The potential impact of French immersion programs on English-language universities in Canada is discussed, including the demands of increasing numbers of immersion graduates for expanded, nontraditional French-language offerings. Applications of the immersion approach to university-level second language instruction are classified, particularly…

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…

This handbook is intended for parents of children who will be attending French immersion kindergarten in Alberta (Canada). A question and answer format involving a fictitious teacher, parents, and child was adopted to facilitate reading and ease of use. These hypothetical questions and answers address a variety of topics, including the parents'…

This document asserts that dual language education is a program that has the potential to promote the multilingual and multicultural competencies necessary for the new global business job market while eradicating the significant achievement gap between language majority and language minority students. The appeal of dual language programs is that…

Many practices in Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools were negative, but this paper emphasizes the positive efforts that were made throughout their history, especially in regard to teaching English. The Carlisle Indian School, which opened in 1879, encouraged the use of English through an English language student newspaper and frequently…

This paper describes a model for assessing English speaking students with possible learning disabilities at a Spanish language immersion magnet school in St. Paul, Minnesota. The assessment process is based on established procedures for screening and assessment of Limited English Proficient/English Language Learners. Emphasis is on: (1) attention…

Two major questions are discussed concerning early language immersion: (1) Is it necessarily the best way to acquire a second language permanently and naturally? and (2) Does it provide a genuinely enriching experience for a young child? The author urges caution in interpreting research and consideration of other paths to biculturalism. (PP)

Achievement test scores for 417 fifth graders in both school settings indicated superior language achievement by the 164 immersion centre students. Questionnaire data from 94 teachers and administrators provided reasons for these differences. Implied that programs should focus on maximum use of French and meeting teachers' materials and resources…

An ethnographic study and discourse analysis examined how a third-grade bilingual teacher in a dual-language immersion classroom used her teacher-talk to provide support for her students' learning in sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic areas. All areas of support were closely interrelated in her teaching, and all were necessary to…

Evaluates the writing of Hispanic students in bilingual and submersion programs, comparing it with the writing of native English speakers in regular programs. Five dependent variables are evaluated: rhetorical effectiveness, overall quality of writing, productivity, syntactic maturity, and error frequency. (46 references) (Author/OD)

Responses of 118 Cantonese-speaking students at Hong Kong English-medium secondary schools to a questionnaire indicated those factors that contribute to the ineffectiveness of the English-medium education include: (1) lack of exposure to English outside the classroom; (2) absence of the Hawthorne effect on the immersion programs; and (3)…

A review of the research on Canadian immersion programs supports two notions regarding second language learning: (1) older learners may have as much learning success as younger learners, and in a shorter time period; and (2) integration of content teaching and language teaching is paramount in effective second language instruction. (29 references)…

A project at Indiana University of Pennsylvania to improve the speaking skills of 36 secondary school French and Spanish teachers is described. The project consisted of a total immersion workshop for strengthening oral skills, learning classroom techniques, and developing innovative curricula, and teacher projects to incorporate innovations into…

Presents a comparison of two types of compact disc (CD-ROM) foreign language tutorials: (1) those made by publishers who favor an immersion approach; and (2) those made by publishers who use grammar-based approaches. Both types of CD-ROMs address various age groups, skill levels, and learning styles. (JMV)

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…