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

Laptop Poster Session for Graduate Students

Swedish/Finnish and French/English

One-Way Second/Foreign Language Immersion

Elementary (K-5)

This poster presentation will present an ongoing doctoral study about the immersion teacher profession in Finland and Canada. It will give an overview of the aim, methods and data of the study and present some theoretical aspects of the qualities of the immersion teacher.

The aim of my doctoral study is to explore what it means to be an immersion teacher. I’m interested in the teachers’ views and perceptions of the immersion teacher profession and immersion education, and how the immersion teachers position themselves professionally. Answers to these questions will help to get a picture of the teachership in immersion. 

The target group in my study will be class teachers (grades 1–6) in one-way early total Swedish immersion in Finland and French immersion in Canada. Finland and Canada are selected because these countries have long traditions of one-way immersion programs and immersion teacher education programs. In the first phase of the study, data will be collected through questionnaires to get a general view from a larger group of teachers, and the second phase will consist of case studies including written life stories, interviews and diaries to get a deeper understanding of the teachership.

The immersion teacher profession is challenging particularly because of the teacher’s double role, including teaching of both language and content at the same time (Björklund, Mård-Miettinen & Turpeinen 2007). Therefore, the immersion teacher needs to have certain qualities (see e.g. Obadia 1998). This serves as a starting point for my poster presentation, where I present some theoretical aspects of the qualities of the immersion teacher and give an overview of my own ongoing study. My research is part of a larger project, which studies the interplay between language practices, multilingual identity and language ideologies in immersion.

References

Björklund, S., Mård-Miettinen, K. & Turpeinen, H. (2007). Kielikylpykirja – Språkbadsboken. Vaasa: Levón-instituutti.

Obadia, A. A. (1998). An international overview of immersion programmes. In J. Arnau & J. M. Artigal (Red.). Els Programmes d’immersió: una Perspectiva Europea. Immersion Programmes: a European Perspective. Barcelona: Publications de la universitat de Barcelona. 80–93.