Immersion Programs: Beyond Language Learning
Abstract
This research article is the result of a Project developed in a private school in Tunja, Colombia. It aimed at describing the perceptions of a group of graduates, students, and their parents about an immersion program, after having participated in one of them. Four surveys were applied to four different groups of participants: parents, graduates, students who traveled in 2018 and students who participated in the immersion program in 2019. After conducting the corresponding analysis, following the thematic approach, the perceptions presented by the participants were grouped into the following categories: Immersion programs: beyond learning a language; Knowing me and growing as a person, and My experience as a base to strengthen the program and my own school. It was possible to conclude that he immersion program had academic and social effects on the participants. It can be seen as a resource for learning, practicing, and reinforcing a foreign language as well as learning about other cultures.
Keywords
language immersion programs, language and culture, academic achievement, language proficiency, cultural identity, program evaluation
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