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

Paper/Best Practice Session (1 hour)

multiple

Two-Way Bilingual Immersion

This presentation discusses a qualitative case study conducted with alumni of a two-way immersion program, aiming to explore the long-term impacts of the program on its participants. Results show that the program not only positively impacts students’ academic and linguistic development but significantly affects individuals’ identity formation and career trajectory.

In 1994, a Midwest school district opened its door to the first group of students of a Spanish-English two-way immersion program. Today, dual language education in the school district has grown to include several schools and multiple languages.

In the age of big data with much focus on yearly academic achievement results, the school district succeeded in showing that students in two-way immersion programs perform at par or outperform their respective peers from year to year. However, the long-term impacts of a two-way immersion education on students have never been studied. The purpose of this case study is to explore the long-term impacts of the dual language program in three major areas: students’ academic, linguistic, and sociocultural development.

We will describe the case study conducted with a group of alumni in the school district and results from field-based observations, surveys, focus group and individual interviews, as well as analysis of historical documents. We will also discuss differing perspectives between native English speaking and native Spanish speaking alumni vis-a-vis the impacts of the program on their individual development of bilingualism, cross cultural skills and identity, academic development and career trajectory.

Informants are alumni who have graduated from the program, having participated in it for more than seven continuous years. Judgment sampling of three to five native English speakers and three to five native Spanish speakers and their families serve as primary informants.  Secondary informants are other alumni, parents and teachers of the primary informants and secondary student informants.

While results show that the common impacts are quite positive, there is a nuanced difference of these impacts on the development of bilingualism and identity of native English speakers as compared to native Spanish speakers. Results raise questions that may help educators improve the design and implementation of their local two-way immersion programs