This paper examines the persistent, growing popularity of Canadian French immersion (FI) programmes. Critics charge that FI programmes are elitist, diverting already limited resources from other areas of the education system. We begin with a brief overview of the benefits of FI in Canada and enrolment trends. Next, sources of FI-related inequality…

While Canada's multiculturalism and bilingual education represent an opportunity for educational sectors to foster students' intercultural citizenship, in New Brunswick -- Canada's only officially bilingual province -- provincial language ideological debates (LIDs) may create structures impeding Anglophone French immersion (FI) students'…

Bilingual education has been an educational option in many countries for over 50 years but it remains controversial, especially in terms of its appropriateness for all children. The present review examines research evaluating the outcomes of bilingual education for language and literacy levels, academic achievement, and suitability for children…

The aim of this article is to develop a critical awareness of a pervasive hegemonic ethos and its dehumanizing impact on Foreign Language (FL) classrooms. In doing so, Amy E. Kuiken draws from Paulo Freire's discussion of subordination and transformation, i.e. of oppression and humanization, as a critical lens through which to view current trends…

In Canada, language learning is viewed as an international, national and local need. Herein an international perspective is provided that guides the reader into a National language perspective which is uniquely Canadian. For instance, within Ontario there are concerns about French language education and the multiple entry points for students and…

Written from the perspective of a Grade 5/6 French Immersion teacher, this paper examines the role of music, poetry, and the visual arts in enhancing learner identity, in the context of the elementary school classroom. It begins with a focus on artistic metaphors that represent cultural and linguistic hyphenation. It then addresses practical…

This article focuses on two-way immersion (TWI) education and restates two previously expressed cautionary notes about the unexpected costs of such programs for the Latino community and for children who are racialized speakers of nonmainstream varieties of English. Utilizing an analytical framework focused on the process of…

Students of second and international languages in Alberta do not receive sufficient hours of instruction through formal classroom time alone to achieve distinguished levels of proficiency (Archibald, J., Roy, S., Harmel, S., Jesney, K., Dewey, E., Moisik, S., et al., 2006). This research study uses a constructivist approach (Guba & Lincoln,…

This article offers a review of policy and research as they relate to Allophones and their access to French Second Official Language (FSOL) programs in English-dominant Canada. Possible areas of future research are woven throughout the review as questions emerge in the summary of relevant literature. (Contains 3 notes.)

This study investigated the link between phoneme and onset-rime awareness and reading outcomes in children learning to read in a second language (L2). Closely matched phoneme and onset-rime awareness tasks were administered in English and French in the spring of kindergarten to English-dominant children in French immersion programmes (n=98).…

The present article examines discourses on bilingualism in French immersion schools and connects local ideologies of bilingualism to a more global view of what it means to be bilingual in Canada. Bilingualism is usually regarded as two isolated monolingualisms (or monolingual systems) in which there is no place for code-switching, uneven language…

This phenomenological study explores students' decision-making about whether to remain in an optional French immersion (FI) mathematics course in Grade 11, as well as students' subsequent experiences in their mathematics course of choice. Interview data were collected from 10 students who remained in FI mathematics and from six students who did…

Using the lens of critical theory, this article explores the tenuous relationship between special education and French Second Language (FSL) education, particularly as it manifests in the issue of including students with language-based learning disabilities/difficulties within the French immersion context. Drawing on considerations of these issues…

This study investigates the use of writing portfolios in improving the accuracy of French immersion students' written French. It emerged from regularly observed notable and repeated errors in many of the author's students' writing (entitled fossilized errors due their resistance to correction). This study reaffirms that students of French…

A CBC New Brunswick Forum broadcast live on March 27, 2008, from Moncton's Capitol Theatre provided a cathartic moment for parents angry at Education Minister Kelly Lamrock, who was linked into the discussion via satellite from Fredericton. Two weeks earlier, Minister Lamrock had declared in a press release that bilingualism was changing from an…