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

Laptop Poster Session for Graduate Students

Not language specific - original research was conducted in Spanish

One-Way Second/Foreign Language Immersion

Elementary (K-5)

Use of the students’ first language during the target language portion of the school day remains controversial. To gain insight on this issue I conducted collaborative treatment sessions with third graders to aid in their ability to work through the target language. My research and other strategies will be shared.

This paper presentation explores a controversial topic in immersion education: use of the students’ first language (L1) during the target language (TL) portion of the school day. Proponents of using the L1 in immersion classrooms claim that the L1 is an important cognitive tool that should be allowed. Many teachers resist the idea of condoning L1 use in the classroom for fears that the L1 will become predominate. Different researchers have made different recommendations. Anyone who has been a part of this debate has called for more research.

I will present original research conducted for my masters degree at McGill University. I conducted two collaborative treatment sessions with third graders to aid in their ability to work through the target language.  The treatment sessions began with an overview of the history of the debate and included the students’ opinions and values about the use of the TL in immersion. After determining that the students thought it was possible and valuable, we brainstormed strategies and scaffolding what they thought would be useful to increase their spoken TL.  Data collected includes classroom observations as students worked in small groups, teacher and student questionnaires, teacher interviews, and student focus groups. I will outline the results that I obtained and how the findings relate to classroom teaching. I will highlight pedagogical solutions that have been proposed by others and invite those in attendance to contribute their experiences and opinions on the subject of L1 in the immersion classroom.