Seventh International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education

Strand I: Pedagogy & Assessment

Chinese/ English

Elementary (K-5)

Despite the connection between academic vocabulary （AV） acquisition and content knowledge understanding, the literature on AV has focused on its categories and functions in English learning, with little attention to teachers’ instruction in world language immersion (WLI) programs. To explore WLI teachers’ instruction of teaching AV in content courses, this study used a 3rd-year Chinese immersion teacher as an example to present a case study of AV instruction in math classes. Framed by sociocultural theory, the author conducted interviews and classroom observations to examine the teacher’s beliefs and practice of AV instruction. The findings suggested a gap of immersion teachers’ efforts of balancing language and content teaching in the content area. The article discussed various factors that influenced the teacher’s decision-making of teaching AV and the importance of understanding immersion teachers’ knowledge-base and beliefs of teaching AV.