It’s not every day that one of the nation’s foremost researchers in the field of dual language immersion gathers with the addalingua team and visits our founding partner school. So when Dr. Tara Fortune, director of the Immersion Research and Professional Development Program at CARLA, joined us last week, we made proverbial hay.

why she’s both encouraged and concerned by the growth of dual language immersion programsIn between conversations about addalingua’s Mandarin Chinese instructional tools and classroom observations in both the Spanish and Mandarin immersion strands, I (Chris Marlink) had the opportunity to sit down and interview Dr. Fortune for add.a.lingua’s second podcast. Our discussion covered:

• what implications exist as we consider this growth and her most recently published research study, particularly at the secondary level
• what she observed at Zeeland Christian School (our founding partner school that closely follows all addalingua program and classroom level instructional guidelines)
• how the United States stacks up with the rest of the world in language education

Listen in, and you’ll discover in Dr. Fortune an articulate and candid scholar who offers a very fair handling of these topics. Simply being with her encouraged the add.a.lingua team to continue insisting on the highest quality articulation regardless of the work involved – after all – as Dr. Fortune agrees…it’s all about the students.

Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section. Want to learn more about addalingua’s services for new and existing immersion programs? Get in touch here.