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

Paper/Best Practice Session (1 hour)

Mandarin

One-Way Second/Foreign Language Immersion

Elementary (K-5)

This session briefly examines research findings on the median oral proficiency levels attained by 277 Mandarin immersion students in three early total programs. Presenters will also share their analysis of three students’ learner language in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency and discuss implications for program design and implementation.

While we often hear terms such as “functionally proficient,” “fluent,” “bilingual,” to describe the language proficiency of immersion learners, or in the case of this study, “Jr. Novice High,” “Jr. Intermediate High,” and Jr. Advanced Low,” it is often unclear what such terms mean making it difficult for educators to benefit fully from assessment results. In what ways does the language produced by an immersion learner rated at one level differ from that produced at another? In concrete terms, what does oral language proficiency look like for students in Kindergarten, Gr. 2 and Gr. 5?

The purpose of this study was to examine the second language (L2) oral proficiency of 277 early total Mandarin immersion students and to describe in-depth three students’ learner language (one Kindergartener, one Gr. 2, and one Gr. 5).  Following Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), Foster, Tonkyn, and Wigglesworth (2000), Housen and Kuiken (2009), and Housen, Kuiken and Veders (2012), this research study carried out a detailed analysis of three interdependent constructs in the field of L2 acquisition: complexity, accuracy, and fluency. This type of systematic study of learner language has allowed researchers to identify and compare specific features of an individual's L2 production. Such information can be used to indicate what kind of language is possible at a given proficiency level and may also inform areas of language development that will benefit from focused, explicitily targeted instruction in the immersion classroom.

This session will briefly report findings on the median proficiency levels attained by Mandarin immersion students from three K-5 programs using the Center for Applied Linguistics Student Oral Proficiency Assessment. Participants will also look at videotaped speech samples and examine results from global and specific measures of complexity and accuracy for three students who represent the median proficiency levels for their respective grade levels.