saturs - rpiva

As to Robert Keith Johnson and Merrill Swain “the term „immersion” can be
legitimately and usefully applied beyond its purely historical origins in Canada to a wide
range of programs despite differences in their aims, socioeconomic context, and manner of
implementation” (Johnson, Swein, 1997, 1). In practice, the use of the term immersion has an
increasingly wide range of functions in different situations. There are, though, the core
features, which differentiate immersion from other types of bilingual education. The purpose
of this paper, therefore, is to consider the central issues of immersion program as one of the
kinds of bilingual educational approach and reflect on its practice in Poland on the example of
polish preschool Casa dei Bambini Warsaw Montessori School.
THE AIM OF THE STUDY
Topicality of the problem determined the aim of the study, which is (a) to present the
overview of bilingual education in Poland (b) to reveal the principles, aims, and materials
used in early total immersion Montessori kindergarten (c) compare the principles of polish
immersion program to prototypical one in order to highlight the peculiarities of the program
in practice (c) to distinguish the significant techniques used in the immersion classroom.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The research was based on the theoretical analysis of the bilingual education and
Montessori approach. The present situation of bilingual education and popularity of
Montessori bilingual schools in Poland were studied. The main stage of the research was the
participant observation held in Casa dei Bambini Warsaw Montessori School. The case study
involved 15 children of 3–6 years old. The observations were supported by the teacher
experience analysis.
Montessori schools were chosen for the analysis, while according to the study, made
by American Education Research Association in 2003, the Montessori prepared environment
is a supporting setting to the successful bilingual program. The study had shown that children,
who had participated in the prekindergarten Montessori program, significantly outscored
children in traditional bilingual program in their second grade reading achievement scores in
Spanish and English norm-referenced tests. The study addressed the long-term academic
impact of prekindergarten Montessori bilingual program on academic achievement as
compared to a prekindergarten traditional bilingual program (Rodriguez, Irby, Brown, Lara-
Alecio, Galloway, 2003).
The effectiveness of early immersion program was studied by such researchers as
Th. Andersson, P. Lightbown, N. Spada, M. Wesche, M. Snow etc. (Andersson, 1974;
Lightbown, Spada, 2006; Wesche, 2002; Snow, 1987). Some of the researchers, for instance
M. Rosanova and D. Goren, underlined the success of applying the program in Montessori
learning environment. The theoretical analysis revealed, though, the need for the more
detailed analysis of methodology and peculiarities of immersion program used in practice
(Rosanova, 1997; Goren, 2003).
Program of bilingual teaching in Poland has been offered since the school year
1991/1992. Since that time, the number of bilingual schools has been rapidly growing.
Starting with general state lyceums (sixth form colleges) and gymnasiums (compulsory
secondary education), and continuing with some primary school, the total amount of bilingual
schools in the year 2003/2004 has been already 98. However, there were still debates about
how and when to start the bilingual educational program. Supported by the European Union
policy of promotion multilingualism and early language teaching, the increasing number of
preschool educational establishment are also starting to work with the bilingual education
program (Centrum Informatyczne Edukacji, 2009).
The Polish preschools, which try to implement bilingual education to their
curriculum, are mostly working with early total immersion (pl. “zanużenie w języku obcym”)
or early partial immersion (pl. “spotkanie z językiem obcym w przedszkolu”) program. Early
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