Immersion programs in the US have grown 94% from 1981 to 2011. The rise in popularity can be attributed to the benefits of an immersion education. Research continues to find more and more benefits which are not only academic but cognitive and personal.
Students who learn in an immersion environment gain more than just an additional language. They are given skills to help them succeed for their rest of their lives.
Personal benefits
Learning another language, whether Spanish or French, today allows your child to further enjoy his tomorrow. Being able to speak another language enables your child to more easily and more joyously travel the world and to interact with Spanish or French speaking people in our communities and families.
Long-term, knowing a second language can free up a student’s time to pursue other activities in his later schooling: high school language requirements will be met with ease and college admissions look favorably on students who can speak more than one language.
As an adult, knowing a second/third language of course can open up additional job opportunities.
Cognitive benefits
Recent research indicates that being multilingual may actually make people more creative and more flexible thinkers and excel at critical thinking and problem solving. When presented with a problem, they are able to look for more than one solution.
The mental stretch students receive in an immersion classroom helps develop their executive function (cognitive control), allowing them to have better focus, juggle multiple tasks, and adapt to changing conditions.
The skills gained through an immersion education make students more appealing to prospective employers when entering the workforce.
Academic benefits
An immersion program is the best way to learn a new language as it allows for students to achieve high speaking and literacy skills.
Because students have different language levels immersion classrooms use differentiated instruction and flexible groupings allowing students to learn at their own pace and without limits.
Students with an immersion education score high on standardized tests, scoring as well as or better than their non-immersion peers, even in English.
Classrooms are not just language immersion but cultural immersion as well, giving them a greater appreciation for different traditions and perspectives.
