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This research describes language use by four first-grade students during mathematics and Language Arts instruction in a one-way 50/50 Mandarin immersion classroom. The urban public school was situated in the heart of an African-American community in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Participants were video- and audio- recorded while wearing lapel microphones for 56–75 minutes per week for five weeks, followed by a semi-structured focus group interview. A total of 3,090 speech turns were coded and analysed under five categories: number of speech turns, vocabulary, grammar, linguistic functions, and other themes that emerged from the interview. Overall, students used Mandarin 61% of the time. Data indicated that multiple factors may impact student target language use, including motivation, learning strategies, social identity, linguistic background and pedagogy. Implications for changes in immersion curriculum and instruction, as well as calls for future research on trilingual education are shared.

This manuscript details an exploratory study of an assignment in a literacy across the curriculum course that assisted teacher candidates to recognize the distance between expert and novice readers in their content specific teaching. The study explores how teacher candidates discovered strategies necessary to build comprehension of disciplinebased texts, particularly for novice readers. Data collection included multiple entries from thirty teacher candidate journals that were generated during partnered dialogues. Journals were analyzed for clues as to how teachers can better approach helping students to read varied disciplines' texts with greater comprehension. Findings suggest that by placing teacher candidates in the position of both novice and expert readers, 1) they gained insight into how to scaffold instruction so that students become more expert readers of their content; and 2) they exhibited a willingness to work with these strategies because they empathized with struggling readers.

Dual Language Immersion Programs (DLIPs) are offered as a way to address the needs of the students in our classrooms with a primary language other than English and a way to promote multilingualism for both English learners and native-English speakers. This study examined a first-year middle school science teacher's experience teaching in a DLIP. The authors focused on the teacher's challenges and how he handled the tensions between teaching science content and addressing issues of language development in a DLIP classroom environment. Based on classroom observations, pre- and post-year interviews, and weekly teacher reflections, themes emerged that reveal the teacher's concern with teaching science in Spanish, the need for support from both administration and science content and DLIP mentors, students' willingness to use Spanish, and the teacher's lack of familiarity with DLIP curriculum and pedagogy, particularly in regard to balancing the teaching of content and language. This study provides implications for both teacher preparation programs and for DLIP school administrators.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to document the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed for effective two‐way immersion (TWI) teacher training based on the perspectives of those practicing in the field. The research questions explored how preservice teachers, practicing TWI teachers, and TWI administrators perceived the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed for effective TWI teaching, how they viewed the challenges for TWI teacher preparation programs and the role of a TWI field experience. The findings revealed that field experiences in a TWI classroom are essential for learning the complex pedagogy required for effective dual language education. The findings also showed that long‐term study abroad experiences in regions other than the mother country are necessary for expanding novice TWI teachers' language skills, specifically the learning of other dialects. Additional findings showed that TWI teachers' work extends beyond typical teacher capabilities, such as the teaching of academic content and literacy in two languages. This study also found that passion is fundamental for effective TWI teaching because it can inspire teachers to advocate for the program model and multilingualism. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that TWI teacher preparation programs require specialized dual language education courses and field experiences.