Caveat Emptor: Doing Immersion Without Taking a Bath

It's springtime, when a language nerd's fancy turns to summer immersion programmes. Good ones offer outstanding language acquisition in comparatively little time. Unfortunately, all immersion programmes aren't equal. Telling the worthwhile from the merely expensive means avoiding a few common misconceptions, as well as a general understanding of what it takes to assemble a well-designed, properly-administered immersion experience.

To begin with, some programme sponsors are apparently confused about what immersion really is. Immersion implies that students will function in the target language twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Courses where the student spends daylight hours in the language but goes home in the evening are "intensive," not immersion. They cost less, and they deliver less. True immersion requires participants to live away from home, which is why they are so expensive.

The second point often surprises people: the best immersion courses aren't necessarily located overseas. One of the best programmes I've seen was in Oregon, where students were put up in mountain chalets. Since ski areas are virtually deserted in the summer, students had very little contact with their own language or culture. Essentially an adult summer camp, the programme consisted of a few hours of informal courses in the morning, followed by semi-structured recreation the rest of the day. Participants prepared meals, planned parties, and wrote and performed evening entertainment using the target language alone. Such interaction is where most learning happens; the morning courses fleshed out grammatical issues and added cultural depth. In one month, this programme produced functional fluency in properly prepared (and duly serious) participants. It was also wonderful fun.

On the other hand, a French government programme, though situated in Paris, is far less effective. University classes provide the only supervised exposure to the target language (French). At day's end, students return to their apartments, where they live alone or with a companion from their home country. Though surrounded by French language and culture, they aren't truly immersed in it. This programme costs about as much as the Oregon experience, but location notwithstanding, it's a far weaker product.

Of course, overseas courses can be outstanding, but seductive location alone simply isn't enough. While shopping for such a programme, consider the following:

• Effective overseas immersion programmes put students up with local host families. This plunges them into living language and gently zaps them with culture shock, a necessary step to attaining fluency.

• All communication, including classroom instruction, should be in the target language. "Semester overseas" programmes, where instruction is in the student's tongue, are almost worthless for language acquisition.

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