A Review of French Immersion Ideologies in Canada by Sylvie Roy

A review of Sylvie Roy's (2020) French Immersion Ideologies. Lexington Books. 220 pages ISBN-10‏ :‎ 1793612714

Investigating the Reading Strategies Used by French Immersion Pupils as They Engage With Dual-Language Children’s Books: A Multiple Case Study

As dual-language children’s books are becoming increasingly popular in language and literacy education, scholars are starting to zero in on how students construct meaning as they read these books. In this paper, in light of the previously mentioned body of literature, we present a qualitative study focusing on the reading strategies that three Grade 3 French immersion pupils schooled in Saskatchewan deployed when they read two types of dual-language books: translated, where the entire text appears in both English and French, and integrated, where passages in French organically complete those in English without providing the exact same information. This multiple case study highlights three distinct reading profiles, and shows how monolingual and cross-linguistic reading strategies can be used by the same student as they read a dual-language book. It also shows that some students were able to adapt their reading strategies as they engaged with different types of dual-language books, whereas others more frequently utilized the same strategies. Keywords: dual-language children’s books, reading strategies, French immersion Résumé Alors que les livres bilingues deviennent de plus en plus populaires en didactique des langues, la recherche commence à s’intéresser aux comportements cognitifs de l’élève qui s’engage dans la lecture de ces œuvres. Dans cet article, à la lumière de ces études, nous relatons les résultats d’une recherche qualitative visant à décrire les stratégies de lecture que trois élèves de 3e année scolarisés en Saskatchewan en immersion française déploient lorsqu’ils lisent deux types de livres bilingues : le livre traduit, dans lequel tout le texte apparait en français et en anglais, et le livre intégré, dans lequel le texte en français complète celui en anglais, sans toutefois offrir au lecteur la même information. Cette étude de cas multiple relève donc trois profils distincts de lecteur et, par son entremise, nous montrons comment des stratégies de lecture monolingues et translinguistiques peuvent être utilisées par un même élève lorsqu’il lit un livre bilingue. Nous révélons en outre que certains élèves sont à même d’adapter leurs stratégies de lecture selon le type de livre bilingue lu, tandis que d’autres font fréquemment usage des mêmes stratégies. Mots-clés : livres bilingues, stratégies de lecture, immersion française

L’harmonie de la musique et l’identité linguistique : l’a/r/tographie avec des futurs enseignants

By adopting an a/r/tography lens, this text will explore the relationship between music, linguistic identity and education. Through my experiences teaching high school French immersion classes and later my transition to teaching at the Faculty of Education, I will explore the risks and possibilities associated with this methodology. Bringing music into the classroom through a/r/tography can contribute to a heightened interest in the French language and a reinforcement of the francophone identity among students. My own identity journey shows the diversity of dynamic spaces in the field of education and presents the potential for positive exchanges within these spaces for the development of linguistic identity among future teachers and professors.

Les effets d’une approche littératiée sur la communication orale en classe de mathématiques de 7e/8e année dans un programme d’immersion française

Résumé Cet article traite des principaux résultats d’une étude ayant comme objectif de mesurer les effets d’une approche littératiée sur les habiletés de communication orale en langue seconde lors d’un cours de mathématique dans une classe de 7e/8e année dans un programme d’immersion française précoce au Manitoba, Canada. Certains tests paramétriques ont démontré un effet positif sur la structure syntaxique à l’oral, ce qui suggère que l’approche littératiée peut jouer un rôle clé dans la facilitation du raisonnement mathématique en contexte immersif. Abstract This article reports the primary results of a study exploring the effects of a literacy-based approach on oral accuracy in second language during a Grade 7/8 mathematics class in a French Immersion program in Manitoba, Canada. Some of the parametric tests showed a positive effect on sentence structure in oral communication, which suggests that a literacy-based approach can play a key role in the facilitation of mathematical reasoning in an immersion setting.

The Development of Cognate Awareness in Child Second/Third Language Learners of French in French Immersion: The Effects of Orthographic Overlap and Cognate Status

Purpose Our 1-year longitudinal study tracked the development of cognate awareness among second (L2) and third language (L3) learners of French in French immersion in Grades 1 and 2 to explore the impact of orthographic overlap and cognate status (true vs. false) on children's ability to recognize cognate relationships. We also assessed the impact of French L2/L3 status on performance. Method We compared performance on three conditions (true cognates with same and similar spellings, false cognates with same spellings) within and across grades. We used a direct measure of cognate awareness that required children ( n = 81) to distinguish true from false cognates presented orally and in print. Results Overall, Grade 1 children failed to recognize cognate relationships between true cognates with similar spellings, but successfully recognized true cognates with same spellings. Performance on all conditions increased significantly between Grades 1 and 2. The greatest improvement was seen on true cognates with similar spellings. Performance on false cognates was inferior to performance on true cognates with same spellings in Grade 1, and inferior to performance on both same and similar spelled true cognates in Grade 2. No differences were found due to L2/L3 status. Conclusions Among sequential learners of L2/L3 French in the early stages of additional language learning, cognate awareness is impacted by the degree of orthographic overlap, as well as by cognate status. Children's ability to recognize cross-language orthographic and semantic relationships improves substantially across the early elementary grades. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16821106

L’acquisition de la langue orale par l’entremise de tâches de centres d’apprentissage de littératie dans des classes d’immersion française

This qualitative exploratory study examined the language/literacy tasks performed by elementary students from six elementary French Immersion (FI) classrooms. Various literacy tasks were performed as students rotated through different literacy centres/stations which had been pre-planned by their teachers. Specifically, researchers investigated students’ oral production and opportunities for extended oral output when working at independent learning centres/stations in order to identify key principles for creating literacy-enhancing tasks suitable for developing language literacy skills within second language (L2) contexts. Data were collected through classroom observations ( n = 23) to identify the types of literacy/language tasks proposed to L2 students, the nature of communicative functions, the targeted learning outcomes, and principles of effective L2 learning tasks. Results demonstrate the importance of adapting pedagogical practices, such as literacy centres/stations, borrowed from the first language teaching contexts to maximize L2 literacy/language learning and meet the specific needs of FI students. Results also highlighted the importance of ongoing professional learning opportunities for FI teachers specific to their L2 teaching contexts. Researchers propose principles for creating literacy/language tasks that promote oral language learning in FI contexts.

Identités sociomatérielles et création d’histoires plurilingues et numériques

In the context of this special issue offering new materialist viewpoints in the field of language education, a sociomaterial perspective allows me to question an anthropocentric definition of learners’ and teachers’ identities in a school context. Looking at two moments of plurilingual and digital story production that occurred in an elementary school located in a major city in British Columbia, I trace the trajectories of sociomaterial agencements which involved learners, languages, spaces, researchers and other materials. I adopt a post-qualitative inquiry stance and go back and forth between concepts from posthumanist, new materialist, Deleuzo-Guattarian and Indigenous perspectives and narrative descriptions, screenshots and other figures. Thinking with theories, I follow unpredictable lines of flight which lead to the rhizoanalysis of two moments lived in a French immersion classroom, and I invite readers to come up with their own questions and to take part in the inquiry process. The following concepts – spatial repertoires, agencements, body materiality, excesses and flows of affect – demand that we widen our gaze in research and in practice so that we can better understand the dynamic identity agencements that gather diverse human and material elements.

Trilingualism and reading difficulty in a third (school) language: A case study of an at-risk child in French immersion

This longitudinal study documents a trilingual child’s struggle with decoding and word recognition, the remedies sought to help him start reading in his second language (English) while he was in French immersion, and his performance after the intervention on tests of phonological awareness in L1 Romanian, L2 English, and L3 French. The study commenced at age 5;6, when the child, Alex, was in English kindergarten and diagnosed with a reading deficit. The initial diagnostic assessment uncovered his near-complete lack of phonological awareness, a key ingredient of emergent reading. An intervention using a multisensory approach to reading was used twice a week until the child was 7;9, at which point he was completing grade 2 in French immersion. Alex’s phonological processing abilities were assessed in all three languages immediately after remediation in order to determine: (i) whether his phonological processing skills improved in English, the language of the intervention; (ii) whether there were similar effects in the two non-remediation languages (Romanian and French); and, finally, (iii) whether children at-risk for reading difficulties are able to continue their education in an L3, such as French in an immersion context.

Culture, Confidence, and Crêpes Sucrées: Exploring Teacher Candidate Perceptions of Francophone Homestay Community Leadership Experiences

This study examines the perceptions of two groups of teacher candidates (TCs) who had participated in a 2-week, French immersion homestay Community Leadership Experience (CLE) in rural Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, Canada. Based on individual participant interviews, the co-authors, who also each served as a Faculty Facilitator for several of these CLE trips (2015-2020), present thematic findings surrounding the five components (homestay, school placements, community volunteering, cultural workshops/events, and Quebec City trip), and perceived benefits of the program including accessibility, language acquisition and improvement, cultural awareness, self-confidence, career planning re-assessment (division/program), and future employability advantages.