Elizabeth Bernhardt

Life in Language Immersion Classrooms Elizabeth Bernhardt

Life in Language Immersion Classrooms is a book about teachers and teaching. Specifically, it is about teaching language by means of immersion; i.e., when language is taught not as a subject, but rather as the medium through which content material is instructed. In contrast to other volumes on the subject of language immersion programmes that have discussed language outcomes, this edited volume focuses on how teachers and school administrators implement and carry on the daily business of immersion schooling. The volume chronicles a two-year research project that involved the staff and principals of two immersion schools in the midwestern United States, in collaboration with a team of educational researchers which included specialists in second language as well as in language arts teaching. The research on which the book is based was funded by the United States Department of Education. Included as separate chapters in the volume are two in-depth studies of immersion teachers: a study on the use of drama in the immersion classroom, and an analysis of the use of children's literature. In the latter half of the book are discussions on preparing and maintaining immersion school staff.