1. "Green Immersion" The concept of bilingual environmental education Kristin Kersten Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg
ELIAS

2. Structure 1. Background 2. The EU-Project ELIAS 3. Green Immersion
Goals
Structure
3. Green Immersion
What it is
How it works
4. The Bilingual Zoo-Preschool in Magdeburg
(Suzanne Akerman & Shannon Thomas)
Setting and Conceptual Design
Zoo Education

3. Background
Zoos and aquariums enable people to develop appreciation, wonder, respect, understanding, care and concern about nature.
WAZA 2005: Building a Future for Wildlife – The World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy (WZACS); Chapter 5: Education and Training

4. Background: WZACS Education and Training
education as a central role for all zoos and aquariums
develop strategic plan for education and environmental sustainability (a "green" ethos), incorporating conservation issues
collaboration with a variety of educational institutions, universities and teacher training institutes to link educational programmes to curricula developments
lifelong learning: students from pre-school to university
evidence to evaluate impact and effectiveness of education programs

5. Background: EU
'Mother tongue plus two other languages': Making an Early Start
Language competencies are part of the core of skills that every citizen needs for training, employment, cultural exchange and personal fulfilment … It is a priority for Member States to ensure that language learning in kindergarten and primary school is effective, for it is here that key attitudes towards other languages and cultures are formed, and the foundations for later language learning are laid, … in particular by teaching at least two foreign languages from a very early age.
European Commission: Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004 – 2006, p. 7

6. Background
Bilingual education / Immersion teaching (e.g. Wode 1995)
most effective method of teaching foreign languages
content-based
 integrating contents such as science & nature topics with foreign language teaching
Early start
 3+ formula (Wode 2001)
bilingual / immersion preschools
bilingual / immersion primary schools
bilingual education in high schools 3+
Salut!
Hallo!
Hello!

7. ELIAS (Early Language & Intercultural Acquisition Studies)
The EU-Project
ELIAS (Early Language & Intercultural Acquisition Studies)
Project Goals
Monitoring of bilingual preschools
Enhancement of second language learning, intercultural competence, and bilingual environmental education for preschoolers
scientific documentation
evaluation of conceptual designs
recommendations and dissemination

8. The EU-Project Network
16 partners from 4 European Countries (Germany, Belgium, England, Sweden)
Cooperation partners from Italy and the Netherlands
9 Universities
Zoological Garden Magdeburg
7 bilingual preschools with English as second language, e.g. the Zoo-Preschool in Magdeburg
Coordination
Prof. Dr. Holger Kersten, Kristin Kersten
(Magdeburg University)

9. The Study 1. Preschools 2. Cultural Studies 3. Linguistics
 Longitudinal Study
2. Cultural Studies
 Intercultural Competence
3. Linguistics
 Second Language Acquisition
4. Speech Therapy
 First Language Acquisition
5. Biology-Didactics
6. Zoological Garden MD
 Zoo Education

10. The EU-Project Participant Observation (Spradley 1980)
qualitative research methods
observers take part in daily preschool routines
 integrated in the preschool system
avoiding "test situations"
 emotional stability for the children
field notes and questionnaires
language assessment

11. to be "immersed" in the second language (L2)
Bilingual Education
Immersion method (Genesee 1987, Wode1995, Zydatiß 2000)
to be "immersed" in the second language (L2)
the second language as medium of communication, not as focus of grammatical learning
 all content matter is taught in the second language
in bilingual preschools: all daily routines and activities
in immersion schools: as classroom language
 more than 50% of the school subjects are taught in L2

12. Green Immersion Combining the factors "Green Immersion":
 immersion language education
based on nature-related ("green") topics
(Kersten & Perret 2008)
zoo education
environmental education
conservation

13. Immersion Teaching Comprehensible input
(Lorenz & Met 1989)
Comprehensible input
"Understanding occurs when input ... is comprehensible, and input becomes comprehensible when it is supported by concrete experiences, visuals, realia, and nonverbal communication that assist in conveying meaning." (p. 37)
Contextualization of content
 body language, gestures, facial expressions
 pictures / visual aids, concrete materials, realia
 repetitions, paraphrases, intonation, extensions ("caretaker speech / motherese")

14. Immersion Teaching Results of Canadian Immersion studies
(e.g. Wesche 2002)
the content knowledge is not negatively affected
the development of the first language does not suffer
attainment in second language is much higher than in traditional foreign language teaching
more positive socio-psychological attitudes
suited both for strong and weak learners
 enhancement of language and general cognitive skills without negative effects for content knowledge and first language

15. Immersion Teaching Experiences from bilingual preschools
One Person – One Language Principle
(Döpke 1992)
 native speakers of English as educators
Experiences from bilingual preschools
the children are enthusiastic and very proud of their second language skills
within a few weeks they understand the daily routines in English
comprehension of the second language precedes production

16. Immersion Teaching Examples Researcher: Show me the mouth!
Child: Die Maus is nich da.
[The mouse is not there.]
Researcher: Look at the ducks over there!
Child: Das ist doch kein Dachs!
[That's not a badger!]
Child: Eric is red, Paul is dead – and Tini is fat!

17. The Website www.elias.bilikita.org
The ELIAS project is funded with support from the European Commission and Lotto Toto Sachsen-Anhalt.
This product reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any
use which may be made of the information contained therein.

18. Thank you for your attention!

19. Magdeburg’s Bilingual Zoo-Kindergarten
"Green Immersion"
Magdeburg’s Bilingual Zoo-Kindergarten
Suzanne Akerman
Shannon Thomas

20. The preschool August 2008 Vogelgesang Park
Zoo Kindergarten Children’s House e.V. Magdeburg
August 2008
Our actual kindergarten. Cat house and bee hive information…attendance, ages, etc.
Park information and location of the kindergarten.
Vogelgesang Park
EZE 2009 Köln

21. The team Director: Jaklin Isensee German speaking educators:
Kathleen Schladitz
immersion teaching in France
Viola Krebs
intercultural experience
English speaking educators:
Diana Lawrence
immersion teaching in China
Suzanne Akerman
zoo education experience
Employees of the kindergarten, who what where
ELIAS Project participants:
Lydia Gerlich (no photo)
student research assistant
Shannon Thomas
immersion teaching in South Korea

22. The zoo
Zoologischer Garten Magdeburg:
All about the zoo.

23. Our mission
“To experience the zoo with children means to learn with the mind, heart and hand. Animals can wake up emotions and improve cognitive and communicative abilities of the children – who as a consequence – are stimulated to communicate their ideas and feelings with open-hearted enthusiasm.”
Jaklin Isensee
Our kindergarten’s conception
“Let’s be honest you, me, our generation, we are a hopeless case that can’t be helped any more. But with today’s children, we can still achieve something. Here the preservers of our environment are born!”
Dr. Kai Perret

24. Our goals Fostering environmental awareness in young children
Setting the foundation for bilingual abilities
Differences in teaching env’t to l2
Increasing young children’s intercultural awareness

25. Our goals in action A lesson from conception to completion
Teaching in the classroom
Morning Circle
song time
new English vocabulary
new environmental concept
in-class reinforcement through either crafts or games
“Behavioral enrichments”
Reinforcing the morning circle lesson in the zoo
Once a week the morning circle is based on the zoo topic, the rest of the morning circles are taught by the other teachers.

26. Our goals in action Materials we use for greater understanding
flash cards
Materials we use for greater understanding
real photos
crafts
F.C. sources (it is always good to have words included in the F.C.), great craft sites (DLTK crafts for kids has been the best site), ARKive is a great site for videos and photos.
video clips
weekly zoo visits

27. Our goals in action Facilitating children’s comprehension
Teaching environmental concepts in the first language vs
Teaching environmental concepts in the second language
Differences in teaching env’t to l2
Our planning motto:
Teach the basics first, then the concept

28. Our goals in action
Another difference between we what do at the zoo kindergarten and zoo education in general is that our target audience falls within a very specific age range.
Many environmental topics are very complex, requiring mental scaffolding.
Our age group requires the basic building blocks to become the foundation for environmental learning.
To construct this foundation we base our lessons on the cognitive development and abilities of children ages 5 and below.
Our older children are already capable of linguistic taxonomy in their first language.
Where as the younger children have yet to develop that ability..
To maximize the learning potential of each group we create 2 sequences of lessons based on the same environmental theme.

29. The end Give us a hand Tail end Go ahead
Well, we have come to the tail end of our presentation. After you have given us a hand go ahead and ask us any questions.
Tail end
Go ahead