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Abstract:
Total immersion methods of language learning have been
around for a long time but the meaning and application
of total immersion has largely been culturally defined.
In countries where dual language systems operate such
as Canada, where French and English is spoken, there has
been major research and investment by Government into
total immersion schools to improve national unity and
provide equality of access to educational opportunities.
In the USA and Australia, total immersion on the other
hand has chiefly been concerned with delivering core curricula
to migrant groups in a wide range of languages in order
to raise benchmarks of educational achievement. In Europe,
Africa and Asia there are thousands of educational programs,
which offer many hybrid forms of total immersion in 2nd,
3rd or even 4th languages. These programs are shaped by
many differing political, cultural and economic forces
and there is little research to evaluate their effectiveness.
So far China, with potentially the largest
group of English learners in the world, has not developed
many examples of successful total immersion language training.
It is the purpose of this paper to argue that, despite
the large investment in resources, which may be required,
total immersion principles are particularly relevant to
the development of language skills in a country like China,
which has for historical reasons remained culturally distinct
from the rest of the world. The paper will draw examples
from several schools in China offering total immersion
training and seek to identify which elements contribute
to the success of these programs. The paradigm which is
offered is that of a learning community where teachers
and learners share rich and meaningful experiences through
the medium of a target language.
Gordon J Kerr BA, DMS, MBA, EMIB, FRAI, graduated with
double first class honours in Cultural Anthropology and
Sociology from Stirling University in Scotland. He undertook
doctoral research in ethnographic film at Manchester and
was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Anthropological
Institute in 1980. He continued his studies in the fields
of Mass Media, International Marketing and European Management
at Leicester, London, Oxford and Paris and was voted Young
Manager of the Year by the British Institute of Management
in 1985. With over 25 years experience in international
publishing, education and management training in Europe
and Asia, he now works as director of corporate training
at Gateway Language Village (GLV) in Zhuhai, serving several
major multi-national companies in the Pearl River Delta.
Committed to teacher development and support
and the raising ELT standards in China, he is involved
with a number of initiatives including TESOL training,
teacher conferences, scholarship and internship programs.
He is Chairman of IELTA (International Education, Language
and Training Association) and is currently doing doctoral
research into education management in China. He has scripted
and produced a number educational films for TV, designed
award winning multi-media exhibitions and continues to
work as writer, music producer and publisher with an active
interest in the arts in China. A fellow of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, his special interests include, cross-cultural
management, values education and business ethics. He visited
China for the first time in 1990 and returned many times
on business for 10 years, before moving to China in 2000.
Introduction
My personal interest in total immersion techniques arose
from my own experiences in Europe and Asia, first as a
language student, secondly as an actor trying to transcend
cultural barriers through a variety of media, thirdly
through my studies and interest in anthropology and lastly
as a teacher and educator. What I would like to do today
is sketch out some of the ideas behind the term Total
Immersion, quickly review its history and role in language
teaching around the world and to consider its relevance
to the future of language teaching in China. In doing
so, I will draw upon my own experience in helping create
a special language environment at Gateway Language Village,
(GLV) in Zhuhai in Guangdong Province.
At GLV we have developed a range of new
language programs called TIE (Total Immersion Experience)
and I would like to explain some of the key elements of
this program, which our students find most helpful. If
we have time, I will also try to explore some of the ideas
and theories we are using to develop our approach to Total
Immersion and leave some time for questions and discussion.
Hopefully, by the end of this short presentation, you
will have a better understanding of what Total Immersion
is and how it can be used to help improve the language
skills of Chinese learners. I believe it has a very important
role to play if developed properly with the needs of Chinese
students in mind. Key words are in Italics.
History of Total Immersion
For several hundred years it was the practice in aristocratic
circles in Europe for the sons and daughters of the nobility
to go abroad to further their education. The cultivation
of language skills in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French
and occasionally German and Russian was seen as essential
to good breeding and also for the maintenance and health
of an elite system of governance. Language skills in themselves,
were never seen as an abstract entity, but as a means
of imbibing the culture and civilisation of each region.
How could one appreciate history or politics without knowledge
of Greek for example, or gain access to any kind of worthwhile
knowledge of science or medicine without Latin. In the
18th and 19th centuries with the rise of the mercantile
classes, it was essential for aspiring young men and occasionally
women, to engage in le grand tour. Sometimes lasting several
years, this tour immersed the great and the good in the
music and cultures of Italy, France, Germany, Austria
and Switzerland and sometimes to more exotic locations
such as Egypt or the Holy Land. Such experiences were
important benchmarks of the quality of someone's education
and may have included periods of study at universities
in Paris, Rome or Vienna. What is interesting, however,
is that in this education, cultural knowledge was seen
as the desired goal and language or belle letters but
one aspect of it. The study of language as an abstract
form of knowledge, or for simple utilitarian purposes,
as it is often promoted today, was relatively unknown.
The total immersion approach to language learning therefore,
has a long and distinguished history, but it did not of
course exist as a body of theory...it just seemed the
obvious thing to do and the best and sometimes only way.
to learn another language.
Dramatic Change
Of course such educational opportunities were always restricted
to a privileged few and in the 20th century with the rise
of universal education, language education also changed
shape dramatically. I am not a historian, and I am sure
there are many scholars here who could give you more information
about these changes, but a number of forces were set in
motion. Political changes, wars, migration, international
travel and rising prosperity are but a few. My grandmother,
who was raised in Southern Germany, was employed as a
teacher of Latin, French and German in a small public
school in Scotland in the 1920's and 30's and found her
skills in high demand as a private tutor.
The spread of education to the "great unwashed"
as my father used to call them, ramped up the demand for
language teachers all over Europe and the Americas. Few
of them had much formal training in how to teach modern
languages and relied heavily on formal grammar textbooks
and readers, often in the style of teaching Latin and
Ancient Greek, both dead languages. Despite this, judging
from my grandmother's accounts, many teachers taught with
great passion and saw it as their duty to transmit a love
for the culture and arts of the country and not just to
teach the language itself. Instinctively, they used many
of the props and methods, which are today often hailed
as best practice for modern language teachers. There is
an Oscar winning performance by the actress Maggie Smith,
who plays a teacher in the famous movie; The Prime of
Miss Jean Brodie, which I urge you to watch if you get
the chance.
Modern Language Teaching
Increasingly, however, as the century progressed, modern
language teaching became more established as an academic
subject and more and more teachers, sometimes only with
a passing acquaintance with the culture were called to
the front. There was great teacher shortage and despite
the best intentions of educational policy makers in post-war
Europe, modern languages were often regarded as a Cinderella
subject and lacked proper resources or experienced language
teachers. When I was at school, my own French language
education seemed to come almost entirely from a succession
of poorly paid French students, whose main goal in life
it seemed was to improve their English. Some similarities
with China in recent years I think. During this period,
there grew up a small number of immersion or dual language
schools in cosmopolitan cities like London, and in other
parts of Europe such multilingual societies as Switzerland,
and small countries like Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg
offered a range of dual language or partial immersion
schools according to their largely domestic needs. I remember
meeting a Swiss Italian car worker in the early 1970's
who spoke fluent Italian, French German and English and
thought nothing of it·this guy pulled levers for a living
and I remember thinking, if he was British, with four
languages, he would probably expect to get a job as an
interpreter at the United Nations. Total Immersion then,
has been a very hybrid form of instruction across Europe.
It varies greatly from country to country.
English Only Immersion
In other Anglophone countries like the USA and Canada,
Total Immersion took on a different character. The priority
need here was the integration of many ethnic groups into
a new society. The immersion principle at first was English
Only with children of many different linguistic backgrounds
forbidden to speak their native tongue, often with the
threat of severe punishments. There was a time when English
language supremacy also ruled in my own country, Scotland,
when children were beaten or expelled from school for
speaking Gaelic and even until recently in places like
Australia aboriginal children have been subject to similar
abuses. In some cases then Total Immersion has been a
very harsh method of instruction and the cause of great
misery and suffering.
As such societies evolved to more democratic and plural
forms these draconian measures declined and new educational
policies recognised the importance of cultural pluralism
and diversity for a healthy society. Increasingly, parents
demanded the right to have their children schooled, not
just in the host language, but also to receive instruction
in their native tongue. Total immersion teaching techniques
emerged to help deliver unified curricula through a mix
of L1, L2 and L3 combinations with varying degrees of
success and failures. A host of complex variables varying
from State to State have made total immersion a very difficult
area of educational research. The University of Minnesota
is perhaps the leading centre. One interesting sidebar
was a magazine article I came across, which claimed that
because of changing population patterns in 50 years, more
people in the USA will speak Spanish as their first language,
not English.
Total Immersion in a Bi-Lingual Community.
In Canada, with two major linguistic groups, enlightened
attempts to integrate and protect the distinct cultural
heritages of both Francophone and Anglophone communities
saw the development of many total and partial immersion
programs. Canada perhaps because of its distinct geographical
separation of its two linguistic communities has perhaps
enjoyed the greatest measure of success with its 'one
country two systems' approach to total immersion (and
you thought it was Deng XiaoPing's idea!)
In Canada today a high proportion of students spend at
least sometime in a total immersion program to develop
fluency and cultural empathy. This has not been achieved
without considerable investment by government of course,
and is a reflection of their desire to promote national
unity by embracing ethnic diversity.
Linguistic Diversity.
Successive waves of immigration in modern times have obviously
greatly added to the richness and complexity of language
varieties in the classroom. In New York alone students
speak over 300 languages and according to Professor Cortazzi
of Brunel University in London, in the past few years,
the local education authorities there, have been obliged
to deliver teaching support in some 255 different tongues.
Imagine trying to find the language teachers for this.
Compare this to Shenzen, where last year a middle school
headmaster complained to me that he has eight different
dialects among students in his classroom. Even this can
be a real impediment to teaching. Language training is
now a key element at all levels of education systems from
primary to tertiary.
Emerging economies.
In other parts of the world, (I don't like the term "developing
countries") where educational opportunities may be
more limited, language acquisition and teaching takes
on a different character. Mission schools played an important
early role in providing "English Education"
I remember one morning when I was doing some fieldwork
as an anthropology student in Botswana, a young boy cycled
some 5 miles from the next village to practice his English
with me "Good Morrow Sir" he said confidently.
This is an archaic form of "Good Morning". He
learned this from an ancient textbook, dated 1898, which
had been locally reproduced and was still used in the
local primary school.
The setting up of English medium schools in many countries
saw the practice of total immersion but not as a theoretical
model. There was some degree of cultural arrogance in
forcing children to speak English, but this often simply
reflected the fact that the teachers knew no other language.
Total Immersion then was more a matter of convenience
than principle. Despite the narrow religious focus of
some mission schools, many teachers were dedicated, self-sacrificing
and worked under difficult conditions to deliver the best
education they could. More than a handful of great statesmen
and world leaders received their early education at such
schools.
Church based or mission schools continue
to play an important part in the development of education
in many countries and in Asia, their influence in places
like Hong Kong, Singapore and India is significant. Know
one knows for sure but even today it is estimated that
more than 50%, some say as many as 80%, of English teachers
in China are here on a religious agenda. Whether or not
you think that is a bad thing is for you to decide. It
does mean of course that China gets its English education
on the cheap, as many of these teachers are either self
supporting or get financial assistance from outside agencies.
Most career ESL teachers can earn much more by teaching
in places like Japan, Korea or Taiwan so it is hard to
attract the best teachers to China. This is changing of
course and it is one of the purposes of conferences like
this to raise standards of teaching and hopefully, also
rewards for professionalism among teachers.
A Political question
With the advent of more secular education,
language education became more politicised and we know
the experience of China in this regard, where bourgeois
revisionists who could read English literature were once
identified as a threat to the State. Now thankfully we
can use English in safety and as China opens up to the
rest of the world increasing access to literature and
ideas will hopefully continue. The medium of instruction
remains a hot potato in places like Hong Kong, where standards
of English have dropped since the handover in 1997. In
Macau where my wife works the problem is even worse with
four languages to contend with. It is a complex issue
and there are no easy answers.
In countries like India, Malaysia and
Singapore, each with a strong English language heritage,
English teaching has been enriched by a significant number
of immersion schools. I have visited a few but there seems
to be little consistency of educational policy or theory
underpinning these approaches. In colonial times Immersion
schools were for many years used to preserve a form of
educational apartheid. This elitism continues when immersion
schools may now be seen as a kind of fast track and guaranteed
access to a western education. I do not know much about
Latin America or Eastern Europe but maybe you can ask
some of the experts who are here, about the nature of
total immersion schools in these places.
Total Immersion in China
Well what about the history of total immersion in China·I
don't know when the first English language school open
to Chinese was opened in China, can anyone tell me?
We know that for almost 5000 years China had its back
to the world. It was believed that nothing good could
come from beyond the sea, where only barbarians lived.
Until the last century even teaching foreigners Chinese
was a crime punishable by death; which is why many of
the words westerners use to describe Chinese culture and
society today are not even Chinese words, but Eurasian
words like Mandarin and Pagoda.
The growth of foreign language teaching
in China today is, however, phenomenal and represents
a huge and commendable effort of the Chinese people to
open the door of understanding and goodwill to the rest
of the world. In the last 40 years since the Cultural
Revolution·it is estimated that today around 300 million
people have studied English, which despite the efforts
of Japanese and Germans and others is de facto the selected
second language of China. We can see this amounts to a
huge commitment of resources, but the question is what
has been learned and are prevailing teaching methods effective?
Calculations differ but of these 300 million who have
studied English it is reckoned that less than 1% (3 million)
have actually achieved any real degree of fluency in the
language. This means that for the rest (99%) learning
English may have been largely an unsatisfactory experience.
This not to blame anybody, least of all the teachers,
who we all know, work hard, sometimes under great pressure
to do their best for their students.
Few Chinese English teachers have had
the opportunity to travel to English speaking countries
to make a grand tour and few have had access to good English
resources because of China's political history. Many teachers
especially in remote areas or countryside schools have
never had a chance to meet foreigners, listen to English
or practice speaking skills. Many cannot speak at all.
At GLV we run a scholarship scheme for such teachers who
often lack the confidence to open their mouth. Total immersion
is an alien concept and until recently English Only schools
in China were for the children of rich foreigners, mainly
in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. I
believe however, that Total immersion can and will play
a big part in meeting the real language deficits of Chinese
English learners.
A few private schools have opened up offering Total Immersion
classes to older students and there are now several in
Guangdong Province. Well, what are they like. The first
I did was to investigate them. Of those schools I have
visited in Guangzhou, Shenzen and Zhuhai I can say that
actually none of them are running true total immersion.
The may claim to but, what they are actually offering
is Intensive English with some immersion elements. One
definition of Total Immersion commonly accepted is that
all instruction and tuition is given in the Target language,
in this case English. With total immersion students are
also expected to speak only in the target language. None
of these schools do that. For some nearly all instruction
language was actually in Chinese and translation of difficult
words common.
Real Total Immersion.
In investing in education in China we addressed the question
what is the greatest need and what can we provide that
other schools in China don't provide. I was convinced
from my own experiences as a student in Paris, from many
visits to China and also interviewing Chinese students
abroad, that what learners lacked most was an opportunity
to develop listening and speaking skills and to become
effective communicators. I knew so many students with
an impressive vocabulary and good test scores but who
could not open their mouth or know what to say when asked
a simple question. I knew so many Chinese students who
had gone abroad to study English and who felt lonely,
isolated and under so much mental pressure, that they
sometimes ended up in hospital. These students often received
second-rate treatment and tuition and at the same time
were paying huge fees their families could not afford.
What was needed was real total immersion. A special environment,
where learners would have the opportunity to become comfortable
using the language develop their listening and speaking
skills right here in China and learn about the many varieties
of English used around the world.
The Learning Community.
Hilary Clinton claimed in her book that
it takes a village to educate a child. I believe that
she is right. Our goal then was not to set up just another
school. There are thousands already, why do we need just
another one. Like you I am committed to quality education
and over the years I have come to realise as an educator,
that strength is more in shape than in size. Through many
years involvement with the arts, my studies as an anthropologist
and my travels to some 50 countries I have become convinced,
that small groups where everyone is known, where everyone
can feel valued and where everyone can contribute and
take part, provide the best context for rich learning
experiences.
So our goal was to create a learning community
with all the complex texture of relationships, communication
patterns and human interactions that language is designed
to facilitate and make possible. That's why we call our
learning community a village and not a school.
In our village, learners step into an
English world, where only English heard, seen, spoken
and used. They sign a contract agreeing to use English
only at all times and understand that if they break this
promise, they will be gently reminded, then warned and
then if they persist asked to leave. The village then
is only for serious learners; those who really want to
make progress with their English. We know from the experience
of thousands of students of all abilities from all over
China that if they keep this promise then they will make
significant progress. We actually offer a money back guarantee
to our students if they are not satisfied with the results.
In three years only one student has asked for his money
back and we were glad to see him go. Our teachers must
ensure that every one of our students is both happy and
successful.
Daily Life.
In the village, learners of all abilities are graded through
a placement test system into eight levels from Basic to
Advanced. Within each level, students, may be further
divided into classes according to test scores, age and
occupation. The minimum period of stay in the village
is two weeks and maximum is currently sixteen weeks. Programs
run on a two-week cycle and new learners arrive every
two weeks and some leave ensuring a very dynamic environment.
Our villagers come from all over China and from Taiwan,
Korea, Hong Kong and Macau. We've even had students from
Columbia and Brazil.
From the moment they arrive learners find
that they are not there to study English but to live it,
morning, noon and night. Although like other schools we
have formal classes in the morning and a series of electives
and workshops in the afternoon what is different about
the village experience is the time outside classes. Breaks,
mealtimes, rest periods and social activities are when
most of the learning takes place. Learners of all abilities
interact and socialise together using English, living
together, working together just being together. Every
evening is also full of optional programs which learners
are expected to attend. Guest speakers, English movies,
English corners, News night, music and parties are held.
Every night learners can also use our self-access English
resource centre with English books, tapes, newspapers
and magazines or Internet (English only of course)
We teach them that they must
a) open their mouth and learn to speak with confidence
b) open their minds to new ideas and understanding
c) open their hearts to new friends from around the world
Teaching at GLV
One of the biggest problems facing many schools in China
is finding and retaining good teachers. Backpackers, tourists,
indeed anyone with a foreign face may be approached to
be a teacher, whether or not they are qualified or experienced.
There is a joke amongst foreigners that if you stand still
under a tree in China for a few minutes, someone will
offer you a job as a teacher. There are as a result many
bad teachers working in ESL in China, with no real training
or skill. Our commitment then has been to create a good
teaching environment for teachers, a place where teachers
want to live and work as teachers. We provide a high degree
of training and support to our teachers who are recruited
from all over the world. We look for personal qualities,
relevant life experience and attitude as well as qualifications
and teaching skill. We believe if the teachers are not
happy then our learners will know this. Teaching is not
an act. It is a role and students are perceptive. Their
success depends on it.
In addition to teachers we also have the
help of other native speakers who although they may lack
formal teaching qualifications work in the late afternoons,
evenings and weekends outside formal class times as language
companions and conversation partners. Their job is to
become friends with learners, engage them and encourage
them to use their English through a wide range of activities.
TESOL Training
In addition to our extensive teaching team, language partners
and English speaking staff GLV also hosts a TESOL training
program in partnership with TEFL International. This four-week
course runs every 5 weeks and attracts trainee English
teachers from all over the world who want to come and
work in China. These trainees mainly from North America
and Europe also bring another source of energy, interest
and enthusiasm to our students who are able to find even
more foreign friends to practice their English with and
learn from. On average the staff/student ratio works out
to 1:3.
Learner Outcomes
Our method is based on creating the need for language
and forcing the student to use all their senses, knowledge,
instincts and experience to negotiate meaning and communicate
effectively. Through this total immersion, listening and
comprehension skills are strengthened and confidence in
speaking, fluency, language awareness and understanding
of the complexities of language use are developed. Every
learner is different and our teachers work one-to-one
with each student in a personal and supportive environment
to agree on individual learning goals and tasks.
Other papers being presented at this conference,
deal with variety of attempts made to increase motivation
and sustain interest through authentic materials, modern
pedagogies and enrichment programs. This morning Scott
Thornbury, spoke on the triple objectives of fluency,
accuracy and complexity in learner goals. His student
responses to the questions how would you like to improve
your English support our analysis and finding also. This
is what we feel our total immersion provides. Of course
it is not perfect. We ourselves are a learning organisation.
We take a skills based approach; try to equip our learners
to tackle real world problems. We know that in the modern
world English is not a static system. Nothing is static.
Meanings shift, rules change, language adapts and there
is usually a range of possible answers to any question.
At GLV we try to help learners become
aware of the tremendous variety of language and through
our international language community we give them the
opportunity to explore and learn about different cultural
and social contexts of language use. They are exposed
to varying intonation patterns, accents and dialects and
begin to develop a language sense based on their extensive
use of English as a real communication tool. Almost 70
percent of language communication in the real world is
personal in nature and the multiple opportunities we give
them to use English in relaxed settings when they forget
they are learning but simply using English to express
themselves is a real and measurable benefit.
You don't need to go abroad to learn English!
An Introduction
to the body of Research on Total Immersion Language Education
and Teaching
Compiled by Gordon J Kerr
Deputy Director Gateway language Village, Zhuhai, Gordon
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APPENDIX
The Design of Total
Immersion Language Schools for China
A traditional theoretical starting point
for such an investigation is the design of learning-centred
schools. The learning-centred school is one whose mission,
organisation, leadership and curriculum delivery are all
focused on providing successful learning experiences and
outcomes for all its students.
Learning experiences and outcomes may
be defined according to Dimmock (2001) as the
"Knowledge, values attitudes and skills considered
worthwhile and desirable across the spectrum of academic,
social, spiritual, moral, aesthetic and physical domains"
In reality it is extremely challenging and rare for schools
to engage all these elements in a coherent and balanced
way. It is also extremely difficult to provide successful
learning outcomes for all of their students irrespective
of ability, social and cultural background, age and gender.
The most schools can usually hope for is to achieve some
measure of progress for the majority of their students
or at least to maintain the appearance of doing so. We
are all aware of the pressures educators are under, to
demonstrate progress and achievement, and also of the
various strategies that are sometimes adopted to manage
and manipulate results.
The very magnitude of the challenge -
involving many elements, most of which are interdependent
- means that incremental or piecemeal change is unlikely
to succeed, equally holistic but haphazard change is unlikely
to succeed beyond the short term. Schools are complex
systems of interrelated parts; to change one part is to
change the system and vice-versa. The process must be
both holistic and designed with intent.
At GLV we have so far adopted an incremental
approach to the development of our village and range of
educational services. We are striving to build a unified
and close-knit multicultural learning community within
a largely mono-cultural environment and are faced with
a challenging set of complex variables in streamlining
our key processes. Such development is organic but needs
to be phased and constantly monitored, scrutinised and
evaluated. Our teaching philosophy, although guided by
best practice and universally accepted principles, is
constantly being modified and developed in response to
learner needs and responses, teacher experience and staff
development.
The theoretical basis of our model is
a work in progress and grounded in our real and practical
experience. It is both experiential and experimental,
but that does make it any less rigorous in its methodology
and core functions. We are busy discovering what works
best and rely like all good educational institutions to
a large extent on the goodwill, ingenuity, love and dedication
of our teachers. We will continue to research ourselves
in the process in crafting our model and also intend to
commission independent research to assist in this process.
We are in discussion with some major Chinese Universities
and will be announcing modest research scholarships in
due course. We invite enquiries from those interested
in researching this field.
References for those
interested in Grounded Theory
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as Experience. New
York. Minton, Blach.
Stern, P.N. (1980) Grounded Theory Methodology: Its Uses
and processes. Image 12, 20-23
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1988) Basics of Qualitative
Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded
Theory. CA: Sage
Stringer, E. (1996) Action Research: A Handbook for Practioners.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
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