Chinese immersion programs have been increasingly popular in US schools. However, we have insufficient data on young English-speaking children's acquisition of Chinese as a second language in these programs, and specifically on social contextual variables systematically promoting or hindering Chinese language use. Taking a variationist…

This paper analyzes how future educators would design their ideal school in the context of the Basque Country, with particular attention put on language planning and language teaching aspects. More specifically, we focus on the ideas about the languages to be included in the curriculum, the modes of inclusion of students' home languages and the…

This study examines the bilingual education in Spain and in Canada, and discusses their historical backgrounds, current bilingual education programs in use, and teacher proficiency within their bilingual education programs. The purpose of this study is to examine these two countries' bilingual education programs and find a way to implement a…

A summer English camp language immersion program, which began in 2003, provided instruction by native English speakers to Thai college students via collaboration between Prince of Songkla University in Thailand and Ball State University in Indiana, USA. During this program, Thai students were exposed to English formally through classroom…

This ethnographic, cross-cultural study used a dialogic, sociolinguistic framework to describe learning processes in portraits of three immersion summer camps in the eastern US. Using the data collection techniques of in-depth interviewing, participant observation and textual analysis, the study examined the process of second language learning and…

Differences between early and late Irish-immersion secondary school students are examined, not only in terms of academic outcome and target language ability, but also in terms of attitudes to learning the target language. Participants included a gender-balanced group of 97 students in Irish-immersion in fourth year of secondary school (mean age…

A study compared grade-three reading skills of two matched samples (n=47) of French immersion students: one group introduced to beginning reading in French and the other in English. Results showed no significant differences between the groups. They imply a need for better understanding of factors affecting bilingual proficiency, proficiency…

Descriptive studies in four elementary school French immersion classrooms investigated the negotiation of form in classroom discourse. Four interactional moves that encourage peer- and self-repair and draw attention to non-target output were examined. Found that recasts, the most common form of corrective feedback, can not lead to peer- or…

A study of 127 French immersion students in Alberta found over two-thirds never read in French for pleasure outside school, a finding not influenced by gender, French reading achievement, or attitude towards reading in French. However, students benefitted from some methods used by teachers to stimulate reading. (51 references) (Author/MSE)

Analysis of language production skills of French immersion students in grades 1-6 over 3 years revealed rapid growth of oral competence in the first three years of acquisition, followed by a much slower annual rate of progress. Lexical and syntactic structures most difficult to acquire emerge in five distinct patterns. (50 references) (Author/MSE)

Reports a study of the learning strategies and processes of four adult learners of Chinese, using data collected over a two-year period. Students showed a number of different approaches to learning, not all of which could be classified "good language learner" strategies. Findings suggest areas for exploration in immersion education, especially…

Research indicates immersion learners tend to process the second language predominantly for meaning, rather than both meaning and form. Immersion learners appear to be fluent in the second language, but closer scrutiny reveals serious gaps in grammatical accuracy. A study investigated the effect of focus-on-form instruction on the acquisition of…

Reports the case studies of three trilingual elementary school children in separate Vancouver (British Columbia) early French immersion classes, focusing on themes emerging from analysis related to the children's literacy practices and contexts for language learning, and the teachers' perceptions of these students and representations of…

A discussion of teacher talk, particularly in the context of language immersion, looks at its nature, content, and form. A study reported here indicates the importance of discourse modification by the teacher and points up the need for further research on the effects of teacher talk on second-language learning. (Contains 23 references.)…

This study evaluated a partial-immersion program in French in Victoria, Australia, an area in which little research has been conducted to date. The program has operated at an elementary school since 1991 and is the first English/French program of its kind in Victoria. French is the language of instruction for at least 40 percent of classes, with…