In the present day Mandarin Chinese has become a commonly taught language in the U.S. Mandarin is widely taught in colleges and universities; K-12 Chinese programs, including immersion programs, have also grown rapidly. However, to date little research has been conducted on the latter programs. This study examines immersion programs in elementary…

This comparative case study (based on observational, interview, and picture-sort data) examines how teachers and students talk about cultural, linguistic, racial, and socioeconomic difference in two elementary Spanish-English two-way immersion programs. In addition, I analyze how those discourses are associated with both contextual conditions and…

This study was designed to investigate the nature of activities in an immersion English class and a non-immersion English class in the mainland of China, and to find out the differences between these two types of class through data gained from observation and interviews. Spoken discourse analysis was used to analyze the data, where Engestrom's…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate why the Montessori approach has been viewed as a culturally congruent educational model by some Hawaiian language immersion and culture-based (HLIC) educators and how aspects of it have been used in HLIC classrooms. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and focus group…

This book explores the idea of "intercultural competence", which, despite its current popularity across various discourses, has remained a vague and oscillating concept. Interculture lacks a universal definition and "competence" is not only a cognitive construct but also includes psychological traits such as attitudes,…

Although drama has been used successfully in English as a second language and has been shown to have positive effects on achievement and on self-confidence and motivation in various studies, it has received little attention in French immersion context where subjects are taught in French, the second language of students. The objective of this study…