Suggests that reading is a powerful source in acquiring language competence. The author argues that children do not enjoy grammar instruction, but love to hear stories and read books that they select on their own. Given the lack of clear evidence for focusing on form, it is concluded that free reading should be an option for immersion children.…

Describes the experience of 11 Michigan bilingual teachers attending an immersion program in Mexico involving 15 days of intensive seminars dealing with Mexican history, geography, mythology, folklore, politics, and education. (CB)

Examines fundamental assumptions about desegregation. Briefly discusses Milwaukee's African-American immersion schools as a feasible strategy for educating African-American students. In predominantly African-American schools, African-American students' achievement levels surpass those of their peers in integrated schools. Given the limitations of…

The delivery of French immersion programs in Canada is discussed in terms of whether an immersion program in lower, middle, or upper grades is the most effective. (three references) (Author/LB)

A study investigated the communication strategies used by successful and less successful early French immersion learners by analysis of the use of 10 specific communication strategies. Results show effective communicators used virtually all strategies, with more achievement than reduction strategies; less effective communicators used fewer…

Reports on the Homelessness Immersion Project, a program developed at Molloy College to educate students about poverty that not only provides theoretical information about economic and social issues but also helps students develop personal insight into the experience of living in poverty. Describes how the program brings together community-service…

Looks at early immersion in Irish among children from diverse language backgrounds. Examines the children's frequency of target language use and the effect of the group's linguistic mix on that use. Results show relatively low levels of target language use even by native speakers. (Author/VWL)

Evaluated the effect on French language proficiency of an integrated formal, analytic and functional, communicative approach to second language teaching in the immersion classroom. Impetus for the study arises from previous research indicating that immersion children show persistent weaknesses in their grammatical skills despite the fluent,…

Illustrates the pedagogical potential of advertising messages in the French immersion classroom. Students learn to develop a critical analysis of the advertising messages they see and hear. (Author/VWL)

Describes the successful organization of 2 foreign language days for middle school students and provides a synopsis of why an immersion day is an important activity and what steps a teacher might take in order to attempt such an endeavor. Guidelines for planning an immersion day are included. (Author/VWL)

The Attitudes towards Japan and the West questionnaire was constructed to examine how English immersion students in an elementary school in Numazu City, Japan subjectively perceive themselves in relation to Japan and the West. Five subscales were identified.The questionnaire was also given to Japanese immersion students and to comparable…

Investigates the learning of sociostylistic variation by students in French immersion programs in Ontario. Focused on their learning of the four expressions of restriction ("ne . . .que,""seulement,""rien que," and "juste"). (Author/VWL)

This micro-ethnographic classroom-based case study explores the teaching methodology in a first-grade French-immersion class. This study was carried out in a public elementary immersion school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where English-speaking children throughout the school learn the school curriculum through a second language (French), starting in…

Purpose: This study aims to provide substantive data on the effectiveness of the total-student-body approach to school-based conflict resolution training. The authors investigated the effectiveness of the Peacemakers (D. W. Johnson & Johnson, 1995) program, a total-student-body conflict training program taught bilingually to all students in a…

One of the advantages of having students work in pairs on language-related tasks is that teachers and researchers can listen to what the students say as they carry out their assigned tasks. What they say offers insights into the students' beliefs about the target language they are learning and using, and reflects the cognitive processes they use…