College - Author 1

College of Liberal Arts

Department - Author 1

World Languages and Cultures Department

Degree Name - Author 1

BA in Spanish

Date

3-2021

Primary Advisor

Silvia Marijuan, College of Liberal Arts, World Languages and Cultures Department

Abstract/Summary

The Covid-19 pandemic is shifting education from the classroom to a virtual setting, forcing educational institutions to collaboratively innovate a new structure for virtual learning. The world’s current state of reliance on technology came so suddenly that teachers, students, and families have no choice but to learn as they go. This research analyzes how an elementary dual- immersion bilingual program adapts to new-found challenges such as technical difficulties, variances in at home support, and student independence. Furthermore, students enrolled in a dual-immersion bilingual program face additional challenges to provide students a language immersive environment. From August 2020 to March 2021, I served as a bilingual tutor, virtual school helper, and technology support for a Kindergarten and a second-grade student in a dual- immersion bilingual program. As a participatory observer, I went in-person to the family’s home every school day to ensure that the two students attended all their Zoom class sessions, completed online assignments, and mostly spoke with them in Spanish. My research cannot be a generalization of all students’ experiences with distance learning but can only account for the individual experiences of two students whose names will be under the pseudonyms of Mia and Ben. I will provide data and observations on how Mia and Ben’s classes function virtually in the four critical areas of bilingual learning reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This research will also cover their daily school schedule, synchronous and asynchronous learning aspects, data provided by outside resources, and my own personal observations. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools to reconsider how they function in order to slow the spread of the virus. However, we must also consider which new virtual methodologies and techniques could be beneficial to implement beyond the end of the pandemic.

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