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The Experience of French Immersion in Two Canadian Cities
Rebecca MacDonald1, Ariane Tye1, Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird1, Janani Selvachandran2, Jessica Desousa2, Becky Chen-Bumgardner2, & Ann Sutton3 1 2 3 Dalhousie University , OISE - University of Toronto , & University of Ottawa Background
Results: Common Themes Across Sites
Focus Group Methods
French Immersion in Canada
Themes Shared by participants in Toronto and Halifax
• French Immersion (FI) is an educational program that was introduced to increase bilingualism in Canada (Genesee, 2004).
Participant information
• Early FI programs typically begin at school entry, while late FI programs start in junior high.
# of participants
• The percentage of French instruction begins high at 80100%, but then gradually declines to a minimum of 50% in high school. • Evidence has supported the effectiveness of FI programs in developing students' English and French language proficiency and academic achievement (Lindholm-Leary & Genesee, 2014).
Minority Home Language
• Research has shown that students from a minority home language background perform comparably to students from English home language background in French and English language acquisition after 3 grades (Au-Yeung et al., 2014). • Children with special education needs rarely access or participate in FI programs, in part because supports for children experiencing difficulties are often not available (Kay-Raining Bird, Trudeau, & Sutton, 2016).
Research Goals 1. Investigate reasons for enrolment in early and late French Immersion programs. 2. Examine the experience of French Immersion and how it changed from start to finish. 3. Identify factors contributing to retention in or withdrawal from programs 4. Investigate long-term benefits of participation in French Immersion, including current French proficiency and use of French after high school 5. Investigate the FI experience of those with majority vs. minority home language backgrounds.
Toronto
21
15
Ages
18-21
19-21
English Home Language
20/21
5/15
1/21 (Cantonese)
10/15 (2 Cantonese, 1 Mandarin, 2 trilingual in Swahili, Chiluba, Mangala, 2 Malayalam, 1 Arabic, 1 Romanian, 1 Albanian)
Early FI Late FI Extended French
6 15 0
8 3 4
Completed
15/21
9/15
Withdrew
6/21
3/15
Changed French Programs
0/21
3/15 (1→ French school, 2 → Extended French)
Procedure • • • • •
Data collected at 2 sites: Halifax, Nova Scotia and Toronto, Ontario Demographic questionnaire Audio-recording with Zoom H2 digital recorders with surround microphones. Verbatim transcription of focus groups Thematic analysis of transcripts for illustrative themes and salient quotations
Results: Comparisons Between Early & Late FI Themes Common Across Sites Reasons for Enrolment
6. Examine participants’ exposure to students with special education needs in French Immersion.
Study locations Current French Proficiency
• Early FI: Parents/family decision, too young to decide for themselves • Late FI: Reasons included following friends, perceived benefits of learning French, parental encouragement and teacher recommendation. Ultimately, enrolment was their own decision. • Extended French: Similar to late FI, various reasons including a desire for fewer French courses, and ‘struggling in French’. • Early FI: Majority felt bilingual “to an extent” • Late FI: Majority does not consider themselves bilingual.
“At first, I thought [Late FI students] were way behind us... But now that I’m older, and even in high school, I realized it was pretty similar.” - M., Halifax, Early FI
Toronto
• Majority English; large city; significant linguistic diversity. • Early & late FI, extended French available.
Halifax
• Majority English, medium-sized city • Early & late FI available.
Results: Different Themes Across Sites “My parents are immigrant parents. They heard that putting your kid in French opens a lot of doors so that’s what they did.” - H., Toronto, Early FI “It was entirely my choice but [my mom] strongly encouraged me to enroll” - D., Halifax, Late FI “I’d call myself bilingual but I think my vocab has seriously diminished since being in [high] school full time, but I think I would pick it up really quickly if I got into back into a fully French environment.” - N., Toronto, Early FI
Themes Different Across Sites Experience of French Immersion in High School
Halifax
• Potential has also been found for economic benefits related to employment prospects in French or bilingual positions (Desjardins & Campbell, 2015).
Halifax
Experience of • Overall positive experience: smaller class sizes, 1-on-1 attention, close relationships with teachers French and classmates. Immersion • Students in French Immersion perceived as more motivated, academically driven, better behaved than students in the English stream. • Motivation to speak French, amount of French instruction, and French course availability all decreased in high school. • A desire for the curriculum to include more authentic and immersive exposure to colloquial French and greater emphasis on speaking French. Factors • Time investment in the program. Contributing • French Immersion certification upon graduation. to • Future job and travel opportunities. Retention • Enjoyment and ease learning French. • Families value bilingualism and encourage students to finish. Factors • Variable responses including a desire to study in a International Baccalaureate Program, concerns Contributing to about transition to English education, fewer French classes in high school, ability to take DELF Withdrawal certificate despite leaving FI, significant distance to high school French program, difficulty learning French & English simultaneously, and dissatisfaction with French speaking proficiency. French Use • General lack of authentic opportunities to use French. “There’s not many After French • Used most often for employment. opportunities for [French] Immersion • A few continued studying French in university. after high school unless you • A few use French to communicate with family. want a French degree” C., Halifax, Late FI Academic • Strong work ethic; tenacity. Benefits • Helped with learning an additional language. Current French • Restricted definition of bilingualism influenced responses. Proficiency • Some lack confidence speaking with native French speakers: non-native accent, poor grammar. Minority Home • Learning both English and French simultaneously was challenging. Language • Experienced loss of language after leaving the program due to lack of French use. Special • No classmates with special education needs. Education in • Perception that FI was too challenging for students with special education needs. French • Few resources and supports available for students experiencing academic difficulty. Immersion • One person reported a special needs coordinator assigned to students needing extra support.
• Early FI: initially felt more advanced in French compared to late FI students, but later realized abilities were similar. • Late FI: perceived themselves as behind Early FI, especially in spoken French. Differences in French ability contributed to feelings of rivalry.
References • Au-Yeung, K., Hipfner-Boucher, K., Chen, X., Pasquarella, A., D’Angelo, N., & Deacon, H. (2014). Development of English and French language and literacy skills in EL1 and EL French Immersion students in the early grades. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(2), 233 – 244. • Desjardins, Pierre-Marcel; David Campbell (2015). Two languages: It’s good for business: Study on the economic benefits and potential of bilingualism in New Brunswick, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick, 45p. • Genesee, F. (2004). What do we know about bilingual education for majority language students? In T. K. Bhatia & W. Ritchie (Eds.), Handbook of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism (pp. 547–576). Malden, MA: Blackwell. • Kay-Raining Bird, E., Trudeau, N., & Sutton, A. (2016). Pulling it all together: Maximizing bilingualism in children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, 63 - 78. • Lindholm-Leary, K. & Genesee, F. (2014) Student outcomes in one-way, two-way and indigenous language immersion education. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 2(2), 165-180.
Presented at the Speech-Language & Audiology Canada conference May 2nd-5th, 2018, Edmonton, AB
Themes Different Across Sites Halifax
Toronto
Experience • Emphasis on • Early emphasis on of French reading and writing oral French, Immersion skills with less fluency, and emphasis on oral comprehension, French. with later emphasis on grammar, reading, and writing. French Use • 11 participants • 5 participants After reported using reported using Immersion French on the job. French on the job. • 3 reported studying • 7 reported studying French in university French in university. ‘I’m in French right now because I don’t want to lose it but I don’t know what I’m gonna use it for in my future but I still wanna have the opportunity that I can still converse with people and write in French.’ - C., Halifax, Late FI
“I think…it's helped me for quite a while for job opportunities, as a summer counsellor as well, and working now as well, I use French constantly, and and it's also great practice for me, you know using it in a workplace setting” - C., Toronto, Extended French
“Being able to speak French kind of gives you this sort of prestige I think, and [the English stream students], they lack that.” – J., Toronto, Early FI
“The school system didn’t put a lot of emphasis on the speaking aspect of French”. E., Halifax, Late FI
“When it actually comes to speaking [French], I get really shy… because… these people know French, they’ve spoke it their whole life... and there’s just me, who probably doesn’t have a very good French accent and might not conjugate my verbs right when I’m talking, which would be embarrassing” M., Halifax, Early FI “I think for me it kind of hindered my English, learning French, just because of my background…I think I caught up eventually but it wasn’t until grade 7 or 8…” - C., Toronto, Early Fi “I think people with learning disabilities may not tend to take French just because English first language may be simple for them.” - J., Toronto, Early FI
Conclusions •
Experiences of French Immersion (FI) were similar at the Halifax and Toronto sites.
•
Early and Late FI participants had different reasons for entering and leaving the programs, but similar reasons for remaining enrolled.
•
Occasional to no usage of French after leaving FI the norm.
•
Lack of confidence in French skills, and yet often surprised at their own abilities.
•
Lack of exposure to classmates with special education needs, yet strong opinions that FI would be too challenging for them.
•
Students with minority home languages expressed difficulties acquiring English and French simultaneously.
Recommendations •
Increase emphasis on oral French in FI programs.
•
Incorporate colloquial French vocabulary and sayings into curriculum.
•
Promote authentic opportunities to use French skills outside classroom and after high school graduation.
•
Improve access and supports in FI programs for students with special educational needs.
•
Improve English language support in FI for minority home language speakers.
