One of the priorities at CARLA has been to support immersion education through ongoing research and the development of a sustainable national network of immersion educators dedicated to exchanging information, research findings, and resources.
Professional Development & Outreach
American Council on Immersion Education (ACIE)
ACIE strives to promote communication among immersion educators,and others interested in immersion education. See the newsletter archives for free online access to past newsletter articles.
Language Immersion Education in Minnesota
This 15-minute, must-see video on the role language immersion programs can play in addressing Minnesota’s achievement gap and preparing its children to compete in the global economy.CARLA Summer Institutes
Each summer CARLA offers specific professional development opportunities for immersion educators including teachers, administrators, curriculum coordinators, as well as other educational specialists who work with immersion programs.Immersion Conference
On October 18-20, 2012, CARLA hosted the 4th international conference on immersion education, Immersion 2012: Bridging Contexts for a Multilingual World. Check out the conference archives where videos featuring several of the plenarists and symposia are posted, along with handouts that have been shared by some session presenters.Research
Immersion Bibliographies
These topically-organized bibliographies on immersion offer a vast array of useful references for the immersion educator, researcher, parent, or student.What the Research Says About Immersion
This chapter written by Tara Williams Fortune outlines key findings for both advantages and challenges of immersion education. It is included in the Asia Society publication Chinese Language Learning in the Early Grades.Immersion Research Projects
CARLA's Immersion Education Research initiatives have focused on a variety of issues in immersion education at both the K-12 and post-secondary levels.CARLA Bibliography
The CARLA bibliography contains more information on publications and presentations by faculty and staff involved in immersion education projects at CARLA.Resources
Directories of Immersion Schools in the U.S.
The Center for Applied Linguistics offers directories of total and partial foreign language immersion programs, as well as two-way immersion language programs in U.S. schools. State directories for California and Texas are also listed.Immersion Education Resources
This section features information about organizations, publications, websites, and listservs that support immersion education. Includes the CARLA-MAIN website that offers research and practitioner perspectives on key concerns of language immersion programming including teacher recruitment/hiring/retention, professional development and much more.Global Literacy through Mandarin Immersion and STEM Project
With funding from the USDE Foreign Language Assistance Program, the Minnesota Mandarin Immersion Collaborative (MMIC) curriculum team repurposed Boston Museum of Science Engineering is Elementary® curriculum for the Gr. 3 unit entitled "Just Passing Through: Designing Model Membranes" and created an expanded multidisciplinary unit of study that introduces a new framework for integrating, differentiating, and assessing immersion language development.Struggling Immersion Learners Resources
The newly-published handbook "Struggling Learners & Language Immersion Education" provides dual language and immersion educators with rich information and practical resources that address common concerns with children who struggle with language, literacy and learning. A companion website lists print and web-based resources that address immersion educators’ top questions about struggling immersion learners. There is also a section of the Immersion Bibliographies on struggling learners.
Frequently Asked Questions About Immersion
This section provides a response to questions that are often asked about immersion education.