A globalized acceptance: the marketing of Mandarin immersion
Abstract
This article introduces the concept of a Globalized Acceptance to examine how language immersion education operates through school choice. Drawing on qualitative data from an elementary Mandarin immersion program, this study analyzes how a school markets a foreign language program that attracts middle-class families. Rather than prioritizing a language that reflects the existing student population, the school promotes Mandarin Chinese as a symbol of global opportunity. Language becomes a classed commodity that signals elite cultural capital rather than a practical communication method. This study contributes to our understanding of educational markets by showing how immersion programs may translate globalization into an educational asset that is unevenly distributed.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Multilingual Education and Policy
Social and Cultural Dynamics
Second Language Learning and Teaching
Publication details
- Journal / source
- International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1018–1033
- Publication date
- 12 February 2026
- Language
- EN