Immersion Education

Diane Tedick is Associate Professor of Second Languages and Cultures Education at the University of Minnesota. For over 20 years she has worked in the preparation of preservice teachers and ongoing professional development of inservice teachers representing a variety of language teaching contexts: immersion and bilingual programs, world languages, and ESL. Her professional and research interests focus on the pedagogy required for successful integration of language and content instruction, student oral language proficiency development in immersion programs, and language teacher development.Donna Christian is a senior fellow at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC (www.cal.org). Her work focuses on the role of language in education and society, with special interests in dual language education, second language learning, dialect diversity, and public policy.Tara Williams Fortune is an Immersion Teaching Specialist and Coordinator of the Immersion Projects at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota. She is founding editor of The American Council on Immersion Education (ACIE) Newsletter, a publication written for and by immersion practitioners that is currently in its 14th year of dissemination. Her professional and research interests focus on struggling immersion learners, K-8 oral proficiency development of immersion students, and language and literacy development in early total Chinese immersion programs.

This collection of cutting-edge research into different immersion contexts and student types around the globe - many of which the field has never read about before - will be of interest not only to researchers, but also to parents, teachers, administrators, program evaluators, and community members. Kudos to the editors for a fascinating compilation.

• Merrill Swain: ForewordDiane J. Tedick, Donna Christian and Tara Williams Fortune: Acknowledgements Introduction to the VolumeDiane J. Tedick, Donna Christian and Tara Williams Fortune: The Future of Immersion Education: An Invitation to ‘Dwell in Possibility’Section I: Practices in Immersion Program DesignSiv Björklund and Karita Mård-Miettinen: Integrating Multiple Languages in Immersion: Swedish Immersion in FinlandWilliam H. Wilson and Kauanoe Kamanā: Insights from Indigenous Language Immersion in Hawaiʻi: The Case of Nāwahī SchoolGareth Diaz Zehrbach: Two-Way Immersion Charter Schools: An Analysis of Program Characteristics and Student Body CompositionsSection II: Program Outcomes and Implications for PracticeKathryn Lindholm-Leary: Student Outcomes in Chinese Two-Way Immersion Programs: Language Proficiency, Academic Achievement, and Student AttitudesEster J. de Jong and Carol I. Bearse: The Same Outcomes for All? High School Students Reflect on Their Two-Way Immersion Program ExperiencesSandra Burger, Alysse Weinberg, Carla Hall, Parvin Movassat, and Amelia Hope: French Immersion Studies at the University of Ottawa: Program Evaluation and Pedagogical ChallengesSection III: Language Use and Assessment Practices in Immersion ProgramsPádraig Ó Duibhir: ‘I thought that we had good Irish’: Irish Immersion Students’ Insights into Their Target Language UseMaggie Broner and Diane J. Tedick: Talking in the 5th Grade Classroom: Language Use in an Early, Total Spanish Immersion ProgramLizette Peter, Gloria Sly and Tracy Hirata-Edds: Using Language Assessment to Inform Instruction in Indigenous Language ImmersionSection IV: Policy and Practice in Immersion EducationPhilip Hoare: Context and Constraints: Immersion in Hong Kong and Mainland ChinaLisa Dorner: US Immigrants and Two-Way Immersion Policies: The Mismatch between District Designs and Family ExperiencesTara Williams Fortune: Struggling Learners and the Language Immersion ClassroomConcluding Synthesis Chapter for the Volume Fred Genesee: Reflecting on Possibilities for Immersion