Non-Asian students are increasingly spending their Saturdays immersed in China’s language and culture.
AUDREY CLEO YAP

NOV 30, 2015

From the mid- to late 90s, I endured Saturday morning Chinese school the way many of my fellow children of immigrants did: with a healthy a mix of indifference and resentment. While my non-Chinese friends spent their mornings at youth soccer games, I was stuck inside a heritage school classroom for at least two hours, practicing traditional characters and reading texts about buying bai tsai at the supermarket.

Chinese-heritage school, or “Saturday school,” is a dedicated space for ABCs (“Americans Born Chinese”) like myself to learn Mandarin and Chinese culture. In my own experience, it was simultaneously a hub of exclusion and inclusion. Days spent at heritage school were weekly reminders of my otherness in Thousand Oaks, the mostly white suburb of Los Angeles where I grew up.

Please read more here.

Plymouth Elementary School’s Mandarin Dual Immersion Program Helps Parents Too

November 17th, 2015 by Monrovia Weekly

By Terry Miller
Plymouth School in Monrovia has implemented a first of its kind in the district – a dual immersion program for students to learn Mandarin. In fact the school is on the cusp of what will, perhaps, become a trend in all public schools in California with the general uptick in Asian-American population in Los Angeles County.

The program is taught by Mrs. Miki Boyle (Mandarin Teacher) and Mr. Steve Cook (Mandarin/English teacher.)
Dual immersion programs include native English-speaking students and native speakers of a foreign language. The goals of dual immersion programs are to develop bilingualism/biliteracy, academic achievement, and cross-cultural competencies for all students. Dr. Katheryn Lindholm-Leary, one of the country’s leading experts on dual immersion programs defines them said: “[In dual immersion programs] English-dominant and target-language-dominant students are purposefully integrated with the goals of developing bilingual skills, academic excellence, and positive cross-cultural and personal competency attitudes for both groups of students.”

Please read more here.

Summer Institutes for Immersion Teachers

CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition) offers these popular institutes that are designed specifically for immersion educators (K–12) and immersion program leaders:

Character Literacy Development in Mandarin Immersion—NEW!
June 20-24, 2016
Presenters: Tara Fortune, Luyi Lien, Haomin Zhang
Participants in this new institute will learn research-based methods of moving their Mandarin immersion learners towards more fluent character processing and text comprehension.

Immersion 101: An Introduction to Immersion Teaching
July 11-15, 2016
Presenters: Tara Fortune and a team of veteran immersion teachers
This institute provides novice immersion teachers with the tools and information they need to survive and thrive in the immersion classroom. The institute offers two teacher sessions simultaneously and an expanded 3-day session for administrators of immersion education programs.

Meeting the Challenges of Immersion Education: Teacher Collaboration for Integrating Language and Content in Grades 5–12—NEW! 

July 18-22, 2016
Presenter: Roy Lyster
At this new institute, pairs of middle and high school immersion teachers who work with the same students will explore ways to collaborate on integrating language and content in their immersion programs.

Information
More information is available on the CARLA website at: www.carla.umn.edu/institutes/.

Registration will open on January 8, 2016.
To request a copy of a print brochure you can email the CARLA office at: carla@umn.edu.

The institutes have been developed and are offered with the support, in part, of the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Language Resource Center program. The summer institutes are co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development and College of Liberal Arts.

The ACTFL conference is one of the big language learning conferences of the year and there are lots of workshops focused on immersion. It’s in San Diego this year, so if your schools is nearby, hopefully someone’s going.

2015 ANNUAL CONVENTION AND WORLD LANGUAGES EXPO

– See more at: http://www.actfl.org/convention-expo#sthash.uir1vehy.dpuf

 

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For example, here’s one:

Characterizing Mandarin Immersion Learner Language: A Fine-Grained Analysis

Sunday, November 22
8:00-9:00 AM
San Diego Convention Center, Room 26A

This session examines research findings on the median oral language 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.
Session Presenters: Tara Fortune (CARLA, University of Minnesota), Zhongkui Ju (CARLA, University of Minnesota), Molly Wieland (XinXing Academy, Hopkins Public Schools), and Ping Peng (Minnetonka Public Schools)

Sixth International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education:

Connecting Research and Practice Across Contexts

October 20–22, 2016
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Immersion and dual language education continue to evolve as highly effective program models for launching students on the road to bi- and multilingualism and intercultural competence. School-based immersion, bilingual, and dual language programs involve a minimum of 50% subject-matter schooling through a second, world, heritage, or indigenous language at the preschool and elementary levels (PreK–5/6). Secondary or post-secondary continuation programs for elementary immersion/dual language graduates include a minimum of two subject courses.

Program models include:

• One-Way Second/Foreign Language Immersion
• Co-Official/Regional Language Immersion
• Two-Way Bilingual Immersion
• One-Way Developmental Bilingual Education
• Indigenous Language Immersion

While each model targets distinct sociocultural contexts and educational needs, all embrace language, literacy, and culture development through subject-matter learning with a high degree of language intensity. Under the leadership of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), University of Minnesota, the  Sixth International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education will bring these models together to engage in research-informed dialogue and professional exchange across languages, levels, learner audiences, and contexts.

 

Conference Speakers

• Ellen Bialystok, York University, Toronto, Canada
• Patricia C. Gándara, University of California – Los Angeles, USA
• Tina M. Hickey, University College Dublin, Ireland
• Patsy Lightbown, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
• Teresa L. McCarty, University of California – Los Angeles, USA

Call for Proposals is now open!

Submit your proposal for the Immersion 2016 Conference. Full details are available on the Call for Proposals webpage.
The deadline is Feb 1, 2016. 

More Information

• Get on the immersion conference mailing list
• Bookmark the immersion conference website for regular updates
• Check out past immersion conferences sponsored by CARLA

 

Conference Planning Committee

Conference Planning Committee Co-Chairs
Diane J. Tedick, University of Minnesota
Roy Lyster, McGill University

Conference Planning Committee Members 
Siv Björklund, University of Vaasa
Teresa Carranza, Madison Metropolitan School District
Lisa Dorner, University of Missouri-Columbia
Helga Fasciano, NC Department of Public Instruction
Tara Fortune, University of Minnesota
Liz Hathaway Castelán, Saint Paul Public Schools
Xiao Liu, Delaware Department of Education
Brian McInnes, University of Minnesota-Duluth
Mandy Menke, University of Minnesota
Deborah Palmer, University of Texas-Austin
Ping Peng, Minnetonka Public Schools
Isabelle Punchard, Edina Public Schools
Nadja Trez, NC Department of Public Instruction
Ofelia Wade, Utah State Office of Education

Conference Administrative Team
Marlene Johnshoy, Technology Coordinator
Liz Hellebuyck, Program Associate
Karin Larson, CARLA Coordinator
Erin Szabo, Graduate Assistant

Conference Sponsors
The conference is sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota with partial funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Language Resource Center program.

Children of immigrants who can speak, read and write in both English and the language spoken at home have an advantage in the labor market, a new report released Tuesday finds.

The report by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA and the Educational Testing Service, a nonprofit testing organization, shows that individuals with immigrant backgrounds who only speak English and don’t retain the language spoken at home lose between $2,000 and $5,000 annually.

In contrast, those with immigrant backgrounds who know both English and the language spoken at home—also known as “balanced bilinguals”—are more likely to earn more money than those who only speak English. They are also more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, enter higher status occupations and have more social networks.

“Being able to speak another language and being able to communicate with folks across cultural borders turns out to be very important in our modern world,” Patricia Gándara, the report’s author, said during a webinar Tuesday.

Please see more here.

Openings in SFUSD’s Mandarin Immersion Program

San Francisco Unified School District’s Mandarin Immersion program is a unique opportunity for students to not only learn Mandarin, but learn in Mandarin.  SFUSD’s Mandarin Immersion program launched in 2006 with two kindergarten classes at Starr King Elementary School, and a year later, a third kindergarten class was added at Jose Ortega Elementary School.  Today, almost a decade later, the Mandarin Immersion program has been extended to include middle school at Aptos and high school at Lincoln.
Families interested in the Mandarin Immersion program are encouraged to apply for potential openings at Starr King and Jose Ortega during both Spring and Fall transfer periods.  No previous Mandarin exposure or background is necessary for students transferring in January or August, in either kindergarten or first grade.

Because families move during the school year and over the summer, its typical for openings to pop up at various times.  So even if the Mandarin Immersion classes start out full at the beginning of the year, and even if your child did not get into either Starr King or Jose Ortega at the beginning of the school year, you are still encouraged to submit a Spring or Fall transfer request.

The deadline to apply for Spring (January) transfer is November 18, 2015.  To apply for Spring (January) transfer, submit an application, in person, to the Educational Placement Center at 555 Franklin Street, Room 100.  The Spring transfer application can be found here: http://www.sfusd.edu/en/assets/sfusd-staff/enroll/files/2015-16/2015-16_spring_transfer_request_en.pdf.  More information about the Spring transfer process can be found here: http://www.sfusd.edu/en/enroll-in-sfusd-schools/placement-periods/placement-reference.html.

The deadline to apply for Fall (August) transfer is January 15, 2016.  To apply, submit an application, in person, to the Educational Placement Center at 555 Franklin Street, Room 100  The application can be found here: http://www.sfusd.edu/en/assets/sfusd-staff/enroll/files/2016-17/2016-17_enrollment_application_EN.pdf.  More information about new-school-year transfers can be found here: http://www.sfusd.edu/en/enroll-in-sfusd-schools/policy-reference.html#New%20School%20Year%20Transfers.

IMPORTANT – If you miss these formal deadlines, but are still interested in Mandarin Immersion, you are still encouraged to submit an application to the Educational Placement Center, at any time.  Again, families move out of the district at various times during the year, so it does not hurt to let EPC know of your family’s interest in Mandarin Immersion.

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舊金山市聯合學區(SFUSD)所屬的漢語(普通話)沈浸式雙語教學學校，現在招收數名幼稚園及小學一年級學生。

舊金山市聯合學區的漢語(普通話)沈浸式雙語教學是為學生提供學習漢語(普通話)獨一且難逢的機遇，因為學生於本教學中不但能學習漢語(普通話)，而且是以漢語(普通話)來學習。實施本教學的學校現在將招收數名幼稚園及小學一年級學生。

對沈浸式雙語教學方式有意之家長們，歡迎向學校Starr King及Jose Ortega於春季或秋季二學期期間提出轉學申請。

轉學申請截止日期：春季班入學： 2015年11月18日。

秋季班入學： 2016年1月15日。

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旧金山市联合学区(SFUSD)所属的汉语(普通话)沈浸式双语教学学校，现在招收数名幼儿园及小学一年级学生。

旧金山市联合学区的汉语(普通话)沈浸式双语教学是为学生提供学习汉语(普通话)独一且难逢的机遇，因为学生于本教学中不但能学习汉语(普通话)，而且是以汉语(普通话)来学习。实施本教学的学校现在将招收数名幼儿园及小学一年级学生。

对沈浸式双语教学方式有意之家长们，欢迎向学校Starr King及Jose Ortega于春季或秋季二学期期间提出转学申请。

转学申请截止日期：春季班入学： 2015年11月18日。

秋季班入学： 2016年1月15日