Immersion Education

Many of the international contributors to this book are specialists in immersion teaching, from fields including languages, education, linguistics, and psychology. They describe current practices and local and government policies related to three different types of multilingual immersion programs: foreign language, bilingual, and indigenous language immersion. They also make suggestions for pedagogical and curriculum changes and teacher education. Material is organized in four sections on program design, program outcomes and implications for practice, language use and assessment practices, and policy. Each of the book's four sections provides studies, literature reviews, and descriptions of at least two of the three program types in real programs around the world. Tedick is professor of second language and cultures education at the University of Minnesota. The book is distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Diane Tedick is Associate Professor of Second Languages and Cultures Education at the University of Minnesota. For over 20 years she has worked in the preparation of preservice teachers and ongoing professional development of inservice teachers representing a variety of language teaching contexts: immersion and bilingual programs, world languages, and ESL. Her professional and research interests focus on the pedagogy required for successful integration of language and content instruction, student oral language proficiency development in immersion programs, and language teacher development.
Donna Christian is a senior fellow at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC (www.cal.org). Her work focuses on the role of language in education and society, with special interests in dual language education, second language learning, dialect diversity, and public policy.
Tara Williams Fortune is an Immersion Teaching Specialist and Coordinator of the Immersion Projects at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota. She is founding editor of The American Council on Immersion Education (ACIE) Newsletter, a publication written for and by immersion practitioners that is currently in its 14th year of dissemination. Her professional and research interests focus on struggling immersion learners, K-8 oral proficiency development of immersion students, and language and literacy development in early total Chinese immersion programs.