This study investigated the degree of communicative competence of 8-year-old (n=45) students in five Welsh language immersion programs or Welsh-medium schools, comparing the children's skills with those of 10 native Welsh-speaking children. All were asked to retell a story show previously on video, and to participate in a group discussion task. In addition, they were asked to write the story in their own words. Specific aspects were analyzed within four main areas of competence subscribed in communicative competence: grammatical (especially use of gender); sociolinguistic (appropriate use of formal and familiar terms of address for second person singular); discourse (cohesion); and strategic (communication strategies used in retelling the story and in group discourse). Patterns of usage and comparisons with native-speaking peers are summarized. Results suggests that the immersion students' grammatical and sociolinguistic competence were weaker than their discourse and strategic competence. Contains 26 references. (MSE)