The potential of various instructional strategies for promoting second-language acquisition among child second-language (L2) learners is considered in relation to empirical findings in early French immersion programs. Several principles are proposed concerning code-focused L2 instruction in a communicatively oriented school-based acquisition…

Many approaches to instruction of language minority students have been tried: transitional bilingual education (BE), maintenance BE, foreign language education, immersion, and developmental-language BE. Research evidence of BE benefits has been ignored as a monolingual dominant class enforces assimilation. (SK)

Discusses the Hawaiian-language-revitalization effort, which is the most developed of any indigenous-language revitalization in the United States. During the last 15 years, Hawaiian-language revitalization has centered around establishing indigenous-medium/immersion education and implementing the official status of the language of Hawaii.…

Provides a dialogue that is a series of semi-structured interviews with a language educator who taught French for 4 years before becoming a full-time mother. After 9 years, she became involved in teaching in a French immersion program in Canada. The interviewer is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Australia. (Author/VWL)

Discusses two questions: (1) What has the recent research conducted in French immersion programs in Canada contributed to understanding of second language acquisition?; and (2) What has it contributed to the broader field of applied linguistics? Considers research in the coming decade, and discusses obstacles that may be faced in Canada in…

Educators and policy makers in many countries have been expressing concern about how to improve students' achievement in reading and math. This article explores and proposes a solution: introduce or increase foreign language study in the elementary schools. Research has shown that foreign language study in the early elementary years improves…

This article describes the Language Center Montessori School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where students are learning in a language-immersion Montessori environment. The school offers a choice to parents--Spanish immersion or French immersion--but Montessori comes with both. The school's motivation for promoting bilingualism is to improve…

Proficiency in a second language (L2) may depend upon the age of exposure and the continued use of the mother tongue (L1) during L2 acquisition. The effect of early L2 exposure on the preattentive perception of native and non-native vowel contrasts was studied by measuring the mismatch negativity (MMN) response from 14-year-old children. The test…

In immersion programs, language is not directly taught, but rather embedded into the content of a lesson. The target language is the medium of the lesson, not the object of the instruction. A story provides a language experience and encourages students to participate actively in the lesson. Children are also more apt to learn and retain ideas and…

The Department of Education respectfully submits this "Report to the Legislature: English Language Acquisition Professional Development" pursuant to Chapter 61 of the Acts of 2007, line item 7027-1004, and pursuant to G.L c. 69s.1I, the Department of Education addressing several provisions. School district implementation of sheltered…

Research concerning the success factors in language immersion education is reviewed, focusing on five major schools of thought. First, the traditional model for immersion research, implemented in a Montreal (Canada) suburb is examined. Then three studies of the influence of affective variables in immersion program success are examined, and it is…

This guide contains daily lesson plans for a 4-week, 4-hour a day immersion program for an introductory German-as-a-foreign-language program. The program uses repetition, gestures, realia, puppets, and comprehension-based activities such as Total Physical Response; it also uses illustrations designed to promote the goals of comprehension,…

This collection of 16 papers covers theoretical issues and research on interlanguage development and second language acquisition variables. Among the specific topics addressed are: morpheme group interactions, acquisition of complex sentences in English as a second language, uniformity in interlanguage development, Spanish-English basilang,…

Guidelines are provided for teacher-librarians organizing bilingual school resource centers at British Columbia schools with French immersion programs. The guidelines address (1) the handling of French language materials within the collection; (2) selection and acquisition; (3) selection of vertical file materials; (4) budgeting, cataloguing, and…

A study indicates that students in French immersion programs in Canadian schools achieve superior progress in French and equal skill in English relative to students in partial immersion classes or traditional second-language study. (CK)