			Home About us Contact

Immersion Classroom (immersion + classroom)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

The evolving sociopolitical context of immersion education in Canada: some implications for program development1

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 2 2005
Merrill Swain
l'immersion; l'éducation bilingue; le multilingualisme; la théorie socioculturelle In 1997 Swain and Johnson defined immersion as one category within bilingual education, providing examples and discussion from multiple international perspectives. In this article, we review the core features of immersion program design identified by Swain and Johnson and discuss how current sociopolitical realities and new research on second language learning serve to update and refresh the discussion of these features. One feature identified by Swain and Johnson is that "the classroom culture is that of the local L1 community". The dramatic increase in ethnic diversity in Canada's urban centres calls into question the notion of a monolithic culture in the school community. A second example concerns the use of the L1 in the classroom: while a central feature of immersion education is the use of the L2 as medium of instruction, new research suggests that allowing a judicious use of the L1 on the part of learners may be warranted. The article concludes with suggestions for building on multiple L1s in the immersion classroom. En 1997, Swain et Johnson ont défini l'immersion comme une catégorie del'éducation bilingue, fournissant des exemples et une discussion à partir de multiples perspectives internationales. Dans cet article, nous passons en revue les éléments de base du programme d'immersion tels qu'identifiés par Swain et Johnson, et portons la discussion sur la façon dont les réalités socio-politiques actuelles et les nouvelles recherches sur l'apprentissage de la langue seconde permettent de mettre à jour et de reprendre la discussion de ces éléments. Un de ceux-ci, identifié par Swain et Johnson signale que «la culture de la salle de classe est celle de la langue première de la communauté locale.» La remarquable augmentation de la diversité ethnique dans les centres urbains du Canada remet en question la notion d'une culture monolithique dans la communauté scolaire. Un deuxième exemple concerne l'utilisation de la langue première en salle de classe. Bien que l'utilisation de la langue seconde comme moyen d'enseignement reste un élément central de l'immersion, de nouvelles recherches suggèrent que de permettre une utilisation judicieuse de la langue première chez les apprenants peut se justifier. En conclusion, l'article présente des suggestions pour tirer parti des multiples langues premières dans la classe d'immersion. [source]

Integrating Formal and Functional Approaches to Language Teaching in French Immersion: An Experimental Study

LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2001
Elaine M. Day
This experimental study was designed to evaluate the effect on French language proficiency of an integrated formal, analytic and functional, communicative approach (experiential) to second-language teaching in the immersion classroom. The impetus for the study arises from previous research indicating that immersion children show persistent weaknesses in their grammatical skills despite the fluent, functional proficiency they achieve in their second language. The experimental materials, which were custom-designed for our study, highlight form-function relations, promote noticing, encourage metalin-guistic awareness, and provide opportunities for language practice and thus relate to some of the theoretical issues that Rod Ellis (this volume) has indicated are important in SLA in the 90s. This classroom-based study on the conditional is one of a series of studies undertaken in Canadian French immersion to investigate the effectiveness of form-focused instruction in classrooms (see Swain, 2000). The results of our study, which was conducted in grade 7 early immersion, showed that the Experimental group performed significantly higher in writing than the Control group, in both the post- and the follow-up testing. Although this was not found for speaking, an examination of the individual class data revealed greater and more consistent growth in speaking for the Experimental than for the Control classes, suggesting that they benefited somewhat from the experi- mental treatment in this domain as well. Although Ellis (this volume) notes that research on form-focused instruc- tion in the 90s has tended to split pedagogy from theory, the immersion research in this area does not seem t o reflect this shift. In a recent article, Swain (2000) reviews the French Immersion (FI) studies and summarizes their re- sults as follows: "Overall, the set of experiments conducted in FI classes suggest that there is value in focusing on language form through the use of pre-planned curriculum materials in the context of content-based language learn- ing" (Swain, 2000, p. 205). Her reference to curriculum materials and to the specific context of content-based lan- guage learning should signal to the reader the orientation t o pedagogical considerations that characterize this research. As Ellis notes, hybrid research using both experimental and qualitative methods is becoming more common in SLA. Recently, the experimental materials in our study were implemented in a grade 8 immersion classroom, and the children's collaborative language activity was observed by a researcher working from a sociocultural theoretical per- spective (Spielman-Davidson, 2000). The uptake of our research by a researcher working in another paradigm introduces another kind of hybridity that we hope will also shed further light on questions in form-focused instruction and lead to appropriate changes in pedagogy and in the design of immersion curricula. [source]

CLIL and immersion classrooms: applied linguistic perspectives

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 2 2007
Ute Smit
In the last issue, in accordance with InJAL's new relationship with AILA, the idea and rationale of AILA Research Networks was explained in general terms. In this issue and the next, individual co-ordinators present their ReNs and the particular activities they are engaged in. [source]