Archived Content from Conference Held in October 2004
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Pathways to
Bilingualism:
Evolving Perspectives on Immersion Education
October 21-23, 2004
Radisson-Metrodome Hotel
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
As one of many pathways to bilingualism, language immersion education
continues to proliferate in the U.S. and throughout the world. This conference
on immersion education aimed to bring together immersion educators in all
languages, at all instructional and institutional levels, and in all contexts.
Targeted contexts included: foreign language immersion in more
and less commonly taught languages, dual language immersion, and immersion
for linguistic and cultural revitalization involving heritage and indigenous
populations.
Each of these school-based programs embraces the concept of additive bilingualism -- the acquisition of a second language while continuing to develop the first. As the purposes and sociopolitical contexts for immersion education multiply and change, there is a pressing need to bring together researchers, teachers, and other professionals from these many contexts to initiate and sustain meaningful dialogue and share new knowledge across languages, levels, program models and sociopolitical contexts. The conference focused on the following four broad themes: Program Design and Development, Assessment and Program Evaluation, Language Development and Immersion Pedagogy, and Policy and Advocacy.
Conference Information
Conference Sponsors: The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), a U.S. Department of Education Title VI Language Resource Center, gratefully acknowledges the support of several University of Minnesota co-sponsors including the College of Education and Human Development; College of Liberal Arts; Center for German and European Studies; Department of Curriculum and Instruction; Second Languages and Cultures Education Program; Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Department of French and Italian; Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch; and the Institute of Linguistics, English as a Second Language, and Slavic Languages and Literatures.
Conference Planning Committee: Martha Bigelow (University of Minnesota), Maggie Broner (St. Olaf College), Donna Christian (Center for Applied Linguistics), Tara Fortune–Co-Chair (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition), Norbert Francis (Northern Arizona University), Liz Hathaway-Castelan (Highland Park Jr. High School), Carol Klee (University of Minnesota), Roy Lyster (McGill University), Kimerly Miller (L’Etoile du Nord French Immersion School), Isabelle Punchard (K-12 Edina Public Schools), David Reid (Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion School), Marguerite Ann Snow (California State University), Diane Tedick–Co-Chair (University of Minnesota), Connie Walker (University of Minnesota)