Tara W. Fortune Immersion Projects Coordinator Tara Williams Fortune is an Immersion Teaching Specialist and Coordinator of the Immersion Research and Professional Development Project at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Fortune devotes most of her professional time to the preparation and continuing education of immersion educators throughout the U.S. and abroad. She is a founding member and serves on the editorial staff for the American Council on Immersion Education (ACIE) Newsletter, a collaborative publication written for and by immersion practitioners that is currently in its 14th year of dissemination to a U.S. and international readership. Dr. Fortune is frequently invited as a lecturer in the field of immersion education. Her research interests include the role of student language use and social interaction in content-based, dual language classrooms. Recent interests also include struggling immersion learners and immersion language assessment.

Education

• Ph.D., 2001. Curriculum and Instruction, University of Minnesota.
  Dissertation Title: "Understanding Immersion Students' Oral Language Use as a Mediator of Social Interaction in the Classroom"
• M.A., 1995. Second Languages and Cultures Education, University of Minnesota.
  Plan B Paper Title: "The Private Bilingual Schools of Mexico City: An Immersion-Model Approach to Second Language Acquisition"
• B.A. 1978. Classical Languages, German, and Humanities, College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, MN

Selected Publications

Tedick, D. J., Christian, D., & Fortune, T. W. (Eds.) (forthcoming). Immersion
education: Practices, policies, possibilities. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters,
Ltd.

Fortune, T. W. (forthcoming). Struggling learners and the language immersion
classroom. In D. J. Tedick, D. Christian, & T. W. Fortune (Eds.) Immersion education:
Practices, policies, possibilities. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters, Ltd.

Fortune, T. with M. R. Menke. (2010). Struggling learners & language immersion
education: Research-based, practitioner-informed responses to educators’ top
questions (CARLA Publication Series). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, The
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition.

Fortune, T. W. & Tedick, D. J. (Eds.) (2008). Pathways to multilingualism: Evolving
perspectives on immersion education. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters, Ltd.

Walker, C.L., Ranney, S. & Fortune, T.W. (2005). Preparing preservice teachers for
English language learners: A content-based approach. In D. J. Tedick (Ed.) Second
language teacher education: International perspectives (pp. 313-333). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.