This paper is based on the author's empirical experience in assisting cultural immersion programs through developing multicultural collections, promoting diversity resources, and creating a supportive information environment for faculty and students. After summarizing the significance, goals, learning objectives, and program models of cultural…

One of the main challenges confronted by higher education in the 21st century is to internationalize its programs and to make students more globally competent. This challenge is not new, but it has become increasingly complex. Gutek (1993) explains how the efforts to internationalize the university in the United States became particularly…

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 United States stands unfavorably to other nations on the educational level, as many schools in the U.S. do not acknowledge the skills and knowledge that students need to succeed as global citizens with the increasing global and economic changes. Though some schools in the U.S. have already sounded the alarm and implemented changes to integrate…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between short-term service immersion programs (STSI), such as Alternative Spring Break (ASB), and socially responsible leadership as measured by the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS). Participation in STSI programs have been growing exponentially since 2006 (Bohn, 2009; Break…

In 1999, under federal government legislation, Mi'kmaw communities in Nova Scotia won the right to manage the education of their children for the first time in a century. With support from Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey, an education authority that provides central services, local Mi'kmaw schools deliver language immersion courses, culturally-appropriate…

Research has demonstrated that second language immersion is an effective means of facilitating primary school students' second language acquisition without undermining their competence in their first language. Despite the rapid growth of Chinese-English bilingual programmes in China, limited empirical research has been conducted thus far by which…

Research on immersion teaching has consistently shown that immersion teachers tend to focus on subject matter content at the expense of language teaching. The response to that research has often entailed suggestions for teachers on how better to integrate language and content in their instruction. However, missing from the discussion are rich…

This preliminary study investigates the acquisition of second language phonology with respect to two variables: immersion in a target language community, and explicit instruction in the form of a phonetics/pronunciation class. Specifically, the research examines the second language acquisition (SLA) of specific properties of the Spanish phonology…

An immersion training model is described that incorporates culturally focused community-centered service in South Africa as an experiential learning approach. Recommendations for developing international cultural immersion training with a goal of developing cultural competencies are suggested.

Dual language (DL) programs aim to create additive bilingual learning environments where the dominant language and the minority language are given equal status at the program, curricular, and instructional level. While several studies have documented the effectiveness of DL programs and classroom-based practices, few have considered how the…

This paper reports an empirical study on the application of the immersion approach to English teaching in North China Institute of Science and Technology (NCIST) in line with the basic principles of the Canadian immersion teaching mode. The experiment result and survey shows that the students involved in the immersion course improve faster in…

This study estimates program effects (English immersion versus primary language instruction using varying degrees of Spanish) upon English and Spanish word identification in the context of changing classrooms (cross-classification) from kindergarten through second grade. Letter-word identification is an important predictor of early reading…

The purpose of this case study was to identify the challenges and opportunities that school principals face when leading the implementation of dual language immersion programs as instructional strands. This case study also sought to determine what skills and strategies principals utilized to facilitate the change process for all the stakeholders…

This study set out to determine if English can be taught effectively to Japanese children through a content-based instruction program that uses vocal music as the content area. A total of 240 children participated in the study. The treatment group at a private elementary school in Tokyo received weekly vocal music lessons taught in English for one…