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LLED 590 – Bibliographie Annotée FRM5 - 2016



Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (2005). The evolving socio-political context of immersion education in Canada: Some implications for program development. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 15, 169-186. 
Objective of article:

  • To review and update the key features of French Immersion in Canada as identified by Swain and Johnson (1997) to reflect the ethnic diversity in Canada and the variety of L1’s in the classroom.

  • A second objective is to examine the role of the L1 in L2 learning and its use in the classroom in light of new research which suggests that it can be beneficial to L2 learning (or the immersion language).  

Keywords: immersion programs, bilingual education, multilingualism, sociocultural theory, subtractive bilingualism, additive bilingualism, immersion language (L2, L3 etc)

Résumé: The authors review the origins of the French Immersion program in Canada, and describe the 8 core features outlined by Swain and Johnson (1997). They propose the following updates:

  • The L2 should now be referred to as the “immersion language” to reflect the reality that French may in fact be the L3 or L4 for immigrant children.

  • All L1’s need to be supported.

  • The classroom culture is no longer that of the L1 community and needs to recognize the cultural diversity of the students.

The authors cite the following Canadian studies on immigrant children in French Immersion:

1. Swain et al (1990) studied close to 200 grade 8 late immersion students and found that immigrant students performed as well as or better than Anglophones in French writing, reading, speaking and listening. Immigrant students who had developed literacy skills in their home languages out-performed Anglophones.

2. Dagenais and Day (1998) present case studies of three immigrant children in grades 3, 4 and 6, in three school communities, who spoke another language at home and whose families encouraged trilingualism. Parents and teachers alike reported benefits of an L3

3. In an ethnographic study in Vancouver, Dagenais and Berron explored “language practices, educational strategies and representations of self in South Asian families of diverse language backgrounds” (2001: 145), and family support for French Immersion and multi-lingualism.

The Role of the L1: The authors cite several studies which show evidence that speaking and writing in the L1 are cognitive tools not only to learn subjects such as science and math but also to learn language. The L1 can play an important role in the L2 classroom including: task my management, helping learners to support each other, working through complex problems and stress management and socializing.

The authors describe a dual-language book project in Toronto where new immigrants were encouraged to bring their native language into the regular classroom to promote literacy and recommend immersion classrooms adopt a similar approach.



Methodology: Qualitative study which reviews recent research in relation to the current reality in Canadian French Immersion classrooms.
Pertinence for objectives:  

The use of the L1 in the classroom and its function in cognitive processing and L2 learning is directly relevant. It challenges the notion that English should not be spoken in the immersion classroom. In relation to my objective, it begs the question of whether students would be more motivated at adolescence if English were not discouraged in the classroom both from the point of view of it not being “allowed” (a notion that is objectionable to adolescents) and its role in increasing understanding and proficiency in French. In addition, the studies reported in this article dealing with an adolescent age group are relevant as the new demographic in the French Immersion classroom may change the existing dynamic of ambivalence in the unilingual Anglophone classroom.
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