Our school is considering a Spanish Immersion class beginning for DS5 in 1st grade next year. Teacher indicated DS is the only K kiddo at the school that she believes would be successful in a full immersion classroom. We are willing to consider this as it would add a learning dimension that would help DS not be so bored, but looking for feedback from anyone with experience or knowledge about how these work and the success rate for gifted kiddos.
English is the quasi-official language of the U.S. and has effectively become the international language of educated people, so I don't see the point of immersion in a language other than English. English language immersion could make sense for children in non-English-speaking countries.
Academically, immersion in a foreign language is not a free lunch. Quoting Steve Sailer quoting the NYT:
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/08/upscale-bilingual-education.htmlUpscale bilingual education
by Steve Sailer
August 18, 2010
'Ms. Bialystok’s research shows that bilingual children tend to have smaller vocabularies in English than their monolingual counterparts, and that the limited vocabulary tends to be words used at home (spatula and squash) rather than words used at school (astronaut, rectangle). The measurement of vocabulary is always in one language: a bilingual child’s collective vocabulary from both languages will probably be larger.
“Bilingualism carries a cost, and the cost is rapid access to words,” Ms. Bialystok said. In other words, children have to work harder to access the right word in the right language, which can slow them down — by milliseconds, but slower nonetheless.
At the same time, bilingual children do better at complex tasks like isolating information presented in confusing ways. In one test researchers frequently use, words like “red” and “green” flash across a screen, but the words actually appear in purple and yellow.
Bilingual children are faster at identifying what color the word is written in, a fact researchers attribute to a more developed prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for executive decision-making, like which language to use with certain people)....
One arena in which being bilingual does not seem to help is the highly competitive kindergarten admission process.
“It doesn’t give you a leg up on the admissions process,” said Victoria Goldman, author of the sixth edition of “The Manhattan Family Guide to Private Schools.” It is one piece of the bigger puzzle, which includes tests scores, interviews and the ability of a child to follow directions. “Speaking another language is indicative that you are verbal, but you have to be behaved.”
George P. Davison, head of school at Grace Church School, a competitive downtown school, said that bilingualism tended to suppress verbal and reading comprehension test scores by 20 to 30 percent for children younger than 12. “If anything, it can have a negative effect on admissions,” he said.'
