Get Involved!
Immersion is not just a world your child lives in, your whole family is a part of the immersion journey.
Immersion is a family shift. It is important for your child to see you invested in immersion and language learning as well. There are a number of ways you can get involved in your child’s immersion journey— even if you don’t speak the target language!
Volunteer
Oftentimes, immersion teachers look for volunteers to help out in the classroom. If you are fluent in the target language, this is a great way to get involved! Even if you can’t speak the target language, ask your child’s teacher how you can help or when you could volunteer your time.
Learn with your child
You can never know enough when it comes to immersion! One great option for getting involved is to seek out education and training in the target language your student is learning. This way, your child is able to see how much you value language learning by participating in it (Ee, 2017). Programs such as Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, or Babbel are great options to follow along with your child as they learn.
For more information on promoting language learning with your child, click the right arrow at the bottom of this page!
Advocate
Language immersion education is still relatively new in the education world. There are still many people who don’t understand what immersion is or what it means for students. Being an active advocate for your child’s education allows you to help educate others on the benefits of bilingualism. Join a parent advisory council if your school has one, be involved in a parent teacher organization, and ask your child’s teacher how you can help advocate for what they need in the classroom. Research shows that immersion programs with a great deal of involvement from parents last longer, have more resources, and grow more than programs without significant parent involvement (Porter, 2018).
Seek out support
Find other families who are on the same journey. Research shows that families who tend to participate more in their child’s education had more opportunities to interact with other parents and receive support (Ee, 2017).
Get involved by supporting your students education. Your child may find that they struggle in the immersion classroom. Seeking out support and being an active participant communicating with your child’s teacher is imperative to ensuring your child’s success (Ee, 2017).
If your child is struggling or you are concerned your child will struggle in the immersion classroom, check out our page on struggling learners!
Ee, J. (2017). Two dimensions of parental involvement: What affects parental involvement in dual language immersion? Bilingual Research Journal, 40(2), 131–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2017.1306598
Porter, L. (2018). Journeying together: Improving parent relations within dual-language immersion programs as a model for cross-cultural understanding and collaboration. Journeying Together: Improving Parent Relations within Dual-Language Immersion Programs as a Model for Cross-Cultural Understanding and Collaboration, 6(2), 19–29.