Racial integration through two-way dual language immersion: A case study

Abstract

Despite increasingly diverse public school enrollment, students across the U.S. are still segregated by race and poverty, and English learners (ELs) often experience triple segregation by race, poverty, and language. Two-way immersion (TWI) programs may create racially integrated learning environments, by offering a dual language model that balances native English speakers and speakers of the partner language. Through semi-structured interviews, observation, and document analysis, this qualitative case study examined how a Spanish TWI program facilitates integration in a rural elementary school. Findings show that students from different backgrounds may have equal status in mutually beneficial environments, can become bilingual and bicultural, and may experience lifelong benefits. Implications include the need for increased federal, state, and local funding to support districts using TWI to achieve integration as well as a federal language policy that promotes TWI.

How Teachers and Leaders Facilitate Integration in a Two-Way Dual Language Immersion Program

“…Other concerns raised regarding TWI programs, such as gentrification (Gándara, 2021; Valdez et al, 2016), did not seem prevalent at Silverthorne; in fact, the program enrollment had become more heavily Latinx over the years, which may lead to a different problem of stigmatization. A preference for English was reported by some teachers and observed among students during unstructured times, suggesting that English is the dominant language even in this TWI setting (Uzzell & Ayscue, 2021). This outcome could be attributable to the 50/50 language distribution (Freire & Delavan, 2021) and could be addressed by replacing the binary approach with a bilingual program that is more sensitive to the needs of emergent bilingual students (Hamman-Ortiz, 2019).…”

The role of technology in language immersion: a systematic literature review

“…With the myriad benefits offered and the parents' wishes, responsible stakeholders need to consider many different aspects that can support language immersion success as shown in Table 1. Highly intensive daily contact and interaction [3], [8], [19], [31] Integrating language majority and minority learners in two-way immersion [14] An equitable language environment [32]- [35] Language input and output [3], [15], [36], [37] Enjoyable learning environment [22] Teacher Knowledge [38], [39] Instructional skills [22], [39], [40] Language and content integration [25], [39], [41] Pedagogical planning and practice [22], [38], [39], [41], [42] Teaching material [39], [43] Language skills [39], [ [10], [48] First of all, the advantages that language immersion offers to language learners come because language immersion provides highly intensive daily contact with the target language in various situations, including academic and everyday communication [8]. Intensive contact and communication with the target language from the surrounding environment can also provide input to participants regarding language use and then train them to construct, remake, and apply the target language to their interaction [37] This intensity is an important aspect of language immersion because intensive communication, although not fluent, can improve the quality of interactions, lead to stronger relationships and enable them to gain knowledge of the target language and a more authentic and rich experience [31].…”