Immersive teaching of a foreign language seems a priori the best way to soak in a language and culture and promote an active, participative, and transformative pedagogy. However, immersion can create a number of obstacles to students taking charge of their own learning. This chapter, which takes its examples from the experience of the French Language Department of the French War College in Paris, addresses the concepts of pedagogical disengagement and sociolinguistic insecurity, as well as the discrepancy between the language of the classroom and language as used in the culture. Solutions for managing these obstacles are proposed, such as accounting for learner differences, developing open architecture curricula, moving beyond the four walls of the classroom, and averting potential overload by promoting the expressions of the learners' own cultures in the process of becoming acquainted with the foreign culture.

L2 learning today is increasingly outcomes-based, and demands learning efficiency. This chapter describes the design and implementation of transformative open architecture curricula to meet two challenges that arose during 2012-2014 at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). The requirement was to achieve measurable proficiency growth (≥ .5 ILR level) for students entering with proficiency between ILR 1+ and 2+ in shorter time frames than previously considered feasible. The approach had to be applicable for all DLIFLC languages and allow courses to be brought online quickly and modified continually. The response employed a modular content-based and scenario-based structure. In place of linear scope and sequence, “vertical spiraling” was employed. Integration of activities was ensured through culminating scenarios, toward which all module activities were directed. Collaborative learning was ensured in part through initial negotiation that also enhanced learner empowerment, ensuring students could mentally map out learning needed in preparation for the culminating activity. Proficiency gains exceeding objectives were often achieved in as little as 6-8 weeks.