What is "Immersion Education"?

★Immersion Education
Since 1965, immersion bilingual education has spread rapidly in many parts of Europe and in Canada; by today this provision is available in several countries, including Australia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Finland, Hungary, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa as well as Wales. In Wales in the 1970s and 1980s there was a dramatic increase in the numbers of parents choosing immersion education for their children; this demand is continuing to increase.
The obvious advantage of an immersion education programme is that students are able to read, write, speak, understand and use the minority language as well as youngsters from minority language-speaking homes. In addition and at no cost they can also read, write, speak and understand the minority language in a way that non-minority language speaking students who follow a traditional programme of the minority language as a second language cannot normally do.
Such children become bilingual and biliterate as their majority language skills do not suffer and are supported at school and at home, by the mass media and by the community. Immersion children thus share the added value of two languages, literatures and cultures.
In practical terms classroom language communication in immersion programmes aims to be meaningful, authentic and relevant to the child’s needs. The content of the curriculum becomes the focus for the language.
Perpetual insistence on correct communication is avoided and emphasis is placed on understanding before speaking. Learning a second language in early immersion becomes incidental and unconscious, similar to the way a first language is acquired.
Immersion bilingual education has been an educational innovation of unusual success and growth. It has influenced bilingual education throughout the world. For example, research indicates that Spanish-speaking children who follow an immersion programme not only become fluent in Catalan, but also their Spanish does not suffer. Similarly, research studies in the Basque Country show that their Model B immersion programme (50% Basque and 50% Spanish) has successful outcomes in bilingual proficiency.