Sixth International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education: Connecting Research and Practice Across Contexts

Paper/Best Practice Session (1 hour)

English (L2) and Portuguese (L1)

One-Way Second/Foreign Language Immersion

Elementary (K-5)

In this session we will explore three research-based biliteracy tools used in a Brazilian immersion school to improve L2 output while strengthening L1: cross-language connections in a bilingual read-aloud project, strategies to foster better vocabulary development, and a "side-by-side" writing assessment tool.

This presentation will explore a second grade one-way immersion classroom in Brazil were we used the work of three researchers  to come up with  practices that would not only engage our students but also produce better language output in L2 and L1. 

Participants will first explore Dr. Roy Lyster's and Dr. Susan Ballanger's read-aloud project conducted in the Montreal area and how this applies to other school settings.  We will show how using the same book in two languages, delivered in sequence (chapter one in L1, 2 in L2 etc), would not only engage our young learners but create much more collaboration between the L1 and L2 language teachers.  We will examine some of the initial research that needed to be changed/adapted to fit our setting, and give participants some basic do’s and don’ts when setting up.  Our results show that students were highly engaged and we were better able to teach reading skillls. 

From here we will look at Dr. Isabella Beck’s work ‘3 tiers’ of vocabulary and how this relates to helping our students become better readers in the L2 classroom.  This will be a critical step in the process to alert participants to the importance of planning and pre-selecting words to teach in immersions as well as in L1. 

Finally we will look at how we went from reading to writing (balanced literacy) and then assessed students output using Dr. Kathy Escamilla’s ‘side-by-side’ writing tool.  Essential here is to show what from this work translates well to immersion and what does not.  

Beck, I., McKeown, M., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing Words to Life, Second Edition: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. The Guilford Press.

Escamilla, K., Hopewell, S., Sandra, B., Wendy, S., Lucinda, S.-G., & Olivia, R.-F. (2014). Biliteracy from the Start; Literacy Squared in Action. Philadelphia, USA: Caslon Publishing.

Fortune, T., & Tedick, D. (2001). The Six Prototypical Written Text Types (Genres) of Schooling. MN, USA: Handout in the CobalTT Summer Institute for Teachers.

Lyster, R. Collins, L., Ballanger, S. (2009).  Linking languages through a bilingual read-aloud project.  Langugage Awareness Journal Vol. 18, No. 3–4, August–November 2009, 366–383