| The purpose of this study is to understand, from teachers' perspectives, how students with a language immersion background score higher on standardized tests than non-immersion students from a similar demographic. In order to examine teachers' perspectives on language immersion education, the following areas were explored: (1) The various concepts behind language immersion education and how those concepts differ from traditional education concepts; (2) The benefits of language immersion teaching methodology; and (3) The connection between language immersion education and higher scores on standardized tests.;The research method consists of a mixed methods approach with both quantitative and qualitative aspects. This research method will also include both descriptive and comparative analyses of data collected through structured interviews with language immersion teachers; standardized test results from a large school district in Oklahoma; and research contained in the review of literature. The district has two language immersion elementary schools. The interviews will be audio taped with notes taken for clarity and transcribed into text. The transcriptions from the recorded interviews were analyzed for content and emerging themes.;The results of the language immersion teacher interviews demonstrated that language immersion education positively affected student achievement. The teacher interviews regarding the positive effects of language immersion education further substantiated elevated test scores made by students from both language immersion schools on the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test (OCCT). Language immersion students produced elevated scores while meeting Federal achievement benchmarks named in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 , despite learning in the target language the majority of their instruction time (Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2011; U.S. Department of Education, 2001). |
