  difficult verbs

24
PiE Outcomes

• Creation of three interacting real virtual
  communities
• Students S4-S6 across the 28 schools
• Students in partner schools abroad
• Eventually, former PiE students now at university
• Increased uptake into S5 and S6
• Increased performance-levels in national
  examinations
• New types of insight and motivation as perceived
  by students
• Languages are cool
• New sense of self-constructed self
• But
• A comet with a long tail?
• Discontinuation of national funding, hence
  questions about sustainability

25
Some key factors for strenghening immersion

• Time intensity
• Quality of teaching care and interest as well as
  pedogogy
• Supportive school and local authority ethos
• Creation of new communities, virtual and real,
  encouraging new identities and modes of
  communication
• Parental involvement
• Positive public profile to influence media,
  politicians and businesses
• Immersion as problem?, as resource for
  developing potential?, as right? Bakers
  quiet revolution. Pupils and parents as key
  witnesses
• Community support
• Follow-through
• Cultivating the first language and multiple
  literacy
• Strong infrastructure combining policy, practice
  and research

26
Scotland Proposal for National Research
Capacity-building for Gaelic

• Scottish Funding Council HIE BnaG
• 4-year project, beginning 2008
• Universities of UHIMI, Aberdeen, Edinburgh,
  Glasgow, Strathclyde
• Research to support the maintenance and
  revitalisation of Gaelic language and culture
• 4M
• New posts (1 professor, 5 research fellows, 6
  full-time PhD research students, 1 full-time
  administrator)
• Three national multidisciplinary networks
  (Communities Education Policies)
• Three eminent international consultants
• Conferences, seminars, research-training
• Strong links with major national organisations
  and with other countries and key personnel from
  their particular speech communities.