For several years in Switzerland it had been clear that adolescents with previous learning difficulties in their own country experienced even greater academic problems in Switzerland where they were expected to attend school with native speakers of French. Therefore, an experimental class was organized of Spanish and Italian-speaking children who were chosen because of extremely poor results on writing tests in their native language. During the first year of the experimental course in the native language, the emphasis was on learning the native language in comparison with French. At the end of the first year an evaluation showed that students had made progress in both their own language and in French, but the further development was needed. Accordingly, three orientations were adopted for the second year: (1) the aspect of grammatical comparison of the languages was retained to some degree; (2) control of the native language was emphasized and instruction in it focused on its own value as "native language"; and (3) more opportunity was given the students to learn more about their own country and to express themselves in accord with their own culture. A series of psycholinguistic tests given during the second year showed that student performance in comparing the two linguistic systems was normal for their age and that, while spelling remained a problem, progress had been made in reading and in written expression. (AMH)