When I think of world language programs, I typically think of high school language classes first. It is uncommon to hear about learning a second language in elementary schools, is more common to hear about students beginning to learn a target language in middle school, and it is most common that students can study at least four years of a language in a high school. Therefore, in Chapter 4 of The Teacher’s Handbook, it was so intriguing to learn about the different program models available for elementary aged children. The one that stood out to me was the immersion program. I thought it was amazing that this program is content based, and the target language is used 50-100% of the school day. I like that reading is taught through the second language in this program. I think that learning other subject areas in a target language allows students to pick up on grammatical structures and gain an expanded vocabulary without spending all of their time focusing on these aspects. The students can still be engaged in another topic, like a story they have read, or a math problem they are working on, and become more proficient in the language by being challenged to communicate on these topics that may not be taught to them on vocabulary lists or out of the book. I think this program model is more realistic and more beneficial.
This program model was demonstrated in the video we watched in class on October 28, 2014. The video demonstrated a French teacher with his class of kindergarten students who participate in a full-immersion French class. In the segment we watched, I found a few things striking. The teacher commented that the students had only been in the class for about nine weeks, but all of them seemed to understand everything the teacher was saying; I made this inference when I noticed that each time the teacher asked a different student a question, every single one of them could correctly answer him, even though they had to use English to respond. Another striking feature of this class was that the teacher did not use English one time. Each time a student said something in English, he repeated back to them what they said in French. In order for the students to better understand him in French, he used gestures which seemed to work great. The teacher was extremely aware and knowledgeable of the level his students were at, which is very important. For example, the teacher wanted to read to them the book about the chicken pox, but knew the vocabulary and grammar was far beyond their comprehension levels. Therefore, he continued to teach from the book, but paraphrased what the pages were saying so that the students could better understand him. I believe this immersion class will be successful due to the teacher’s dedication and patience, as well as how engaging the class was for the students. I would love to teach a class like this one day.
This program model was demonstrated in the video we watched in class on October 28, 2014. The video demonstrated a French teacher with his class of kindergarten students who participate in a full-immersion French class. In the segment we watched, I found a few things striking. The teacher commented that the students had only been in the class for about nine weeks, but all of them seemed to understand everything the teacher was saying; I made this inference when I noticed that each time the teacher asked a different student a question, every single one of them could correctly answer him, even though they had to use English to respond. Another striking feature of this class was that the teacher did not use English one time. Each time a student said something in English, he repeated back to them what they said in French. In order for the students to better understand him in French, he used gestures which seemed to work great. The teacher was extremely aware and knowledgeable of the level his students were at, which is very important. For example, the teacher wanted to read to them the book about the chicken pox, but knew the vocabulary and grammar was far beyond their comprehension levels. Therefore, he continued to teach from the book, but paraphrased what the pages were saying so that the students could better understand him. I believe this immersion class will be successful due to the teacher’s dedication and patience, as well as how engaging the class was for the students. I would love to teach a class like this one day.