Language Immersion Survey Results

1. Language Immersion Survey Results for WAFLT Conference March 20, 2004 Compiled by Michele Anciaux Aoki, Ph.D.Washington State Coalition for International Educationhttp://internationaledwa.org

2. What I Wish I’d Known (1) • Immersion teaching strategies that are different from regular foreign language teaching. • The average expected language proficiency of students for each grade level of a half-day immersion program. • How to make immersion work with students who are not native speakers and still maintain the high academic achievement standards expected of them.

3. What I Wish I’d Known (2) • Kinds of materials/textbook I could start with. • It's OK to teach actual language skills (in the target language). • That is has proven helpful in our district to plan the language skills by grade level. • Where to find materials in Spanish. • Exactly what is immersion all about. • Examples of immersion lesson plans and classes.

4. What I Wish I’d Known (3) • What are the very best activities to use to make children acquire the language? • Access to various lesson plans on the language • Any books or research papers about foreign language instructions based on anti-bias curriculum • How challenging but rewarding the immersion experience is • More about teaching Spanish reading as SSL.

5. What I Wish I’d Known (4) • More about management and primary skills • More teaching ideas, where to find curriculum (for supplementing what we already have) i.e. good websites, etc. • What I can expect for my students • First year at Sheridan as principal. Everything is new in terms of language immersion. Every day is a learning day and I'm loving it. • I wish I'd known more about classroom management; known more about the curriculum

6. What I Wish I’d Known (5) • Hiragana VS. Katakana issue • The role of the I.A. in order to build a successful team • Useful technology available for free • What kids like, what kids don't like in terms of the activities • Which parts of the function of the language teachers should emphasize

7. What Makes My Immersion Class Successful (1) • Having lots of supports. • A combination of instructional strategies (direct instruction, cooperative learning groups, etc.). • The support of an IA. • Parent and community support. • Combining content area, e.g., using language arts activities to support math and science.

8. What Makes My Immersion Class Successful (2) • Repetition, modeling for students, consistency with the use of language, speaking slowly, visuals, using TPR and creating a community where students feel safe and not intimidated with the language • The willingness of native speakers to serve as translators and to model behaviors or to respond in order to demonstrate the meaning of what I ask of them • A well-planned day. • A variety of learning techniques

9. What Makes My Immersion Class Successful (3) • Having materials available to use; having students interested in learning the new language, and showing them that they can be successful repetition & hands-on activities help students to learn more. • Students who have bought into the immersion experience • My commitment to language learning and my students absolute thrill at performing well

10. What Makes My Immersion Class Successful (4) • They have the opportunity to use more authentic setting and materials. • The language immersion in my classroom is successful because I am passionate about language learning and I share that passion with my students. • We talk a lot about culture using the language, read books in the target language, and participate in activities in the target language. • Understanding of Spanish language

11. What Makes My Immersion Class Successful (5) • Connecting the language to the students' lives. • Having the students use the language in authentic, real life scenarios. • Varying the lesson types. Some involve songs, repeating new words, games, body movements, playing bingo with new vocabulary... • Ongoing support from colleagues, administrators and parents including financial support • The love and dedication my students put into the program; parent support, appropriate materials for teaching

12. What Makes My Immersion Class Successful (6) • Working with a great first grade team. • Good games • Having materials/resources • I do a lot of hands-on teaching and I do a lot of singing as well. I've made up songs for all of our science units, and that helps the students learn a lot of vocab, and remember main ideas of the unit. • For our school, wonderful dedication from staff, strong parent support, and FLAP • Grant, parent involvement, interest and cooperation, patience & organization

13. Biggest Challenges (1) • There are lots of non-teaching duties to make the program work. • Students who are not motivated or interested in learning the language. • Lack of materials in the target language/material preparation and/or translation. • Preparing students for district and state initiated assessments. • Motivating the students to use the target language instead of English when they can; appropriate materials in Spanish sometimes, appropriate books; but the biggest challenge is class size.

14. Biggest Challenges (2) • Trying to use district curriculum materials and schedules to teach content in the target language; trying to help students achieve the ability to communicate in the target language with one another • Finding time to translate assignments and letters home • Time to teach the concepts and vocabulary at the expected level. • Not all students are motivated to learn Japanese. Those students either do not produce any work or disrupt the class lesson on a regular basis.

15. Biggest Challenges (3) • Students with learning disabilities; integrating them into the daily activities which already require more from the teacher than a "normal" classroom teacher would experience. Doing it all in another language seems to really add another dimension of difficulty. • Getting kids to use the language more • The biggest challenge as a language immersion teacher is finding the resources to teach in the target language. I have to create almost all of the materials and activities used in class.

16. Biggest Challenges (4) • Finding, good and authentic material in Spanish • More support on a district level would be nice as well. I also feel that language immersion classes should be very small in class size. • Knowing exactly what immersion means. Not being able to cover enough content • Incorporation of the language into the various subject areas when students do not have enough of the language to comprehend the subject material being taught

17. Biggest Challenges (5) • Thinking of better and more efficient ways of getting my students to acquire the language. • Finding time to prepare the materials because I have to translate and make most of them. • Teaching conflict resolution skills because I don't know how to teach them without depending on language • Finding appropriate materials to implement the same curriculum that the children in the regular programs learn • Lack of Materials and adequate funds. • Time • Resources

18. Biggest Challenges (6) • Making sure the students are really understanding what I'm teaching. • Knowing what to expect. • Continuing to upgrade the program so that it meets the needs of kids and helps us to make AYP. • Receiving new students with no language experience, large classes

19. Biggest Challenges (7) • Finding materials in Spanish; making the subjects fun to learn; maintaining Spanish immersion when the students don't understand the material. • How to support kids who joined later • How to support kids who have behavior issues and disabilities • Time & money

20. If We Had Extra Dollars… (1) • Buy more curriculum materials (books, computers, etc.). • Materials in the target language: math games, books, software, text books • New books that go with my lessons, and new computers for my students. • Work with parents to teach parents the target language so that they could help the students at home and communicate outside of school in the target language--perhaps with special classes after school and/or weekends; perhaps for computer software. • Field trip to Japan during the summer.

21. If We Had Extra Dollars… (2) • That's too much to even wrap my mind around at this time! Technology for one. Sets of appropriate chapter books for another. • I would buy books in the target language and computer software. Also lots of children's movies in Spanish and have Spanish-speaking classroom aides. • Technology that can be useful for immersion programs, and good dictionaries • Invite Spanish speakers with different skills to the classroom to make workshops. I'd invite scientists, artists, cooks, musicians, politicians, etc.

22. If We Had Extra Dollars… (3) • It the $50,000 was just for my classroom, I would love to buy (or pay someone to translate) our math curriculum in Spanish. I would also like a classroom library of Spanish reading materials at a variety of levels. And I would like laptops for each student for on-line research and interaction with other Spanish speaking students. I would also like to take a small group of students to a Spanish speaking country for a week or two in the summer...but that's just a dream. • Attend summer conferences, seminars, workshops

23. If We Had Extra Dollars… (4) • Buy books and materials/props that re-create the real world in our classroom. • Buy curriculum for the students, teacher guides, foreign language learning tools, including language listen and learn type of tapes • To purchase materials such as books. • To hire another instructional aide. • To travel to Spain, get materials, take classes at university level, get myself immersed in Spanish, bring as many real materials to teach in my classroom.

24. If We Had Extra Dollars… (5) • Buy books and materials/props that re-create the real world in our classroom. • Buy curriculum for the students, teacher guides, foreign language learning tools, including language listen and learn type of tapes • To purchase materials such as books. • To hire another instructional aide. • To travel to Spain, get materials, take classes at university level, get myself immersed in Spanish, bring as many real materials to teach in my classroom.

25. If We Had Extra Dollars… (6) • Technology-based reading enrichment; books; story videos. • Send them all to France. OR!!!! French club after school with lots of help. We would cook, do Art. I'd have lots of paintings and HUGE books on artists...Tons more books at their level...Tons of Science and Art materials...An aide. • Buy books, computer programs and hire an extra Spanish speaker! • Have extra help (Spanish-speaking) to work in small groups with students, to give them more individualized instruction. • Have another teacher in my room

26. If We Had Extra Dollars… (7) • I would also use money to get subs to visit other immersion classrooms to get ideas from them, and also to buy more materials for class. • Purchase additional materials in target languages including books, videos, and software. • BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!!! • Videos, DVDs, CDs, a couple of new computers, 28 good headsets, 280 Notebooks and 100 ERASERS!