Chinese literacy learning in an Immersion Program
Lü, C. (2019) Chinese Literacy Learning in an Immersion Program, London: Palgrave Mcmillan.
This book examines one-way foreign language immersion education in the United States. It provides a clear and rich description of a Chinese (Mandarin) immersion program, its curriculum, instructional materials, assessment activities, parental involvement and student outcomes. Chan Lüanalyses two studies that document the development of the students’ reading skills in English and Chinese, and the progress of their vocabulary knowledge, lexical inference, and reading comprehension in Chinese. In addition, this book contextualizes the program in its eco-system, including its neighbourhood, school, and the school district, and discusses the importance of school leadership, parental involvement, neighbourhood support and language acquisition planning in making an innovative school program successful. Its concluding chapters offer recommendations for program- and classroom-level practices and suggest pathways for future research on biliteracy learning in Chinese one-way immersion programs.
This is one of the first books on the subject of Chinese literacy learning among nonnative school age learners, and will appeal in particular to students and scholars of applied linguistics, second language acquisition and language education as well as administrators, educators, and parents involved in English-Chinese dual language immersion.
Reviewed by Francis, N. (2019) in Applied Linguistics. https://academic.oup.com/applij/advance-article/doi/10.1093/applin/amz025/5488142