Seventh International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education

Strand I: Pedagogy & Assessment

Spanish

Elementary (K-5)

Most of the studies in immersion programs have followed cross-sectional designs and not many has tracked elementary immersion students’ progress longitudinally for periods longer than a year (Nakamoto et al., 2008). Longitudinal research in immersion programs is scarce and sorely needed to understand language development over time (Tedick & Wesely, 2015). In this presentation, I am reporting initial findings of a three-year longitudinal study with six Spanish immersion students by using CAF (complexity, accuracy, fluency) measures to track narrative language development over time. At this point, data have been collected three times in second grade and once in third grade by video-recording students narrative story retellings. Preliminary results present a wide range of gains in CAF measures. Some students are using more complex language and improving in accuracy. But fluency measures appear to remain steady over time.