Seventh International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education

Strand III: Program Design, Development and Evaluation

English, German, multiple

Elementary (K-5)

In Germany, IM programs still have a distinct elitist reputation, and students with cognitive problems are often prevented from attending them. To this end, we examined the linguistic achievements of students with and without attention deficits in German-English elementary school IM programs.

The children with AD(H)D were selected on the basis of the results in a standardized test on attention, they had a German background and did not exhibit any other deficits. Their results in standardized tests on L1 German and L2 English were compared to peers without AD(H)D.

The results indicate that the AD(H)D students were outperformed by their peers with an age-appropriate attention span. However, they still benefited from attending IM programs because their L2 test results were considerably better than those of comparable children in mainstream programs. The rest of the session will be devoted to teaching strategies and best practice examples catering for AD(H)D students in IM classrooms.