Does it matter that no one at home speaks English, or only a little English?
Because we live in a country where the dominant language is English, your child will learn English even though the amount of English instruction in the early stages of immersion education may be lower. Remember this is a long-term process. There are families who for many reasons choose to live outside the English-dominant culture, and where children have very little English in their out-of-school environment. Families with children who live where little English is spoken will need to make additional efforts to bring English into their children’s lives. This is the same for families who do not speak the target language (Mandarin). Remember that the basis for the two-way immersion language model is that acquisition of the non-target language (English) is supported by the child being surrounded by that language outside of school. Is any English used in the Mandarin classroom? Parents often ask if the teacher slips in a word or sentence in English in the immersion classroom. On rare occasi
