Teacher Discussion Forums

[amytrabs]

I was just wondering if any of you guys had any experience in Dual Immersion Bilingual programs- where, for example, both native english & spanish speakers were in one class and the content is taught in both Spanish & English. Do you feel that this would be a benefit for both of the native speakers or do you think it would be a negative experience? And if you have had experience in both Dual Immersion classrooms and regular bilingual classrooms, which do you prefer? I have done some research on both and am just trying to get more perspectives from people who have experience in them so I can form a more educated opinion. Thanks!!

[Sally Olsen]

So much depends on the politics of the area. If the students aren't keen to learn the other language, it probably won't work too well.

Does this mean the teacher is bilingual or there are two teachers in the dual immersion classroom. If there are two teachers, you might want to ask some of the JET teachers in Japan and some of the Korean assistant English teachers. They have taught with Japanese or Korean teachers in the same classroom. It sounds to me like they have a good experience or bad experience depending on the other teacher.

I think the programs have ironed out a lot of the difficulties over the years though and things are getting better. Still, it depends on whether the students really want to learn English or in your case Spanish on how well it works.