Comparison of Performance of 5th Grade Immersion Students with that of High School Students

What is it about?

This is a comparison study, where the researchers compared the Mandarin performance of elementary immersion program students and high school world language program students in the same school district. A cross-sectional design was employed to gather information on Mandarin proficiency of fourth and fifth graders and Level 4 and Level 5 (AP Chinese) high school students who took the Mandarin Standards-Based Measurement of Proficiency assessment at the end of the school year. Results indicated that immersion students slightly outperformed the comparison high school group in reading but lagged slightly behind in writing and speaking skills, for which assessment tasks required higher levels of cognitive awareness. Findings also showed that while only a few nonheritage speakers in the high school world language program continued to Level 5 (AP), most nonheritage speakers remained in the immersion program for the full duration and performed as well, or nearly as well, as the heritage speakers when exiting the program.

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Why is it important?

It provides critical data for program planning at the middle and high school level to insure that students can continue to increase their proficiency in the language that they are learning.