What Is English Immersion?

Definition of Immersion The so-called Immersion refers to a teaching mode that uses a second language as the language of instruction. Second language is not only the content of learning, but also the tool of learning.

English for Immersion

The so-called "immersive subject English" teaching method refers to studying mathematics, (English) Chinese, science and other courses in a full English environment, so that children can develop "subject English" thinking and help them use English naturally when facing problems. Come to think and solve, and finally form a child's English thinking system.

This method of teaching originated in the Quebec region of Canada. As early as more than 40 years ago, experiments were conducted there. From kindergarten to high school graduation, students insisted on learning subject knowledge in a second language other than their mother tongue, and achieved unexpected results.

For more than a decade, this Canadian initiative has been used by more than 10 countries including the United States, Australia, Singapore, and the Netherlands, and has been immersed in more than 10 languages, including French, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Russian, and English. The style teaching has achieved remarkable results and won wide recognition from various countries. The current domestic "immersion subject English" teaching method is to use students as the main body to conduct exploratory teaching in the classroom, and use high-tech interactive whiteboards to assist teaching to create an original English environment to cultivate children's "second mother tongue" thinking the goal of.

1. Immersion in Canada

Language problems used to be

Immersive teaching has changed the direction of combining traditional and isolated foreign language teaching with foreign language and subject knowledge teaching. This change is based on four principles: First, the school's various subject courses provide a natural foundation and environment for the second language learning, and provide children with second language (knowledge, feelings and attitude) Communication opportunities. Under such environmental conditions, children can effectively learn a second language. Second, important and interesting subject content can motivate children to master the second language and use it for communication. Third, children's mother tongue (first language) acquisition itself is the combination of language and cognitive content. In this process, cognition and interpersonal competence develop along with language. Children's second language learning is the same, it is an organic part of children's cognitive and interpersonal development. Fourth, the formal and functional characteristics of the language change with context. The teaching mode of combining language with subject content provides a broad and rich language environment for children to use a second language.

English, as a necessary tool for children to participate in international workplace competition in the future, is the most important thing for children to learn. How to make children learn English well? What kind of English learning environment should I give my child? It is an issue that every parent has thought about.

In recent years, pure English "immersive" English teaching is not only the focus of adult English training, but also an important reference factor for parents to choose classes for their children? Is "immersion" a foreign teacher? Is "immersion" equivalent to pure English? Is "immersion" the "life-saving straw" for children's English learning? So what exactly is the "immersion test" and what are the advantages?

1. Environmental carrier: immersion, expensive everywhere!

Carrier 1 : Body + language helps understanding

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Let the children understand that if you want to "walk" and "cannot run" in the teaching area, the teacher will send the child a "Walk quietly, No running" card with "Cat walking gently", or two The teachers cooperated and performed with their limbs, telling the children "what will happen if they walk away, what will happen if they run." While the children learned these two words, they also understood the importance of class discipline.

Expert Reviews:

For children who are too young or have a poor foundation and cannot understand what the teacher is saying, the teacher will cooperate with rich body language to provide multi-sensory stimulation to children from visual, auditory or tactile aspects to help children in Learn English in comprehension, and naturally apply it flexibly in real life.

Carrier 2 : Transforming Themes to Stimulate Interest

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At the beginning of the class, the teacher will lead the children to sing and dance together with cheerful English music such as "Hello Song", and enter the pure English environment easily and actively, and introduce the learning content in the classroom. Every 15 minutes, the teacher will change a theme, according to the American primary school teaching goals, change pictures, animations, physical performances and other forms to continue to improve children's learning interest. To improve the repetition rate of core knowledge teachers, help children naturally acquire and use in different scenarios.

Expert Reviews:

In the organization of the classroom, the teacher uses hi-tech courseware, colorful teaching aids, and teaching aids to achieve intuitive and lively interactions. Every 15 minutes, the form and method can be changed to effectively focus the child's attention and greatly improve children's learning. Enthusiasm and desire to explore reinforce learning effects.

Carrier 3 : Repeated application of intensive acquisition

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The core knowledge may be repeated in Chinese, math and science courses, allowing children to recognize it repeatedly. It also helps children to use it after class. For example, the teacher takes the child to the toilet during the lesson, and will take the child to sing Letterchant together on the beat of walking, or imitate the way animals walk to let the child guess what animal it is. Children love this communication method that turns learning English into a game.

Expert Reviews:

During non-class hours, teachers communicate with children, say hello, chat or play games, and they are all in English. They review the content of classroom learning and help children to remember unconsciously.

2. Content carrier: Immersion is only useful based on the subject!

Carrier 1 : Subject English develops English thinking

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"After only 3 months of studying, she went to the zoo and said in English casually, this is a dolphin, this is a lion, this is a panda, there is no trace of recitation", the mother of the elementary student Nancy said, seeing the child so naturally 2. Speaking English spontaneously, I feel particularly relieved.

Expert Reviews:

International authoritative education expert Ms. Joan once pointed out that language has connotation. Only by using subject knowledge (language, mathematics, science) as a carrier and learning in English can we use it in a way that allows children to develop thinking and expression in English. habit.

Carrier 2 : Two -pronged language proficiency

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Whether in class or after class, the teacher often arranges small projects for the children to let them complete in the form of teamwork, such as: giving the children icons of roads, rivers, woods, and houses, and letting the children collaborate to complete a map . In this process, the children expressed their opinions, the division of labor was clear, and finally a "Team leader" was selected to show everyone the project results in English. In this process, children not only learned English, but also learned to look at maps in English, and gained unique thinking ability and creativity.

Expert Reviews:

Traditional Chinese English education often teaches some simple life terms and words. Language learning is out of touch with cultural background, subject knowledge, and ability development. Therefore, children mostly memorize some English words and rarely speak fluent sentences and use them freely. Working in English cannot easily win in international workplace competition. We need to use English as a tool to learn mathematics, Chinese, science and other disciplines. We emphasize helping children build English thinking, inspire, guide and cultivate children's project management skills, presentation skills and teamwork skills.

The early English semi-immersive teaching experiment conducted by the "Chinese-Canadian Education Cooperation English Immersion Teaching Experimental Research Group" was an eight-year project (from kindergarten to sixth grade, that is, from 4 to 12 years old), but In the course of more than two years of experiments, I have seen obvious effects, mainly reflected in the following aspects:

1 . English immersion teaching enables children to develop a second language with ease and pleasure.

Due to the use of immersion teaching, English as the language of instruction always runs through all kinds of subject activities, and children's exposure to English has greatly increased, which has greatly promoted children's acquisition of English. Immersive English teaching focuses on creating and enriching the language environment. This teaching method keeps the children in the experimental class in an English environment for about 6 hours per week. At least 300 to 500 English vocabulary and 20 to 40 English sentence patterns are exposed each day. .

Children learn language in this environment intentionally or unintentionally. The children in the experimental class learn 5 to 6 times more words in the English environment and their activities than the teachers in the formal church. In the first month of the experiment, the child was guessing what the teacher said, and the second month began to imitate the teacher's pronunciation and sentences. In the third month, he was not satisfied with the words he heard, the complete sentence and the coherent communication language. Demands have increased, and the desire to communicate has grown stronger, often in the classroom to respond positively in English. More than one year after the experiment, children in the experimental class had more than 400 positive English vocabulary and more than 600 negative vocabulary, for a total of more than 1,000. These English words cover almost all aspects of children's daily activities, including knowing themselves and the people around them, and understanding the surrounding natural and social environment, such as colors, shapes, animals, flowers and trees, sun, moon, stars, seasons, Location, diet, daily life, etc.

The results of the mid-term evaluation showed that the English ability of the children in the experimental class was significantly higher than that in the control class, and there were significant differences in the factor positioning and rhyme test (P <0.028, P <0.03). Immersive teaching completely puts aside the mother tongue. All the teachers' teaching activities are conducted in English, which reduces children's dependence on their mother tongue and directly responds in English, thereby closely linking the process of English learning and application and promoting children's English thinking. Formation of capacity. The English teacher attached to Shaanxi Normal University did a small experiment and told the same English story to the children of the first grade experimental class and the fifth grade students. As a result, the students of the experimental class directly understood the story, and the fifth grade Students have to wait for the teacher to translate before they can understand.

2 English immersion teaching will not affect children's mother tongue learning and mastery of subject knowledge.

Because children accept multiple subject knowledge in extremely unfamiliar language environments, this requires teachers to use a variety of auxiliary teaching forms (such as physical objects, pictures, slides, projections, television videos, etc.), and more Various teaching methods, such as scenario teaching and activity teaching, combined with expressions, movements, body language, etc. In short, children are attracted by rich and interesting teaching forms and content in teaching, and their enthusiasm for participating in activities and the initiative to acquire knowledge are mobilized. The learning process becomes a process in which children actively discover knowledge.

Therefore, English immersion teaching not only did not affect children's Chinese learning and mastery of subject knowledge, it even promoted it to some extent. Judging from the elementary school semester evaluation, the average grades of Chinese and mathematics in most experimental classes ranked first in the year, and all skills such as fine arts, music, and sports developed well.

From the results of the comprehensive evaluation of children at the end of the experimental kindergarten, the children's mother tongue language ability, motor ability, living ability, basic knowledge, behavior habits, exploration and performance ability and other indicators were higher than other children of the same age.

3 English immersion teaching promotes the healthy development of children's body and mind.

Like Canadian children who learn a second language under immersive conditions, they must not only gradually establish a second language symbol system during the learning process, but also perform frequent and rapid language conversions between the two symbol systems. The repeated and alternating stimulation of the language information system is beneficial to the intellectual development of children. At the same time, the immersive teaching model requires that teachers must establish a child-oriented educational concept, and must constantly improve teaching methods and methods to actively inspire and induce students to explore knowledge. The implementation of these requirements has also further developed the children's intelligence. In the post-test, compared with the control class, the testers generally felt that the children in the experimental class responded quickly, thought quickly, understood, smart and creative.

The principle of language acquisition based on immersive English teaching requires that classroom teaching must change the traditional rote memorization and one-way transmission method, and change the "teacher center" into a "child center", requiring children to actively participate in and participate in learning activities. It is required that the learning process itself can generate strong interest and intrinsic motivation for children. In this way, in the immersive teaching, the "process" of the interaction between the subject of learning and the second language environment has important development meanings. In addition to intellectual development, it is also particularly important for personality development. We found that children in the experimental class were lively and cheerful; confident, bold, and well-developed; their judgment, hands-on, and brain-power were far superior to those in the control class. We also found in a factory kindergarten that the average height and weight of children in the experimental class were significantly higher than those in the control class. This shows that in the relaxed and enjoyable learning activities, not only children's intelligence is developed, their personality is developed, but their bodies are also developed healthily.

1. True immersion OR pseudo immersion

With the economic globalization and the improvement of people's living standards, Chinese parents pay more and more attention to their children's English learning. Nowadays, more and more children's English training institutions have set the banner of immersive teaching. What about "immersion" teaching? The essential core points of immersion teaching are:

1. The child is "immersed" in the second language environment, and the teacher only faces the student in the second language;

2. Not only teach the second language in the second language, but also teach some subject courses in the second language. But on the market today, although some immersive teaching methods offered by some training institutions are all "immersive" environments, their teaching content is mostly words, grammar or some simple daily conversations, which can really teach the subject in a second language. Courses are few.

Why are there so many English training institutions talking about "immersion teaching", but they cannot teach subject knowledge in a second language? First of all, these training institutions rarely introduce high-tech auxiliary methods such as interactive teaching software, and have always relied on the quality of the teacher team. Today, there is a shortage of talents in this area. Secondly, relying solely on the teacher, the teaching is very difficult and the classroom format is not flexible. It is difficult for children to understand the content of the professor, but the cost of introducing high-tech multimedia courseware is too high for small institutions to afford.

2. Immersion pure foreign teachers

Many parents believe that teaching courses abroad is of high grade, and pure foreign teachers are equivalent to immersion teaching. Children must be able to learn regular and authentic English. In fact, foreigners are not equal to foreign teachers, and speaking English does not mean being able to teach English. Secondly, accent does not determine the level of foreign language application. Indian executives in the world's top 500 can still lead other people with good accents. Just like Chinese senior officials who speak the local accent, language itself is the carrier, and the ability brought by connotation and cultural education can determine one's value. Therefore, investigating whether it is truly "immersive" teaching is not only about middle school or foreign teachers, but also whether the teacher understands education, loves children, and combines language with subject knowledge and abilities to truly cultivate children's interest in learning. Integrate the language taught into your child's ability.

3. English-Chinese translation counseling is the most ruinous child

Usually, when a child comes home after learning English, parents ca nt wait to ask: Baby, how many words have you learned today? How do you say English in a table? What does Water mean? Wait, in fact, this is wrong The tutoring method of English-Chinese translation not only does not help children learn English, it is also not conducive to the cultivation of true English thinking, and over time, it has led children to the traditional misunderstanding of "English-Chinese translation". Let children take six hours of authentic American elementary school lessons per week. In this "little immersion" environment, the language cycle is fast and the vocabulary is large, but it emphasizes the use of communication in a fixed group and learns Chinese in English Knowledge of subjects such as science, mathematics, and nature, as well as the expression of knowledge in these subjects, help children cultivate English thinking and truly establish two modes of thinking in which English and Chinese are free to switch bilingually.