English as a Second Language – Total Language Immersion or Not?

There are as many ways to teach ESL as there are non-native English speakers. Two popular methods are total English language immersion and mixed English-native language teaching.

One New Canadian shares her experience of immersion, “My aunt, the first thing she did my first day of school was send me [on the bus] just as I was. One of the things I said to myself was, ‘I have to learn English so I’m not dependent on people’ so that pushed me into wanting to learn it as fast as possible.”

“My first day I went on the bus alone and I got lost. That feeling of impotence – that I couldn’t do anything – was a feeling I wasn’t going to let happen again because I couldn’t speak the language,” she recounts.

On the other hand, some people respond better to a mixed English-native language approach, where they benefit from listening, reading, writing and speaking in both languages. “What worked for my sister,” she reports, “was to watch Finding Nemo over and over again and have subtitles on in both English and her first language.”

Have you ever had the experience of learning another language? What worked best for you?