English Immersion Programs

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Recommended: Benefits of teaching English as a second language

English Immersion Programs

Imagine a world where there is only one language, and people are able to converse with no problems. You wouldn’t need to be a linguist in order to understand another’s language, or culture. Now, think again about what that language should be. Most people would agree that English should become the next “Mother Tongue”, the language that everyone knows and everyone converses in worldwide. When people choose to speak using there own languages is when division among cultures is created, resulting in superiority complexes. Similarly, in the classroom, Spanish and all other languages that are not English should be prohibited. Spanish and other languages need to be forbidden from the classroom in order to maintain a balance between the students academically as well as personally and to add consistency to their lives; moreover, English immersion programs better prepares students to be successful in their lives ahead of them.

In order to be productive in the American school system, most instructors would agree that knowing the English language is the best way guarantee success. By allowing the student to use only English in the classroom the instructor is guaranteeing that their pupil will know English well enough to survive in America, given they were provided with at most a year of immersion into English. This is the best way to ensure success because even after a year in the English as a Second Language program studies have found that “students are only performing academically ‘average’ and only adequately prepared for the next year”(Toohey 63). Which in comparison to those who have had to face English head on, they appear to be more likely to succeed. This is d...

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...ss, peer to peer interaction leads to the best forms of success” (Day 61). Through immersion second-language learners stand a greater chance at happiness and accomplishment within their schools, resulting in more students entering and staying in the school system. Through this and other programs a “Mother Tongue” might not only be something of the past anymore.

Works Cited

Day, Elaine Mellen. Identity and the Young English Language Learner. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2002.

Rodriguez, Richard. “Learning the Language”. Constructing Others, Constructing Ourselves. Ed. Sibylle Gruber. Dubuque, Iowa: 2002. 89-97.

Tabors, Patton O. One Child, Two Languages. Baltimore: Paul Brookes Publishing Co., 2003

Toohey, Kathleen. Learning English at School: Identity, Social Relationships and Classroom Practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2000.

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