Minnesota Many researchers agree that one of the most successful programs for teaching second languages in the public schools in both Canada and the United States has been language immersion. Based on previous research, Tarone and Swain concluded that the second language is used when the children are talking about academic topics, while the first language is used in social interactions. There may be many reasons for the differential language use in the classroom, such as increased exposure to the first language that older children are receiving from different interlocutors, an increase in English at the curricular level, the influence of English from the majority culture outside school, the types of tasks children carry out in class, or the fact that older elementary children are entering the pre-adolescent years and may have specific interactional needs that may not be fulfilled by use of the second language. Participation is voluntary for residents in the district.
Children come from home backgrounds that represent a wide array of socioeconomic levels.
The vast majority of the children attending this school come from monolingual English-speaking families, and the school is located in an area that is not near a Spanish speaking community so the children who attend this school generally do not have opportunities to speak Spanish outside the school. All curricular instruction, including reading and language arts, is in Spanish in kinder-garten and first grade. English is introduced for the first time in second grade when English language arts are taught for a half hour a day. The amount of time devoted to English reading and language arts increases gradually. Fifth grade is the end of elementary education at this immersion site.