Post 131: When should a language learner use English Only method to learn an L2 or the 2 way Immersion method to learn a L2?

Post 131: Is English Only ESL the better way to learn L2 or is the Dual Immersion method the better way to  learn a L2?

English Only ESL Classroom

I think adults who have a firm command of their L1 and can read and write their L1 fluently can benefit from an English Only ESL classroom.

Adults who are fully literate in their L1 can then learn an L2 better using the Communicative Approach where they use the L2 from Day one, therefore allowing the adult learner to be able to associate the L2 language in their brain without translating into their L1.

For instance, when I learned French at Middlebury College, I participated in a full French immersion program where I lived in a French dorm and each student took a pledge that they would only speak French and speak no English at all for 3 months while living in the French dorm. We would eat, sleep and read, write all in French. We watched French movies. We attended classes all in French. We studied French culture in French, read French literature in French, and wrote our essays all in French. Even if you sang in the shower in English, you would be reported to the head dean for violating the language pledge. (Don't ask how I know about that :)  I learned a lot of French in the French dorms.

The Middlebury Language Program also has Immersion programs for Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Spanish and other languages. I remember my French dorm was next to the Chinese Immersion Program and I could hear Americans speaking Chinese and my next door neighbor speaking French. It was a fun experience. At the time, I was an undergraduate so I was fully literate in my L1 (English) already.

Similarly, for ELL who are fluent in their Spanish, or Chinese because of extensive academic training in their home countries, in my opinion, would benefit from an English Only ESL classroom approach to fast track these ELL to learning English without translation to their L1.

Dual Immersion Program

If you have a young child who was raised in a non-English speaking family, that child would come to school already knowing how to speak Spanish, but not know how to read and write Spanish. For such a child, I believe, a Dual Immersion program is best, because then the child can learn to read, write content areas in Spanish while learning English progressively until he/she can learn his/her academic content area also in English. He/she also has American students trying to learn Spanish trying to learn Spanish and the two could exchange cultural ideas and learn about each other's cultures and languages.

A Dual Immersion Program allows a child/teenager who is not very literate in his L1 to gain L1 literacy and mastery while at the same time gaining English mastery from contact with American students. The Spanish speaking student can help the American student with some translation if necessary and the English speaking student would help the Spanish speaking student with some translation if necessary so that both gain eventual mastery in both languages and they also learn their academic content material in both those languages becoming fully fluent bilingual speakers for life.