Drawing on a 1993 study of four students in a late French immersion program in Australia and findings from a 1991 study, the report looks at three areas: students' response to the learning context, including its more and less helpful characteristics; the experiences students consider most important for learning the language, including those relating to the nature of the language learned; and individual learning strategies. The four case studies were students in an Australian Year 9 program. In making sense of what is going on in the classroom, students reported experiencing four phases: (1) heavy reliance on translation as a receptive strategy; (2) recognition of key words; (3) relaxation and listening or reading for the main idea; and (4) comprehension without conscious strategy. Strategies for coping with confusion were also identified. In producing output, students felt it important that the teacher help bridge the gap between what they could say and what they wanted to say. Students found tendencies toward code-switching and code-mixing, and the use of private speech in French, examples of emerging bilingualism, to be annoying. The earlier study found that internalized speech in the target language, both inside and outside the immersion context, was one strategy used to make sense of the language. Contains a 10-item bibliography. (MSE)