It is very important that students study a foreign language. Depending on how they see their future, they can pick their language. In the southern part of the United States, Spanish would be a very good choice. However, someone who wants to go into international business might do well to learn French or German or Chinese. Any of these tongues can be taught in a classroom, but all the grammar and vocabulary in the world won’t prepare the student to actually use the language. Immersion as a language teaching method is probably the best way to learn a foreign language.
There is so much more to communication that words, and that’s where people get lost when trying to use their classroom version of a language. Their is the cultural influence of a particular area, and the slang that develops. There is the body language and the emotional sense of the people who use the learned language as their native tongue. The whole rhythm of communication will be different in the real world, so immersion makes the real world the classroom. As a teaching method, immersion means that the student lives in a country that speaks the foreign language for a lengthy amount of time. At best, no English is spoken, so their is no choice but to use the new language to interact.
As the language skills improve, so will the cultural education that will help the student learn the subtleties and nuances that really make communication good. The international connection between the student and his or her hosts will become a deep bond that will encourage the student to never let those new skills get rusty. In the best of situations, the teaching will reverse and the student can begin to share his or her language or culture with the host country. Whether that happens or not, the immersion teaching method will get very high marks from a very successful bilingual student.