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Immersion in Canada

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Certain services and communications have to be available in English and French ... Helps to promote French culture and makes it easier for English-speaking ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Immersion in Canada


1
Immersion in Canada
  • By Lisa Keiderling, Janine Pütz
  • Course English in the United States and Canada
  • Tutor Prof. Dr. Hickey
  • SS 06

2
Overview
  • Introduction
  • Definition of Immersion
  • History of Immersion Education
  • Suitability
  • Pros and Cons of Immersion
  • Public support for Immersion
  • Conclusion

3
Introduction
  • Certain services and communications have to be
    available in English and French
  • Official Languages Act in 1969
  • Official languages in Canada are English and
    French
  • Nunavut and Northwest Territories have additional
    official languages (e.g. indigenous tongues)

4
Language Distribution
5
Current linguistic situation in Canada
  • 30 million citizens of Canada
  • 67 native English speakers
  • 26 native French speakers
  • 7 native speakers of neither English nor French
  • English 17,352,315
  • French 6,703,325
  • Chinese 853,745
  • Italian 469,485
  • German 438,080
  • Punjabi 271,220

6
Definition of Immersion
  • Uses the second language as the teaching and
    learning language
  • Second language is also used in other classes
    like mathematics, history, and geography

7
Goals of Immersion
  • Native-like listening, speaking, reading and
    writing skills of a second language
  • To acquire same language skills in the native
    language as in regular schools
  • To gain understanding and appreciation of the
    other culture

8
Total/Partial Immersion
  • Total Immersion
  • Students are taught 100 in the foreign language
    during the first grades
  • Partial Immersion
  • Students are taught half of the day in the
    foreign language, the other half in their mother
    tongue (alternating)

9
Early Immersion
  • Starts at an early age, usually Kindergarten or
    Grade One
  • Students come from families with English as a
    First Language
  • Often employs total immersion
  • Students are taught 100 of their classes for the
    first 3 or 4 grades in French
  • Pensum taught in French gradually decreases
  • Students can take part in non-immersion classes
    in Junior and Senior High School

10
Middle Immersion
  • Starts in grade 3 or 4
  • Instruction language is the foreign language for
    about two grades
  • After two grades native language is introduced
  • Use of native language increases gradually
  • In grade 5 or 6 Middle Immersion students blend
    with Early Immersion students

11
Late Immersion (I)
  • Begins around entering Junior High School (grade
    6 or 7)
  • Is not as intensive as Early/Middle Immersion and
    deemed as not as effective.
  • Completely fulfills the qualifications for the
    acquirement of a bilingual status at the end of
    the program concerning reading and writing

12
Late Immersion (II)
  • Differs from Early Immersion in intensity,
    because the students take only about 75 of their
    classes in French
  • Classes such as Family Studies/ Technology
    Education, and Physical Education, which are
    taught in English are usually the courses that
    make up the other 25
  • Often slight deficiencies in speaking French

13
History of Immersion Education
  • Impulse of Anglophone parents in Montreal
  • Theory by Wilder Penfield
  • Experimental immersion kindergarten in 1965 in
    St Lambert
  • Success was immense

14
Suitability
  • In order to evaluate the effectiveness of
    immersion for all students, special needs
    students have been examined
  • Problems of those students were
  • low level of academic ability
  • low level of native language ability
  • low socio-economic background
  • They usually show better results than comparable
    at-risk students, who have received conventional
    L2 education

15
Pros and Cons of Immersion
  • Supports bilingualism
  • Helps the students in becoming more eligible for
    future jobs
  • Helps to promote French culture and makes it
    easier for English-speaking students to live in
    French-speaking communities
  • The idea of bilingualism is good, but it does not
    necessarily work with immersion

16
Pros and Cons of Immersion
  • Results of immersion students in standardized and
    non-standardized English language proficiency
    tests taken in higher classes were equal or even
    better than those of the control groups
  • Fluency and sophisticated literary creativity
    cannot be tested in those standardized tests

17
Pros and Cons of Immersion
  • Results of immersion students in standardized and
    non-standardized English language proficiency
    tests taken in higher classes were equal or even
    better than those of the control groups
  • Experience with immersion graduates showed more
    incidents of false starts, hesitation pauses,
    uhs, and even some definitely non-English use
    of words
  • Hammerly This spoken English is a problem ?
    necessity to address in research

18
Pros and Cons of Immersion
  • Reading and listening comprehension in French
    tested with early and late immersion students in
    grade eight are on native-like level (early total
    immersion) or only slightly worse (early partial
    immersion)
  • Results of late immersion students were
    significantly lower
  • Tests for reading and listening comprehension
    skills are multiple choice tests and do not
    explore all the linguistic nuances to which
    native French speakers are sensitive

19
Public support for Immersion
  • Federal bilingualism policies are unnecessary and
    excessive government regulation
  • In Quebec French-nationalists resent the
    bilingualism policies
  • Support for bilingualism appears to be strongest
    in the area known as the Bilingual belt
  • Groups such as the Alliance for the Preservation
    of English in Canada, and books such as Bilingual
    Today, French Tomorrow, have advocated the end of
    official bilingualism

20
Conclusion
  • Highly recommended by many persons of public life
  • Nevertheless criticized by high-donated
    scientists
  • Immersion is a good idea which not always works
    as intended

21
References
  • Hammerly, Hector. An Integrated Theory of
    Language Teaching and its Practical Consequences.
    Blaine Second Language Publications 1985
  • Hammerly, Hector. French Immersion Myths and
    Reality. CalgaryDetselig Enterprises Limited
    1989
  • Hammerly, Hector. Fluency and Accuracy. Clevedon
    Multilingual Matters LTD, 1991
  • Swain, Merrill and Sharon Lapkin. Evaluation
    Bilingual Education A Canadian Case Study.
    Clevedon Short Run Press LTD, 1985.
  • http//www.ucs.mun.ca/z06gkd/Immersion.htm
    http//sitemaker.umich.edu/356.hess
    http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilingualism_in_Canad
    a
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