The authors report the results of a phenomenological, qualitative research study involving 20 students who participated in a weekend poverty immersion experience. Analysis of the tape-recorded interviews included coding, checks for internal validity, and the generation of themes common to most of the research participants. Two overall results were…

This article describes the development of a Spanish-spelling measure designed to assess the progress made by Spanish-English bilingual children from Grade 2 to Grade 5. Different stages of measure development are described, such as the selection of the focus features, the pilot phase of the assessment, and the finalizing of the operational…

Reviews a survey of all Ministries of Education and a sampling of school districts taken to explore whether a French Immersion (FI) teacher shortage exists. Findings indicate a stabilization in the growth rate of immersion programs, a lack of teachers for specialty areas and of teachers specifically trained to teach in immersion. (12 references)…

Recent research by Swain (2000a, 2000b, 1998, 1995), Swain and Lapkin (2001, 1998, 1995) and Kowal and Swain (1997, 1994) has examined the role of collaborative tasks in focusing immersion students' attention on the need for explicit knowledge of grammatical forms and lexical items in the production (especially written) of French texts. This is…

Difficulties faced in evaluations that include data in a language not native to the evaluators or that lie outside the evaluators' cultural experience are discussed. Improvements to credibility and fairness from using a cross-cultural, bilingual evaluation are described and illustrated through evaluation of a language immersion program in Hawaii.…

The United States has seen a tremendous growth in dual-language programs over the last decade. This rapid growth brings up questions about the congruency between labels and implementation. Our experiences observing some of the programs and listening to teachers talk about the programs in New York City led us to propose that many of the…

Despite the importance of the integration of English language learners with native English speakers for social, academic, and linguistic purposes, few models of integrated bilingual education, other than two-way immersion programs, exist. This article describes one district's effort to design a K-5 late-exit bilingual program with an integration…

Discusses the findings of a national survey designed to gather descriptive information on the pre- and inservice education of French immersion teachers in Canada and to determine their future professional development needs. Conclusions are discussed in relation to the research literature on professional development. (34 references) (Author/CK)