Enriching minds through language learning...
Cognitive Benefits: Bilingual brains might just have more “gray matter!”
Immersion students have to constantly negotiate meaning within the classroom when they first start learning their second language! Neuro-scientists are discovering bilingual brains are BIGGER - don’t believe it? Read “The Scientist in the Crib."
The brain is like a muscle. Exercise the muscle through early language learning and watch it GROW!
Think about what happens in the mind of toddlers learning their first language! New neural pathways are opened with every learning experience. It happens like that for an immersion student learning all their subjects in a second language. The more you exercise a muscle, the stronger and bigger it gets!
Academic Benefits: All that brain “exercise” leads to academic success!
Besides being bilingual, immersion students have a better understanding of their native language, thus allowing them to score better on standardized tests in the areas of reading and problem solving…How do we know this? We gather student data.
Check out the English reading benchmark from the first through fourth grade immersion students courtesy of the add.a.lingua home base school.
Social Benefits: Immersion students better understand the world outside their own communities.
Because language learning and culture are inextricably intertwined, immersion students understand the world in a different way. They more easily cross linguistic and cultural boundaries than their mono-lingual peers. Can you say “global workforce?” Just ask first grade Spanish immersion students about Latin America. They not only know the names of the countries that make up the geography, they also feel connected to the culture through learning the Spanish language.