Talk:Language immersion

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 23:54, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
This page was started with seemingly grossly exaggerated information about immersive learning. Do we have any sources for the following?
 * Extreme Immersion
 * In this form of learning a new language, the student is subjected to non-stop bombardment of the language by native speakers. The student does not sleep and probably eats very little or keeps going on sugar water and caffeine with 10 minute rest periods per hour. It is believed that after 40 hours or so the brain will switch over to the new language and the student will gain reasonable language proficiency. The next 30-odd hours then improve fluency and fully integrate the gains of the session. This method has parallels with brainwashing and must be done in a safe environment with capable and trustworthy speakers. As they will be needing sleep, the student will need 5-7 of them.
 * This method is generally undertaken by adult students.

The new information, appearing wholly more in-depth and ... plausable, has been sourced. I'm reformatting the article somewhat, and then adding no source/inaccuracy tage to the above section. —  THOR  =/\= 01:18, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

I am extremely curious about this, if anyone has any information on this, even if it is not encyclopedia worthy, then please message me on my profile. It is probably not real, but it would be good to know more. —Preceding unsigned comment added by PheonixUK (talk • contribs) 15:49, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jalynnh, Chelscarter, Natprotz, Emilypetersen.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 02:12, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Excessive Specificity?
This article is too specific; it needs to discuss the general subconscious learning of a language by being immersed in its speakers/culture, not just the class-based teaching programs to encourage multilingualism.

It also appears to read like a psychological journal, and doesn't seem to be particularly encyclopedic, focussing too much on technical details that might only be applicable to a very select audience.

I would appreciate it if someone could try to make amends; by making the article more concise and general, or just adding more information and context about the concept of learning a language by way of frequent audible exposure to native speakers. On the other hand, this context may have already been added elsewhere to another article, which I am as yet unaware of. If this is the case, I would be grateful if someone could clarify this.

Thanks, 80.177.20.202 07:42, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi, i am a german Immersion student and i could help with the writing of the page. I could also add a section on German Immersion in Australia.

I will make some changes if i think they are nesersary.

Thx

Much more to language immersion...
There is much more to Language Immersion than what has been mentioned on this page. As an English Language teacher for more than 25 years and an English Immersion specialist I would very much like to contribute to this section by expanding its content to include the process students undergo in non-English speaking countries to become more fluent in the English language. I'm afraid that the text which mentions food and sleep deprivation is uncalled for and needs to be excluded.

Since I am new here as an "editor" I ask that you show me how to add relevant information to this title in the correct manner. I love Wikipedia, use it frequently and recommend it to others. Congratulations to all who contribute! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Nolasenna (talk • contribs) 22:05, 13 May 2007 (UTC).

Problems with article
This article should be completely re-written, as it makes either false claims or provides scant evidence in support of those claims that possible merit inclusion. For example, the author fails to distinguish between "biligualism" (the ability to operate proficiently in two languages) with "immersion" (a particular approach popular in Canada to achieving bilingualism). When one reads the articles in the endnotes, it's clear that these are non-scholarly pieces with an editorial slant, and that any benefits discussed are solely in the context of bilingualism. Moreover, the Oxford Journal article cited actually serves to weaken the stated claim regarding the age of acquisition, demonstrating that, in fact, irrespective of the age of acquisition, the cognitive changes that are witnessed in bilinguals only bears a relationship to the degree of proficiency, irrespective of the age of acquisition.

The concepts of immersion eduction and bilingualism are completely different, yet readers of this article would assume that the claims made with respect to bilingualism are valid vis a vis immersion education. They are not. This piece appears to be written and maintained by advocates of bilingual education, who slavishly support their system regardless of any research demonstrating its weaknesses and the potential damage done to many children forced into it (particularly as is now the case in Quebec). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.99.141.34 (talk) 19:22, 21 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Agree. I also noticed that the Oxford source does not support the claim that it is supposed to be sourcing. I have removed some stuff and tagged one section that makes a lot of positive claims that are sourced to organisms interested in making language immersion look more effective.


 * Also, the section sourced to Collin Baker's book says "Immersion programs have no negative effects on the cognitive development of the students." which is plain bullshit and is contradicted by its own source (in page 307, immersion has to be additivde and not substractive, it has to introduce a secondary language at no cost to the home language, I quote: "For example, where the home language is Spanish and the submersion approach is to replace Spanish by English, negative rather than positive effects may occur to school performance and self-steem.", In page 308: "Early insistence in the immersion language may inhibit children and develop negative attitudes to that language and to education in general.". I have replaced that sentence.


 * Also, it doesn't list any of the problems or dangers: in page 309 of Baker's book: "However, Kowal and Swain (1997) indicate that a danger of immersion is that students reach native-like levels in reading and listening but not in writing and speaking", page 314 explains how bilingual teaching is more challenging than monolingual teaching, and how it usually happens at difficult environments.


 * In general, this article lists absolutely none of the negative effects and dangers of badly-done immersion: kids taking more years to reach more language proficiency that when learning just one language, damage to self-steem when immersion tries to replace their native language (Baker explains it better), unprepared teachers, difficulty to learn subjects like maths in a second language, turning children against that second language by forcing them to use it, etc. Also, no limitations are listed, like kids never speaking the second language outside school (Baker's page 272, also a list of seven problems and limitations in pages 275-278). This article is shouting for a POV tag. --Enric Naval (talk) 09:57, 29 November 2010 (UTC)


 * This article is largely from only one viewpoint and refutes any of the drawbacks of language immersion as soon as it mentions them. There are also few references or sources provided from different viewpoints. The format of this article in general also needs a lot of work, as the vast majority of it is written in bullet points but would flow much more easily if it was written in paragraph form. However much content should be added before it is reformatted.Natprotz (talk) 05:21, 2 February 2017 (UTC)


 * Two citations are unavailable anymore.

•	Chen, Ya-Ling (2006). The Influence of Partial English Immersion Programs in Taiwan on Kindergartners' Perceptions of Chinese and English Languages and Cultures. The Asian EFL Journal Vol 8(1) • Cognitive Benefits of Learning Language, Duke Gifted Letter: Volume 8, Issue 1, Fall 2007. The Duke University Talent Identification Program. Online Newsletter for Parents of Gifted Youth EEshare (talk) 03:36, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Duplication of instruction types
The sections "Types of learners" and "Type of Instruction" appear to be repeating each other, however I do not understand this subject well enough to confidently clean them up, in case I am missing a nuance. Mshenrick (talk) 17:28, 28 June 2018 (UTC)