Language Immersion: Return to the Original Tongue

Abstract

Immersion is not unlike reading. As you follow the words of this sentence, you gradually become aware of movement down the page, word by word, space by space, line by line, sinking further into the text as your eyes scan across and down. You become immersed, or even submerged (both words derived from the Latin mergere, to dip or dive), gathering information about the tone of this passage as well as its rhythm as you continue deeper down the page in the search for meaning. Immersion, for those of us who teach in language departments, most often means the gradual yet constant exposure to a second language, one of the most efficient methods for language-learning.¹ Both immersion and submersion indicate the importance of exposing the language learner’s entire body—more than just the mouth, nose, and throat—to the language learning process. Almost like the swimmer’s body, the learner’s body needs a full exposure, as it were, to the target language cultural environment. Water penetrates and encapsulates the swimmer’s body; similarly, oral language use pierces the body’s personal space not only aurally but also visually (if one sees the person speaking) and perhaps in tactile (vibrations) and olfactory senses as well.

Creé la lengua de la boca que los hombres desviaron de su rol,

haciéndola aprender a hablar … a ella, ella, la bella nadadora,

desviada para siempre de su rol acuático y puramente acariciador.

Vicente Huidobro

[I created the tongue of the mouth which man diverted from its role

to make it learn to speak … to her, to her, the beautiful swimmer,

forever diverted from her aquatic and purely sensual role.]

Trans. Eliot Weinberger