My point is that you can slow down gifted students with extra language burdens, for sure. But, it need not be through immersion programs. You can send your child to afterschool programs or language schools on the weekend to learn a new language. But, if you teach science and math in another language (French, Spanish or Mandarin) for 8 years and then expect the child to keep pace with the general population who deal with science and math in the English language, then these kids, however gifted they are, tend to be disadvantaged. Unfortunately, it might affect their college prospects direly, as I have seen with my niece and nephew.
