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Geared for laypeople, this article briefly explains what immersion schools are and reviews research pertaining to language immersion schools, as well as the benefits of teaching general academic content using the target second language.

This article is about a study that was published about the correlation between different language learning environments and the brain activity. The results of the study showed that the brain activity when speaking a language learned from an immersion based learning resembles the brain activity of a native speaker when they speak the language. The results go to show that immersion based learning may be a better environment for language learning.

This paper is about the Hawaiian language in the form of education in our islands. It analyzed how attending a Hawaiian language immersion school affects students. After interviewing students who attend Papahana Kaiapuni (a Hawaiian immersion school), they found that students were more invested in practicing traditional Hawaiian values, and influenced cultural pride among family members. Attending the school also positive community views and about both Hawaiian language and cultural revitalization efforts.

Increasing demand is sparking conversations around Hawai`iʻs constitutional duty to provide access to ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, or Hawaiian language education. It's been three years since the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruled that the state has a constitutional duty to provide immersion education. The case involved Chelsa-Marie Kealohalani Clarabal. She wanted an immersion education for her daughters on Lānaʻi where there was no such program. "The legal landscape at the time was there was no case law that we could cite," said Honolulu attorney Sharla Manley who represents the Clarabal ʻohana. "There were three provisions of the state constitution - one being the official languages provision, the other provision being the Hawaiian education provision and thereʻs the provision for traditional and customary practices," Manley told HPR. But no court had enforced any of these provisions when it came to ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi until the Clarabal case.

This article talks about second language acquisition, and a higher efficacy rate in those who are fully immersed in the language they're learning. The study concluded that those in bilingual immersion programs or study-abroads exhibit higher levels of motivation to learn the language due to a desire to assimilate.

"Learning a foreign language is never easy, but contrary to common wisdom, it is possible for adults to process a language the same way a native speaker does. And over time, the processing improves even when the skill goes unused, researchers are reporting. ... the immersion group displayed the full brain patterns of a native speaker." Full study: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0032974

"Hawaiian, it was like a flame that went out, then psshw," Kuuwehi Hiraishi makes a sound of a gas burner igniting, "it came back." She's referring to her own Hawaiian language proficiency after returning to the Islands from the Mainland, going from hardly speaking the language to using it regularly in her work.

Recently, many immersion programs have opened up for older language learners and are allowing these learners to learn the language in the country of the origin of language. Learning a new language, while hard for older learners, is said to help keep the brain sharp. Learning the language on location seems to be helping these learners not only immerse themselves in the language they are learning but also the culture associated with the language.

Article, by Punahou alumna Alia Wong, profiles Kaipo`i Kelling, a Hawaiian language immersion teacher, the near-devastation of the indigenous language due to missionary contact, and the subsequent revitalization of `ōlelo Hawai`i.

After Great Britain left the European Union this year, its said that it would try to trade more with China. However, Mandarin Chinese education in Britain is not very extensive, and both the government private industries are taking a new approach - immersion and bilingual schools - to try to teach young children Mandarin. The UK hopes for 5000 fluent students by 2020.

Experts debate whether today?s kids are helped or hindered by their immersion in technology. Panelists include the lead researcher for the book Growing Up Digital, Mike Dover, the author of The Child and the Machine, Alison Armstrong and Sir Wilfred Laurier Faculty of Education professor Julie Mueller.

If a man wishes to become a great orator, he must first become a student of the great orators who have come before him. He must immerse himself in their texts, listening for the turns of phrases and textual symmetries, the pauses and crescendos, the metaphors and melodies that have enabled the greatest speeches to [...]

When we listen to stories, we immerse ourselves into the situations described and empathize with the feelings of the characters. Only recently has it become possible to find out how exactly this process works in the brain. Scientists have now succeeded using an fMRI scanner to measure how people listen to a literary story.

Condemned as a dead language, Manx - the native language of the Isle of Man - is staging an extraordinary renaissance. By the early 1960s there were perhaps as few as 200 who were conversant in the tongue. The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974. The decline was so dramatic that Unesco pronounced the language extinct in the 1990s. But the grim prognosis coincided with a massive effort at revival. Spearheaded by activists and driven by lottery funding and a sizeable contribution (currently £100,000 a year) from the Manx government, the last 20 years have had a huge impact. Now there is even a Manx language primary school in which all subjects are taught in the language, with more than 60 bilingual pupils attending. Manx is taught in a less comprehensive way in other schools across the island.

A major effort is under way to revive and preserve Hawaii's native tongue through immersion and revitalization programs - courses in various subjects are taught entirely in Hawaiian.

A Bill has just recently been passed in U.S. Senate Committee that will allot money to revive languages on the verge of extinction. This was passed with the help of Brian Schatz, a Hawai'i senator. There are about 148 Native languages in our nation that are at risk of going extinct, and this bill will provide funding and awareness to support these languages through immersion schools, language classes and tribes.

What does recent research say about the potential benefits of bilingual education? Here are the main 6 findings: 1. Attention: "[Bilinguals] can pay focused attention without being distracted and also improve in the ability to switch from one task to another," says Sorace. Do these same advantages accrue to a child who begins learning a second language in kindergarten instead of as a baby? We don't yet know. Patterns of language learning and language use are complex. But Gigi Luk at Harvard cites at least one brain-imaging study on adolescents that shows similar changes in brain structure when compared with those who are bilingual from birth, even when they didn't begin practicing a second language in earnest before late childhood. 2. Empathy: bilingual children as young as age 3, because they must follow social cues to figure out which language to use with which person and in what setting, have demonstrated a head start on tests of perspective-taking and theory of mind - both of which are fundamental social and emotional skills. 3. Reading (English): students enrolled in dual-language programs outperformed their peers in English-reading skills by a full school year's worth of learning by the end of middle school. 4. School performance and engagement: compared with students in English-only classrooms or in one-way immersion, dual-language students have somewhat higher test scores and also seem to be happier in school. Attendance is better, behavioral problems fewer, parent involvement higher. 5. Diversity and integration: Because dual-language schools are composed of native English speakers deliberately placed together with recent immigrants, they tend to be more ethnically and socioeconomically balanced. And there is some evidence that this helps kids of all backgrounds gain comfort with diversity and different cultures. 6. Protection against cognitive decline and dementia: actively using two languages seems to have a protective effect against age-related demen

Al-Sayyid is a village in Israel, populated by congenitally-deaf people. Over the past 75 years, the villagers have created an entirely new and unique language, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL). The seeds emerged spontaneously among the first deaf residents and, three generations later, it has flowered into a complex language capable of expressing anything a spoken one can. Since its discovery by linguists in 2000, ABSL has captivated researchers driven by two fundamental questions: how did language emerge, and what can that tell us about the nature of the human mind? ABSL offers a unique opportunity to test a theory that has dominated linguistics since the 1950s. Put forth by Noam Chomsky, it claims that language is an innate and uniquely human trait, programmed into our genes. Children are born with a "language instinct" that compels them to effortlessly acquire whatever language (or languages) they are immersed in as toddlers.

Article talks about an adult Okinawan-language class in Hawaii. Okinawan, also known as Uchinaaguchi, is an endangered language--it fell into disuse due to Japanese colonization--hence few native speakers of the language remain. I've posted the text of the article below, as you've got to be a Star-Advertiser subscriber to see the full page: POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Aug 27, 2013 StarAdvertiser.com Learning Okinawan helps preserve culture and identity, an instructor says By Steven Mark In a classroom for preschoolers, a group of adults is trying to revive a language that is foreign to their ear but not to their heart. The language is Okinawan, or "Uchinaaguchi," as it is pronounced in the language itself. The class at Jikoen Hongwanji Mission in Kalihi, as informal as it is, might just be the beginning of a cultural revival thousands of miles to the east of the source. At least that is the hope of Eric Wada, one of the course instructors. "For us, it's the importance of connecting (language) to identity," said Wada, who studied performing arts in Okinawa and is now the artistic director of an Okinawan performing arts group, Ukwanshin Kabudan. "Without the language, you really don't have identity as a people." Okinawa is the name given to a prefecture of Japan, but it was originally the name of the main island of an archipelago known as the Ryukyu Islands that lies about midway between Japan and Taiwan in the East China Sea. For centuries, the Ryukyu kingdom maintained a degree of independence from other East Asian nations. As a result, distinctive cultural practices evolved, from graceful and meditative dance to the martial art called karate and the poetic language that sounds like a blend of Japanese and Korean. The islands were officially annexed by Japan in 1879. The 20th century saw the World War II battle of Okinawa, which claimed more than a quarter of the island's population, the subsequent placement of U.S. military bases and the return of the islands to