Immersion Education: Practices, Policies, Possibilities (review)

This book builds on Fortune and Tedick’s Pathways to Multilingualism (2008) by contributing new research on the practices, policies, and possibilities of immersion education. Whereas the earlier publication focused on pedagogy and language development, in Immersion Education: Practices, Policies, Possibilities, Tedick, Christian, and Fortune go further by examining a variety of immersion models serving different ages and communities around the world and highlighting some of their successes and challenges, some of which are unique and many of which are common across programs.

The first chapter opens by defining the three program types in immersion: one-way, two-way, and indigenous immersion. The first chapter also explains the organization of the book in its four parts: immersion program design, program outcomes and implications for practice, language use and assessment practices, and policy and practice. Three cases are described in the first section on program design, from Finland, Hawai’i, and the US. In chapter 2, Siv Björklund and Karita Mård-Miettienen integrate multiple languages using an immersion format in Finland to respond to the long-term goal described by the Framework Strategy for Multilingualism developed by the European Commission (2005). Chapter 3 describes insights from an indigenous immersion program in Hawai’i. In this application of the program, William H. Wilson and Kauanoe Kamanā share how indigenous identity is strengthened by slowly changing the primary language of the community. In chapter 4, Gary Zehrbach examines how two-way immersion charter schools in the US, free from district mandates, allows for some innovative practices.

In the next section on program outcomes, chapter 5, Kathryn Lindholm-Leary presents some results in academic achievement and cultural competence in Chinese immersion in the US. In chapter 6, Ester de Jong and Carol Bearse discuss the unique challenge of maintaining the immersion model in US high schools with two-way immersion programs. In the following chapter, Sandra Burger et al. examine post-secondary immersion to explain how content is taught in the target language alongside adjunct language support courses offered at the University of Ottawa.

The third part of the book focuses on assessment practices and opens with chapter 8, where Pádraig Ó Duibhir discusses Irish immersion students’ observations on their own use of oral language and self-correction. In chapter 9, Maggie Broner and Diane Tedick examine oral language use in peer-to-peer and student–teacher interactions in an early total Spanish immersion program. Their study also looked at the factors that impact student language choices. In chapter 10, Lizette Peter, Gloria Sly, and Tracy Hirata-Edds describe how the process of designing language assessment for a complex polysynthetic language can in turn inform instruction in a Cherokee immersion setting.

The final section of the book examines how policy at various levels might affect practice in immersion settings and vice-versa. In chapter 11, Philip Hoare investigates the impact of political decisions about the education system on learning English in Hong Kong and mainland China. In chapter 12, Lisa Dorner describes the experiences of immigrant families making sense of new two-way immersion policies that affect their families. Chapter 13 ends this section by highlighting research by Fortune that examines how assessment can influence struggling learners when there is insufficient knowledge about immersion language learning settings. In particular, distinguishing delay from disability can be crucial for guiding policy and practice. Finally, Fred Genesee concludes the volume by reflecting on the possibilities for immersion. He discusses four themes explored in the various chapters: advocacy, assessment, the role of parents, and accessibility.

One of the strengths of this book is the range of contexts in which immersion education has taken hold since its origins in 1965. Indeed, the editors and authors of this book make a point of interweaving references to research results presented in the various chapters, facilitating their comparison. The diverse research found in this volume confirms the results of earlier research on the benefits of immersion language learning. First, learning a second language...