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Q: What is a foreign language immersion program and how does it work?
A: In full immersion programs, the regular school curriculum is taught in the immersion language and teachers use no English at all in the early grades. In Grade 3, English language arts and reading are taught for one hour per day, with increasing time for English added as students progress through middle school. The goal of immersion is to provide educational experiences, beginning in Kindergarten and ideally sustained through Grade12, that support academic and linguistic development in two languages and that develop students’ appreciation of their own and other cultures
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Q: But my child doesn’t speak a foreign language well enough!
A: There is no requirement that your kindergartner or 1st grader know German before starting at TCGIS. In fact, TCGIS’ curriculum was designed for this. In order to make academic lessons comprehensible to learners and to support their second language learning, immersion teachers—who are highly proficient in English and the immersion language—use a vast repertoire of instructional strategies as they cover the school’s curriculum.
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Q: Why should I consider enrolling my child in an immersion program?
A: They are the best all-around elementary option available for your child. Parents across the Twin Cities know this, and immersion options in these districts consistently have long waiting lists. TCGIS is a public charter school that can accept cross district enrollment because we believe that immersion education should be widely available. Most immersion students can be expected to reach higher levels of non-native language proficiency than students in other school-based language programs.
Becoming bilingual or multilingual opens the door to communication with more people and in more places. Many parents want to provide their children with skills to interact competently in an increasingly interdependent world community
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Q: Are there other benefits?
A: In addition to reaping the social and economic advantages of multilingualism, immersion learners benefit cognitively, exhibiting greater non-verbal problem-solving abilities and more flexible thinking. It has been suggested that the very processes learners engage to make sense of the teacher’s instruction, make them pay closer attention and think harder. These processes, in turn, appear to have a positive effect on cognitive development.
From the standpoint of academic achievement, three, 30 year studies consistently show that immersion students achieve as well as or better than non-immersion peers on standardized tests administered in English, measuring verbal and mathematics skills. Minnesota students at local elementary immersion programs produce standardized test scores that are consistently among the highest in the state. German immersion programs also show extraordinary academic gains for their students.
Even if there were no benefit to learning a foreign language, immersion schools should be a first choice purely for the challenging and engaging academic curriculum that motivates children to excel.
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Q: How will learning everything in another language affect my child’s English language and literacy development? What about math and science?
A: Research consistently finds that the immersion experience actually enhances English language development. Immersion students who complete a full program perform better than non-immersion students on almost every academic measure available. They are well read, competent knowledgeable, interested in world affairs, , and have strong academic skills in math, science, social studies and literature. Immersion education is enriching in every area of academic study and will give your child the advantage of becoming multilingual as well.
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Q: Will my child become proficient in German? How long will that take?
A: After only two or three years in an immersion program, students demonstrate fluency and confidence when using the immersion language, and their listening and reading skills are comparable to those of native speakers of
the same age. Achieving high levels of oral and written proficiency in German is a long-term process. A long-term commitment is essential, and native-like proficiency in every skill area is unlikely. Still, immersion students will have a strong base upon which to continue moving toward full proficiency and to develop proficiency in subsequent languages.
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Q: How will the children relate to each other if they cannot speak or understand German?
A: The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum and receives a great deal of attention, particularly at the beginning of the school year. All of the children will be taught the appropriate phrases to use as they interact. Daily classroom meetings allow teachers to model appropriate social interactions. It lays the necessary groundwork for the students as they become more confident in their use of German. Immersion education is effective because of the intense social interactions that are a natural part of elementary education.
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Q: Why German Immersion?
A: The German language offers benefits to students now and in the future. Germany is the world’s third largest economy and the world’s second largest exporting country, ahead of the United States, Japan and France.
German-speaking countries have a rich cultural heritage that can only be fully appreciated and understood with grounding in the language. In fact, Germans form the largest single heritage group in the U.S. and in Minnesota. Because modern German and modern English both evolved from the common ancestor language, the two languages share many similarities in both vocabulary and grammar.
Students gain all the benefits of immersion education regardless of the language. TCGIS provides a unique educational environment that offers an academically-challenging education in a nurturing environment. Students are prepared to think critically, be culturally aware and thrive in a diverse, global society.
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Q: Is immersion an appropriate choice for all children?
A: The vast majority of immersion programs are open to all students. There is no admission test or pre-screening process. Research findings on the effectiveness of immersion education hold true for a wide range of students, including those from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. Students of all abilities will do as well as their counterparts at non-immersion schools, and they will learn to speak a foreign language.
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Q: What can I do to support my child’s immersion experience if I don’t speak the second language?
A: Like all parents, parents of children in immersion programs should maintain an active role in their children’s education by providing experiences that help develop their English language skills and enhance their cognitive and affective development. Reading to your child in English, asking about what they have learned and being an enthusiastic advocate of language learning will support your child in becoming well educated and multilingual.
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