Immersion school for K/1 grader?

[SnegurochkaL]

Hi, I am homeschooling my kids, but there is an opportunity to send my K/1 grader to an Immersion school in our area. It is a public school, which I am not happy about, but it gives an opportunity to be surrounded by a foreign language from the beginning. I am thinking about Japanese vs Chinese, in favor of Japanese because we have a lot of Japanese children movies, books/ study materials and I studied Japanese before. He is already surrounded by Russian, going to German K and learning some French along side with Latin and Greek this year. So, adding 1 more new language will be not a such big deal. He is academically working on 1 grade curriculum this year.

If you sent your child to an immersion school, how long did he/she study there? What was your experience with it?

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

I did not send my kids to an immersion school because I am not *allowed* to. However, politics aside, I've seen others do it. And based on what I've seen, one year is usually enough to reach a decent level of the target language. Of course, if you send a first grader, he will leave at the end of the year with a first grader's mastery of the target language; enough for conversation, not enough for literature. The more you leave a child in, the more they will grow with that language, and may eventually lose his mother tongue - which is why I'm not allowed to send my kids to English school. There's a law to protect the French tongue here, so if you're French speaking, English schools are out of bounds, but if you're English speaking you get to choose. :001_huh:

[SnegurochkaL]

Thanks a lot for your reply. I haven't made my mind yet. My husband is opposed to public schools at all. I agree with him, but an immersion school is something different. My son will be bored to death in a regular school, but subjects taught in a different language could be more amusing to him. I do not want to live my child there more than a couple of years, and I can continue to teach him at home later on. He wants to be an engineer so he decided to study language of the country which "produce" a lot of innovations so Japanese was his choice ( besides Russian and German:). He is only "4".

My daughter wished she would be taught everything in French:), but she wasn't qualified when the school was established(we were living outside the covered area),and now she would need to "catch" up following the younger students.

[Laura Corin]

How would you continue the language if you took your child out again after a year or two? Languages are acquired very fast at that age but are also lost very fast.

 

Laura

[Riverland]

I convinced the public school to allow my son into the ESL program designed for kids whose primary language was Spanish. The vast majority of the teaching was delivered in Spanish, with a bit in English. He was in the program from Kindergarten - 2nd grade. After that, the school district switches to nearly all English instruction for the ESL program.

 

My ds was nearly fluent in Spanish after these 3 years. The hard part, though, was keeping him that way. For awhile, I enforced watching tv and videos in Spanish, but as he got older, the enforcement got harder. He is now a 9th grader and is absolutely not fluent anymore. However, he is definitely in a better position than kids without his background. No doubt about it. Last year in public school he had Spanish 1, and his classmates were in awe that he could hold conversations with the teacher.

 

Many of his soccer teammates/friends are Mexican. The families will frequently do small talk with him in Spanish, so that definitely helps. But, not using a language on a regular basis will cause a dramatic loss in retention.

 

I do not regret for one minute taking this route with him. He's no longer fluent, but I still think there will be great long term benefits for his brain. He is also academically advanced and wouldn't have learned a thing in regular classes anyway.

[SnegurochkaL]

How would you continue the language if you took your child out again after a year or two? Languages are acquired very fast at that age but are also lost very fast.

 

Laura

 

I do speak/read some Japanese not as fluent as I would like to be, but I can teach him at home later on. Public school setting is something I am not quiet happy about. I have an accelerated/gifted son who would be bored if something is below his level. I am looking at some option without a definite decision making at this point. He still have 1 more year before he goes anywhere. He already has some exposure to Japanese language by watching cartoons/ reading alouds etc. We are considering him going to German language school on Saturdays in a couple of years, so he can not attend some Japanese classes in a different than an Immersion school location. I have a close friend who lives in Japan, so he could chat with my friend's daughters through Skype or some other sources.

 

I convinced the public school to allow my son into the ESL program designed for kids whose primary language was Spanish. The vast majority of the teaching was delivered in Spanish, with a bit in English. He was in the program from Kindergarten - 2nd grade. After that, the school district switches to nearly all English instruction for the ESL program.

 

My ds was nearly fluent in Spanish after these 3 years. The hard part, though, was keeping him that way. For awhile, I enforced watching tv and videos in Spanish, but as he got older, the enforcement got harder. He is now a 9th grader and is absolutely not fluent anymore. However, he is definitely in a better position than kids without his background.

 

I do not regret for one minute taking this route with him. He's no longer fluent, but I still think there will be great long term benefits for his brain. He is also academically advanced and wouldn't have learned a thing in regular classes anyway.

 

That is exactly what I feel about it.

Edited September 15, 2011 by SneguochkaL

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

The person I know who put their children in Spanish immersion didn't keep up with the language. The kids are now 16 and 15, and don't remember anything. Except that they can still roll their r like little Spanish kids. The pronounciation you learn as a child seems to stick with you, and the language itself will come back easily.

 

I don't know if this applies to little kids, but I learned Spanish as a teen, became flluent and then didn't keep it going. Even now, some 30 years later, it takes me just a little immersion to get my Spanish going. I won't reach the same level as I once was, but it's amazing how quickly it comes back. At least the listening part, and the reading. Speaking and writing (the output) are still a challenge but it's easier than starting from scratch.

[Laura Corin]

The person I know who put their children in Spanish immersion didn't keep up with the language. The kids are now 16 and 15, and don't remember anything. Except that they can still roll their r like little Spanish kids. The pronounciation you learn as a child seems to stick with you, and the language itself will come back easily.

 

 

What I learned was that if you can keep a language going until age 13 or so, then you can drop it and pick it back up again later. Anything you drop earlier than that will disappear, although the pronunciation ability that you mention is interesting.

 

Laura

[burckeri]

Languages are acquired very fast at that age but are also lost very fast.

 

I agree with this. My son attended a French-language school full-time for junior kindergarten. By the end of the year, he was reasonably fluent in French at a 5-year-old-appropriate level. For various reasons, we decided that full-time wasn't the best for him, so we moved him to a French immersion school for half-time senior kindergarten. He was still exposed to French at school 2-3 days a week (although mixed with instruction in English, and the kids weren't expected to speak French all the time), he watched tv shows in French fairly regularly, and I read him books in French (over a dozen simple chapter books and numerous picture books). He maintained his comprehension skills but I was amazed by how much he lost his productive ability. He struggled to respond to simple questions I asked him in French, when I know he could have answered them quickly and easily the year before. He's now a month into grade 1 back at the French-language school and his speaking ability is improving rapidly. At the end of his first week of school, his teacher sent home a permission slip for their remedial reading program. I signed it, even though I didn't think it was necessary. Three days after he started, they figured out that he didn't need it. He is able to pick up the simple books they do in grade 1 and pretty much just read them (he reads at about a grade 2 or 3 level in English). I keep thinking about homeschooling full-time (I currently afterschool), but I'm afraid that even with structured curriculum like CNED, his French would suffer. He'll be in school at least for this school year; we'll make a decision about next year in the spring.

 

Erin

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

but I'm afraid that even with structured curriculum like CNED, his French would suffer.

 

And it is a valid fear. My kids both attempted foreign languages with CNED (the instruction is much more demanding than with an American program). They both read and write with ease but neither can speak. For that, you really need access to native speakers, even if it's just a tutor once or twice a week.

[AEinMd]

I'm coming in a bit late but think I can add to this discussion. My kids attended immersion schools for much of their education. From K-1, it was all in a foreign language. After that, their English time increased from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. In grades 6 and 7, they had only 2 hrs daily in the foreign language. In grades 8-10 or 8-11 (they finished in different years), they had just 1 period a day in the foreign language, studying literature and reviewing grammar.

 

They are fluent. I saw a number of students leave the program (often because parents were concerned about their lack of English skills). If they completed grade 5, they always had a solid knowledge of the language-- not college-level, but able to speak and understand well and a decent ability to read and write. (Writing suffers the most.) If they made it through grade 8, they were fine. If they made it though the high school classes, the better students were able to go to university in that language or in English. (The English bounces back in high school.) If they quit before grade 5, it was not very useful.

 

I did a recent amount of research and the pronunciation is acquired in childhood. Also, it makes a big difference in the target language if the immersion is full day or half-day although the difference in English is small. (In other words, kids in full-day immersion have a much greater knowledge of the foreign language than kids in part-day immersion.)

 

I think the real question is how well do you want the child to learn the language? If you want your child to have a smattering of languges, then it makes sense to put him in for a year or two. If you want your child to be able to function in the language, I would suggest you keep him there for a good 5 years in that age range. If, however, you want your child to be able to function professionally in the language, you may want to consider even more years. I am happy with our decision.