School context: immersion program schools in Australia and abroad

This section contextualises the case study school and addresses the research focus indicated in Chapter 1 (Introduction) – that is, of providing new research data relating to the effectiveness of immersion programs.

In reviewing literature about immersion language programs, this section limits its focus to those programs of the additive or enrichment model (Baker, 2006). Immersion

bilingual education derives from a Canadian experiment in 1965 at St Lamberts School. The goals of the program were for students to be able to have French speaking and writing competence, to reach normal achievement levels in the broad English

curriculum, and to appreciate the culture of French-speaking Canadians (Baker, 2006, p. 245). Immersion bilingual programs spread rapidly both in Canada and abroad.

2.3.1.1 Features of immersion school programs

The eight core features of immersion programs, shared also by the case study school, are suggested by Swain and Johnson (1997):

1 The second language is the medium of instruction.

2 The immersion curriculum is the same as the local first language curriculum. 3 The school supports first language development.

4 Additive bilingualism occurs.

5 Exposure to the second language is largely confined to the classroom. 6 Students enter with similar levels of second language proficiency. 7 All the teachers are bilingual.

8 The classroom culture is that of the first language community.

Critiquing this list, Swain and Lapkin (2005) call for the assumptions in items 3 and 8 on this list to be revised in light of demographic change in classrooms. They believe that pedagogy must support the many home languages now present in classrooms, as there is rarely a common L1. Similarly, they believe that classrooms need to recognise the multiple home cultures to which students now belong.

The researcher has examined the structure of a large number of immersion program schools across Australia and abroad (Moloney, 2005, 2006), in order to establish the

variety of structural features. There are differences between school immersion programs in:

1 age level of commencement

2 extent (hours per week) of immersion time 3 school support

4 resources available for teaching and learning 5 demographic profile of students.

Because of challenging organisational factors and cost to schools, enrichment immersion programs have represented only a small part of Australian language teaching. The researcher knows of only around fifty schools in Australia with (either primary or secondary school) immersion programs (Moloney, 2005, 2006).

Recently, however, in the search for an enhanced mainstream student-centred language methodology, researchers (Coyle, 2006; Darn, 2006) have recognised the meaningful and purposeful communication occurring in immersion learning. In Content and

Integrated Language Learning (CLIL) (Coyle, 2005), or Content-Based Instruction (CBI) (Met, 1999; Stoller, 2002), a non-linguistic subject such as geography or history is taught through the medium of a foreign language. The purpose of language is to interpret, express and negotiate meaning in cognitively demanding tasks. This is increasingly promoted as a meaningful way forward for all mainstream language teaching in Europe. This growth is a recognition of the learning potential of the immersion classroom.

Morgan (1999) has noted also that in CLIL contexts an intercultural dimension is

recognised, that is, an increased cultural awareness through taking a different approach to the content.

2.3.1.2 Aspects of immersion programs in Australian context

Enrichment immersion programs in Australia3 exist in isolation, without any national or political rationale. Australian school programs need to have their own individual internal sense of purpose (Nicholas, 2006). Although there were bilingual schools in Australia prior to World War I, the recent growth in bilingual schools began in 1981 with the establishment of a German elementary school bilingual program and a French bilingual school program in Canberra, ACT, in 1984. The case study school of this current project was founded in 1984.

Moloney (2006) has identified schools across Australia which have varieties of both

3

This reviews notes there are Australian immersion programs designed for the maintenance of a mother tongue other than English (such as an Aboriginal language) but this research limits its focus to enrichment programs which have as their goal the acquisition of a additional language by children who speak English.

primary and secondary school immersion programs in ten different languages. Nicholas (2006) describes the common strategies in Australian immersion schools that make immersion a successful learning environment. Paramount is the acceptance of

bilingualism as ‘normal’ within the school, and the creation of broad based intercultural interest across the curriculum. Harbon’s (2006) study of Kennington Primary

(pseudonym) and its French program describes the broad support it enjoys across the school.

De Courcy (2006) has studied the performance of Australian learners in a Hebrew immersion program in a Victorian school and notes the high levels of metalinguistic awareness and transfer skills in students. McNamara (1990) has profiled a Hebrew immersion program at Mt Scopus Memorial College, Victoria. McNamara has more recently (2006) highlighted the role of identity studies in the analysis of language development in the bilingual students at that same school. He suggests that student intercultural competence is a result of their self-esteem in the school environment, emerging from the ideology and broad intercultural goals within the school culture. The importance of the broader school context is similarly highlighted by Rantz and Horan (2005). Rantz and Horan (2005) note that intercultural awareness in the language classroom must complement the intercultural awareness that is being fostered in other areas of the curriculum, contributing to the child’s ‘ability to think critically about the target cultures as well as his/her own culture’ (Rantz & Horan, 2005, p. 214).

This brief review of immersion school programs suggests the need in the current research to consider the role of different aspects of the case study school, in the development of students.

2.3.1.3 The case study school

The case study school was chosen for its emphasis on languages and intercultural learning, and as an exemplar of primary bilingual immersion pedagogy in an Australian school (Moloney, 2004), for the purpose of focusing on intercultural competence

occurring in students. A search has confirmed that no formal research study has

previously been undertaken on the students or the language program of the case study school.

The school, International Grammar School, in the centre of Sydney, Australia, has conducted a partial immersion language program in its primary school for 23 years since its founding (Moloney, 2004; St Leon, 2005). As noted in Chapter 1 (Introduction), it is an inner-city, K–12, non-selective, co-educational and secular independent school with enrolment of approximately 1000. Study in a second language (choice of French, German, Japanese, Italian) is compulsory from preschool to Year 10.