Language Use of English-speaking Children in the Immersion Classrooms

Language Use of English-speaking Children in the Immersion Classrooms

  This is an ethnographic case study of the English-speaking preschool children in Two-Way Immersion Spanish Time (TWIST). It portrayed and analyzed children’s language use during circle time, free-play time, and story time of preschool classrooms. The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding English-speaking children’s Spanish language use in foreign language immersion settings. Data were collected by videotaping, field notes, formal and informal interview with teachers and parents for one academic year. Collected data were analyzed on the framework of language use patterns based on Clyne’s (1986) and Hagino’s (2001) oral productions and responses framework. During TWIST, English-speaking children showed patterns of language use (English use, formulaic Spanish use, invented Spanish use, original Spanish use) and patterns of responses to be addressed Spanish by others (ignoring, elicited acceptance, voluntarily acceptance). Children’s responses transited from ignoring to accepting a new language after the first several months of TWIST. Data also showed that there were teachers’ elicited Spanish verbal input in order to support and encourage English-speaking children to use Spanish.