Many educators in immersion contexts support a policy of strict separation of languages in the classroom as the ideal model for second language acquisition and are reluctant to make connections between the dominant language, the target language and pupils' home languages. This can result in missed opportunities for drawing on pupils' entire…

Using critical interpretive procedures, this synthesis reviews qualitative and quantitative empirical studies (N = 181) published between 2000 and 2017 in the Canadian French as a Second Language (FSL) K-12 context. This study examines the thematic focus of findings relevant to key stakeholders (i.e., students, teachers, teacher candidates,…

French immersion (FI) programs in Canada have historically served predominantly Canadian-born, English-speaking students and families in their endeavour to learn both of the country's official languages, French and English. However, FI programs are becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse as a result of increased global…

In the Canadian context, although most considerations for home-target language use are centred on the presence of English in French Second Language (FSL) programs, the increasing number of immigrants to Canada in general and to southern Ontario in particular has provided an impetus to extend the discussion to include the use of languages beyond…

In this article, we analyze the plurilingualism of instructors and their students in a program taught through the medium of French at a multilingual, Anglophone university in Western Canada. We employ the lenses of plurilingualism and plurilingual competence in the analysis of data from a one-year qualitative study of plurilingualism across the…

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…

This book fills a large gap in our understanding of how to prepare teachers for the challenging but increasingly popular task of integrating content and language instruction. It brings together findings on content-based teacher education from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America in order to inform researchers and teacher educators and…

This longitudinal case study examines four new FSL teachers' beliefs regarding the best and worst FSL program for English language learners and students with learning difficulties; the data are drawn from qualitative semi-structured interviews that occurred at the end of the participants' Bachelor of Education program and near the end of each…

Elementary French immersion (FI) language arts teachers often organize instruction around small learning groups. Students rotate through learning stations/centres and work independently with their peers on L2 literacy skills. This study examined how principles of task-based language teaching (TBLT) can be used and/or adapted to further support…

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…

The purpose of this study was to examine the self-efficacy beliefs of novice elementary French as a second language (FSL) teachers. A mixed methods approach was used to investigate self-efficacy appraisals of core French (n = 14) and French immersion (n = 13) teachers in delivering instruction in FSL programs. A questionnaire was administered that…

Given the increasingly diverse, multilingual student body in Canada, the call for increased inclusion in education, and in light of research highlighting the potential for inclusion in French immersion (FI) to be limited by gatekeepers, this study examines the beliefs of kindergarten teachers regarding the inclusion of English language learners in…

This article examines four French immersion (FI) teachers' perspectives on the relationship between language and culture and on their roles as intercultural mediators in New Brunswick (NB), Canada's only officially bilingual province. Data were drawn from semi-structured interviews with the teachers. Couched in the broader framework of Canada's…

French immersion programs in Saskatchewan have traditionally served to further the goals of additive bilingualism between Canada's two official languages, French and English. Whereas these programs have historically consisted of predominantly Anglophone populations, recent trends in immigration have contributed to the increasingly diverse…

This paper discusses how teachers in a bilingual education programme see their pedagogies and interactions influencing student connection to the languages of the bilingual programme. The teacher perception of the classroom is explored because the classroom is one of the principal settings in which the students negotiate their bilingual identities.…