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Show Page Openings 1989 B-1- 7 Immersion Program Immersion next best thing to living abroad, program director says By promptly complained, in English, Cathy Kelly Chronicle Staff Writer Steve Molen leans back in his chair, slaps his forehead and lets out a moan of frustration. He isn't different from most of the students in the class; he's just more audible. Molen and the other 22 students in the class are part of the University of Utah's foreign Immersion language Multiliteracy Program (IMML). This program, unique to the U., was set up to give students a contextual education about the language that they are trying to learn. "Students need to see the language as an integral part of a culture and not as an element that can be extracted from a culture, studied and then reinserted. It must be taken as a whole," said professor Steven Sternfeld, director of the IMML program. . In the immersion program, students don't begin by learning the grammar or sentence structure of their target language. For example, day two of Molen's French class began at 8:30 a.m. as students wrote in their journals about what they were experiencing. They wrote as much as they could in French and then switched to English. At 9 a.m. the students listened to the tell them about French Erofessor French. At 10 a.m., the students got a break where they about their difficulty understanding what was going on. After the break, different students (the professor likes to call them victims) told about themselves, in as much French as ' they could muster. Then the professor taught them French songs, explained a French movie to them, which they had to see before the weekend, and he gave I them four chapters of French history to translate by the next day. Whew! No wonder Molen is slapping his head. "It was terrible," Molen said. "I resolved to quit every night for a week or a week and a half, and then I decided to go on." "We are putting students in front of what seems to be an insurmountable challenge," Sternfeld said. Though most students survive, and even thrive, in the class, Sternfeld said, "They have to go through a difficult period of adaptation. But if students are willing to accept the challenge and in a sense Ummiilr I'h.Xo by krist.m l.icobsi-- 'surrender' to the confusion, then I think the rewards are ' "thfi rart hpfnrp- thp hnrcp. " said Steven Sternfeld director of that pmnhaim I.anpiiaop - oframmar nut 1 0 0- - rlassps i the immersionmultiliteracy program. Instructors try to immerse students into a foreign language rather than . 1 .1 mem structure. lis icacning similar one in Canada. The language instructors. "The claim is often made that significant." The U.'s program is based on a IMML program has been used in school settings throughout the United States, but the only college-leve- l courses are at the U. The program began in 1985 under the direction of Sternfeld and has continually gained popularity with students. It also continues to receive criticism from traditional A " the way languages are taught really hasn't changed throughout history," Sternfeld said. "It's always been taking a book describing the structure, learning the rules and then practicing them." In an article Sternfeld wrote for Foreign Language Annual in May 1988, he said the "two principal features which distinguish immersion programs from skills-baseconventional, being there, paying attention and the language is Earticipating, d second-languag- e programs are: 1) language is not a the target subject of instruction, but the medium of instruction; and 2) linguistic proficiency develops incidentally to subject-matte- r study." It's like osmosis just by Sternfeld said, "It's sort of like putting the cart before the horse" to study the grammar and structure of a foreign language first. He said that an experience in foreign education is the feeling of being in another country see "immersion" on page 3 B-2- 1 SAVOVERSINGtETICKETPRICES.CAU533-6494- a (BUS Ifflm far! . Ill AIMUS, 7 OCTOBER 12, 14, 16, 19 & 22, 1989 TheIlesofHoffman JANUARY18, 20,22, 25 & 28, 1990 MAY 17, 19, 21, 24 & 27, 1990 RlGOLETTO Don Giovanni Three loves... ' A duke's seductive sorcery.,. doomed dreams. Yield to the spell of Offenbach's operatic " Theworld's lust... most successful a daughter's shame... seducer meets his match. and a father's revenge. Share the glory of some Savor the dark beauty of of Mozart's most di's own favorite masterpiece. The Pie Pizzeria H22 Ea. 2s dramatic music. grand opera. ITWULBEAREALTRAGEDY... iFYOiritENOTTHERE. Glade Peterson Join us for live music, drinks and our famous New York Style Pizza! General Director Call for dine-i- n or take-ou- t |