Talk:Structured English Immersion

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Wik's definition of Structured English Immersion is an excerpt, I believe, from the writings of Kevin Clark, who has developed a specific SEI program. The attributes of SEI listed are specific to Kevin's program, not to SEI generally.

The Cross-Cultural, Language, and Academic Development Handbook (Diaz-Rocco, Weed, pub. by Allyn & Bacon, 1995; the training manual for California teachers of Eng. Language learners) defines SEI much more broadly: "Structured Immersion, or SDAIE is a program model that keeps language minority students in their respective classrooms and provides specially designed academic instruction in English. Because students are still being educated in the same classroom with language majority children, the manner of instruction becomes critical. A pedagogy that encourages interaction among all students and active student participation in learning is essential so that all students-language minority and majority-have opportunities to share and learn. The environment takes on added importance as a means of providing visual and kinetic stimuli. To promote a sense of belonging and acceptance, the teacher may initially accept work in the student's home language, attempt to learn a few greetings in the students language, and allow language minority students to take on the teaching role in their language to sensitize language majority students (and the teacher) to the daily situation they face as second language learners. Unless these conditions prevail, the program is indistinguishable from submersion and students are left on their own to sink or swim."

The definition given in the text of California's Prob 227 is even more general: http://primary98.sos.ca.gov/VoterGuide/Propositions/227text.htm (see section 306 D) This is of particular significance as it is, it seems to me, perhaps the legal definition for California.

The fact is that there are different SEI programs out there and they differ greatly, according to different educational settings and philosophies. Certain aspects of Kevin's program are not universal and may not be even typical. For example, learning the English Language is not always the "..main content..." of the program Vista Unified sounds to me like they teach the whole curriculum in their SEI program: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/article_8d3fd5d2-7490-548c-a4f5-aee9daf0ca9d.html So does Sulphur Springs School District: http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Structured+English+Immersion+progams,+Sulphur+Springs&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 Note also that Sulphur Springs also uses considerably native language support.

I propose that Kevin's definition be replaced with one that is broad and universal. Something like the CLAD Handbook definition would probably work if the parts about use of home language were omitted (I use students' home language extensively during the first part of the school year, then taper off as the students learn English. Many teachers of English Language Learners do this, but Kevin seems not to approve of it).

Diego RemaroDiego Remaro (talk) 04:59, 26 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]