Evaluation of French immersion programs' effectiveness in Canadian schools should include considering accessibility to the program, its organizational setting, teachers' behavior in bilingual classes, and principals' leadership role. French immersion must be understood in a context that recognizes it as a complete bilingual education linking…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

The 12-week program described here was designed to improve a Hebrew language immersion class' ability to correctly use the simple past and present tenses. The target group was a sixth-grade class that achieved a 65.68 percent error-free rate on a pre-test; the project's objective was to achieve 90 percent error free tests, using student…

A study of elementary school foreign language programs in eight states yielded information about the status and design of language immersion, revitalized foreign language in the elementary schools (FLES), and foreign language experience (FLEX) programs. Immersion programs consist of the usual curriculum content presented entirely in a second…

The Summer Language Houses (SLH) in French, German, and Spanish at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have been extremely effective in teaching language skills and encouraging students to continue language study. The five-week intensive language programs at the second-year level emphasize oral communication but provide practice in all language…

A study was designed to assess French second language proficiency, native language skills, and academic achievement of students in an intensive French program in an English language school in Montreal. Subjects consisted of three groups of grade 4 and three groups of grade 5 students, each grade level having one group from the intensive French…

An examination of the effectiveness of English-Ukrainian partial immersion programs in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba looks at research already done in five areas: student achievement in English language skills, Ukrainian language skills, academic subjects other than English or Ukrainian, students' cognitive development, and students' social…

The reading skill development of anglophone kindergarten children in French immersion programs in Canada is the subject of the two papers included in this document. The first paper describes a study that examined the English reading ability of both kindergarten and first grade children in immersion programs and compared the results with those of…

This summative evaluation of magnet programs employed a quasi-experimental design to investigate whether or not students enrolled in magnet programs gained any achievement advantage over students who were not enrolled in a magnet program. Researchers used Zero-One Linear Programming to draw multiple sets of matched samples from the non-magnet…

Saskatchewan French immersion high school graduates were asked what influence that experience had on career/college choice, maintenance and/or improvement of French skills, self-assessment of French capabilities, assessment of and suggestions for the program, leisure time use of French, and placement of their own children in the program. Results…

Teachers in a Spanish/English dual language elementary school in Tucson (Arizona) promote Spanish literacy using a school-designed program. The schoolwide, nonscripted program has been successful in supporting the transfer of reading skills from Spanish to English and in including special education students in dual language schooling. (Contains 33…

There are many untested, long-held assumptions within the field of study abroad concerning the impact of program elements such as study duration, language of instruction, program models, and student housing choices. One assumption embraced within the field is that direct enrollment (or full immersion) programs are more effective at achieving a…

This paper describes the partial immersion program (PIP) at Key Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia. In this program, which has completed its seventh year, half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish. The review of the program, which included classroom observations, teacher and staff interviews, and student assessment, revealed a…

Two models of content-based second language instruction are compared. The two models, French language immersion and mainstreaming, are illustrated in two case studies that focus on how minority language children fare in kindergarten programs. The first case study is of a native Cantonese-speaking child enrolled in an early French immersion program…

Results of a February 1983 survey of 96 Canadian school boards concerning French immersion instruction enrollments and program administration are presented. The survey revealed that 69 boards offered French immersion instruction (61 had early immersion, with an elementary level program in every province), 14 offered bilingual education, 23 offered…