English immersion programs have students to be fully immersed in the American culture, which starts by learning its language — English. A number of those who enroll into English immersion programs are immigrant children. Immigrant children is defined as children who have at least one foreign born parent. Some immigrant students show proficiency in English after being in the program for only 2–3 years while others take longer. There are not many other resources provided by schools that students can go to if they want to learn or improve their English. As a result, it can possibly affect immigrant students' proficiency in English.
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Background
There are two types of English immersion programs: 1) structured, 2) submersion. Structured immersion programs help students focus on building a vocabulary. This type of program help the students to learn English faster so that they will be able to join the regular classes with the majority of their classmates. Submersion-type immersion programs is a sink or swim kind of program. This type of immersion does not provide the student with any kind of assistance. It is up to the student's ability to learn and understand the language on their own. Most immersion programs have students focus on developing English proficiency only. English immersion programs do this by having the students be exposed to the language directly.
Increasing immigrant student population
With an increase in the immigrant student population, English immersion resources help immigrant students adjust to the U.S. In public elementary schools, they have seen a new rise in immigrant enrollment. "In the 10 years between 1996 and 2006, the number of ELL students enrolled in U.S. elementary and secondary schools has grown approximately 57 percent, while the general school population has grown only 3.7 percent". The population of ELL students has grown really big throughout the years. With current increasing immigration and birth rates of immigrant children, the ELL student population in U.S. elementary schools will get even bigger.
Improved English proficiency
In a study about the benefits of a second-language immersion elementary school program, the findings showed positive results. The participants that were involved were 106 French-speaking eight-year old children. They were separated into two groups. 53 children who were enrolled in English immersion classes since when they were five years old were classified in one group. The second group is 53 children who were enrolled in monolingual classes. Results showed that the kids who were enrolled in English immersion classes gained some cognitive benefits such as auditory selective attention, divided attention, and mental flexibility. In another study about the effectiveness of two-year oral English programs conducted on 534 Hispanic ELL students, it was concluded that English immersion programs are needed to accelerate oral English acquisition.
Controversy
Some people criticize that it is costly to offer a variety of English immersion resources. For example, for just the ESL program, "...38% of eligible Texas students are served in ESL programs and are the most expensive to operate since ESL teachers must be hired to attend to pull-out students". Training for regular teachers may also need to be provided so that they are qualified to teach ESL students. A ESL Generalist certification is required to teach in the ESL program. The average cost for a student in ESL is $2,687.