This brochure, intended for the parents of current and prospective French immersion students, answers commonly-asked questions about immersion education, including who should participate, how good the child's French will be, whether immersion students are likely to lose ground in English or academic subjects, how parents can provide support at…

A discussion of multilingualism in Switzerland begins with a description of the country's linguistic characteristics. Historical Swiss policy recognizing four official languages, one of which (Romansch) is spoken by very few people, is compared with the current situation in which internal and external migration and multilingualism are common. The…

A study investigated the elementary school programs in French as a second language in Louisiana, Quebec (Canada), and New Brunswick (Canada). The objective was to learn about the programs' underlying goals and philosophies, examine the teaching materials used at this level, evaluate the teaching situation, and survey teachers for their…

The grade 4 social studies curriculum on metropolitan areas for French immersion is outlined. The syllabus, almost entirely in French, consists of seven units. Each contains an instructional objective (in English); a number of specific performance objectives; and for each performance objective, required and optional vocabulary, required and…

An evaluation of Manitoba's French immersion programs at the levels of grades 3, 6, and 9 focused on program effectiveness in teaching listening comprehension and speech skills. The results for grade 9 are presented here. The first section describes the framework of the immersion curriculum and the listening and oral skills targeted in it. The…

This study reports the follow-up assessments of fourth- and fifth-grade students who had participated in a French immersion program beginning in kindergarten, and of students in the same grades who had not participated in immersion programs. The study was designed to assess the predictive validity of the early identification battery used for…

Two articles combined here describe aspects of the Akron, Ohio Public Schools' summer foreign language immersion camps for both students and teachers. The first article, "The Akron Story Part I: Summer Foreign Language Camps" (John D. Durden and Sandra K. Strauber), outlines the structure of the camps, in which students live in simulated…

This research concerns the French immersion program and the program of 60 minutes of French instruction daily introduced by the Ottawa Roman Catholic Separate School Board at the first grade level. A longitudinal evaluation of the effects of these programs compares language proficiency, linguistic development, social maturity, academic…

This paper presents the findings of the last completed evaluation of a partial immersion program in St. Thomas, Ontario, which involves the use of French as the medium of instruction for half the school day and English for the other half, beginning in Grade One. Unlike the previous evaluation, in the current one a Canadian-normed instrument was…

This study explores the role of the language learning situation by comparing the speech of children in an immersion program, children learning a second language in a natural setting, and native French children. Three groups of children participated in the study: (1) 39 children (Grades K, 1, 3, 5) in a French immersion program in the U.S.; (2) 13…

This paper analyzes short stories written in English and French by French immersion pupils at the Grade 3 level. Their English writing skills are compared to those of Grade 3 pupils in a regular English program. Aspects of their writing skills which are examined include vocabulary skills, technical skills (punctuation, capitalization and…

This study examined how the experiences of African-American and white students in a partial French immersion second grade classroom in Louisiana differed from the experiences of students in a regular education classroom. It focused on students' perceptions of themselves and others, students' interactions with their teacher and peers, parental…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first and second language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out and evaluating their work. The task for eighth grade students…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first- and second-language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out, and evaluating their work. Three separate lesson plans in the…

Compared 20 good and poor readers in a second-grade French immersion program to 20 good and poor readers in regular English second-grade classes on various indexes of reading accuracy and speed. Found that English-only students achieved independent reading in greater numbers than French immersion students did in either French or English. (MDM)