Ready or not: The experiences of elementary two-way immersion teachers.

摘要

As elementary immersion language programs have shown steady growth, there is a plethora of studies devoted to immersion students' achievement, yet there is a dearth of research on elementary immersion teachers' experiences, teaching strategies, processes, and practices used to successfully teach in a dual language classroom and it is unclear to what extent novice elementary immersion teachers are prepared to teach successfully in a dual language classroom. Novice elementary immersion teachers have State certification, a bachelor's degree in early elementary education, and are proficient in a second language, yet an increasing number of elementary immersion teachers feel unprepared to teach in an immersion classroom, do not possess an understanding of subject-area pedagogy in language, and lack instructional strategies to effectively teach in an immersion classroom. The purpose of the basic qualitative study is to uncover, identify and describe specific strategies, processes, and practices that elementary immersion teachers use to successfully teach in an immersion classroom. Eight elementary immersion teachers were selected via purposive sampling based upon pre-determined criteria. For the study, the criteria guidelines that were used to assist in the selection of participants were two-way immersion teachers who teach elementary school, minimum three years teaching experience in dual language classrooms (preferred), bilingual in Spanish and English, instruction taught 100% in the target language, student's total use of the target language, and grade-level or above grade level academic achievement (classroom assessments) with their non-immersion peers. The data were analyzed and revealed the need for on-going professional development for immersion teachers and the importance of teacher preparation to successfully implement immersion programs. As a result of elementary immersion teachers having the dual role of being elementary teachers and foreign language teachers, the purpose of the study was to discover what specific strategies, processes, and practices two-way immersion teachers have used to successfully teach in a dual language classroom, two-way immersion teachers' preparation experiences, processes, and practices, what support two-way immersion teachers receive from administrators or colleagues and the greatest challenges or obstacles of teaching in a dual language classroom.