Immersion

The benefits of immersion as a language-teaching methodology have long been debated. Many people feel the best way to learn a language is to plunge straight in and live, eat, sleep and breathe that language. 

But can we artificially recreate this experience and employ this method to good effect in a greater non-native language context? Is this an all-or-nothing question, or can partial immersion make more of a difference than a traditional approach?

Aberdeen City Council: EPPI

The Early Primary Partial Immersion (EPPI) project (formerly Partial Immersion in Foreign Language in Primary School, or PIMFLIPS) was launched in session 2000/01 at Walker Road Primary, Aberdeen, with joint funding from Aberdeen City Council and the Languages Innovation fund. Funding has continued since then until the session 2004/05.

In addition to the daily French lesson, expressive arts and ICT are taught through the medium of French in the early stages. Both the time allocated and the curricular areas are increased as the pupils move through the school. In P4, pupils experience two hours daily of learning in French and this includes aspects of environmental studies, as well as the curricular areas previously mentioned.

Naturally, huge gains have been made in pupils' attainment and enjoyment of language learning, but interestingly, improvements have also been noted in language and communication across the curriculum.