tend before coming into their own classroom, but there is only so much a program can prepare that teacher for. Traditional teaching and teaching at immersion schools are dramatically different. In Immersion schools language acquisition is important along with the basic teaching skills. Although teaching the second language is the most crucial part of immersion schools, teaching the basics and making sure that the children understand is still very important. Teachers at the immersion schools have four specific teacher tasks: to make the input comprehensible, to provide opportunities for language output, to enhance the comprehensibility of readings and to develop a system for providing constructive feedback. Students acquire language most meaningfully when they also have the opportunity to speak often. Where they are able to produce new forms of sentences and use words they don’t always use. Teachers are often inclined to do most of the talking in the classroom, therefore it is important to focus on allowing students more opportunities to use the language and extending wait time to refrain from immediately supplying students with the answers. This will encourage them to begin to think first in this new language, and secondly in their native language. It takes time to translate thoughts into words that aren’t from your first language. Teachers also must begin enhancing the comprehensibility of readings. Teachers must constantly give the students new vocabulary and help them to make connections between the new vocabulary and concepts Schaffer 3and the old. This allows them to draw on their background knowledge to aid in their comprehension. Teachers use techniques such as story mapping, story grammars and semantic mapping. Taking the time to discuss the title of the book, the year and the place of the publication, the author, the format and other aspects of a work will make the students understand the big picture. Immer...
