French Immersion Schools-yay or nay?

[anyuka]

Don't know much about yet, but have heard that the French have a very rigorous curriculum. Anyone know more info. they can offer me? Dc is pretty free spirited. But think would benefit from structure though and would love for dc to learn another language. Speaks well beyond age level already in english. Any advice appreciated!

[Tapioca]

Yes, the French style of teaching is allegedly more traditional and allegedly, the teachers are held to a higher standard in terms of results. I say allegedly because that's what I've heard, not because I know for sure, and honestly I"m not sure I believe it.

I looked into French for DD, I applied, we got a spot (number 4 of 66 on the waiting list ) , everyone wants it it must be great - around here it is definitely 'the thing' to do...I turned it down.

When I did more research, I found I had a lot of questions about French Immersion as it's run here, and it's not straightforwardly the better option imo. For a start, if you have the kid that really struggles, you may have to end up taking the kid out anyway. I have a friend who is currently tutoring a former early French Immersion child whose essay skills in english are not good enough to get her into the job she wants in BC, which is after all an anglophone province. I have friends with teenaged kids who went through early FI - they're still cutting school, failing French tests, in other words, FI has not necessarily made them better students. It's just not clear-cut to me.

DD is going to a small, fine arts elementary walking distance from my house, and I know I 100% made the right choice for her. It has nothing to do with verbal skills for me - DD has always been very verbal and she seems older than her age, I have no doubt she'd pick up the language fine. I"m more concerned about the traditional aspects to the schooling, and honestly, I"m not sure what i think about Quebecois french as it's taught here...especially in BC, which is an anglophone province...the chance to speak to true native speakers is negligible...and how many of the teachers are truly native speakers or products of the french immersion system...etc.

I'm more comfortable with her going into late immersion if that's what she wants. But also, I lived in Paris for a while and i'm not convinced being fluent in the kind of french that is taught here is all that. I picked up french really fast living there, among native speakers, and it was the real deal, y
know? JMO. Lots of people love it. I am skeptical.

On the other hand, if I lived in a bilingual province, where my kid might actually get to use the language outside the classroom, then maybe.

[GuildJenn]

I was in one of the first FI programmes in Toronto, and later taught at the same school in the 1990s. They vary quite a lot from area to area. When I went through, because it was experimental, we had all francophone teachers who were pretty strong teachers, and strong supplementation in English.

Flash forward to the 1990s - few of the teachers are francophone and it seemed to me that a lot of the kids were just feeding off each other's grammatical errors to develop almost their own dialect. Not so impressed. I would definitely look closely at the programme in your area. I have heard good things about the Ottawa area schools, just FYI.

I am still not sure whether or not to enrol my son in it next year - I am a big fan of bilingual education done properly but in my particular neck of the woods, I am not sure the immersion programme is it. If I had enough money I'd look at the Toronto French School (which offers an IB programme).

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by GuildJenn

Flash forward to the 1990s - few of the teachers are francophone and it seemed to me that a lot of the kids were just feeding off each other's grammatical errors to develop almost their own dialect. Not so impressed.

This was one of my concerns as well, you just said it better than I did.

[CarrieMF]

We have 1 FI school here. It is run by the Catholic School Divison & there is Catholic religion taught in the school. If they didn't have the religion aspect my kids would be going to that school.

They start French in kindergarten here anyhow in all the other schools.

[kinzee]

I don`t really have a lot of info on curriculum or standards but I did go through the FI program from grade 1-12 and I loved it. I am so happy now that I have that second language. If my DH wasn`t so against it I would for sure put my kids in FI. He is just concerned about not being able to help them through their work. My parent`s didn`t speak a lick of french though and I did okay.

[AndrewsMother]

DS begins French Immersion PK next week. I am excited about the possibiities of his experiences. I have yet to speak to a parent at the school who is unhappy about their child's education.

[zoebird]

i only have experience with students in immersion schools in the US.

there's a french immersion school in philadelphia. it is a traditional schooling program, run in french as if it were a school in france or francophone area. from what i gather, it is as solid an education as any, and children do learn two languages.

the other school with which we have some knowledge is a spanish immersion school in lancaster county. it's an expensive private school that our friend sends his daughters to. or did send both and now sends one because she wanted to switch schools. they are both fluent in spanish and run this web site: spanish at the kitchen table.

again, it's a traditional education in two languages.

[robugmum]

I am not at sll a fan of early immersion programs but I woild consider late immersion.

[raksmama]

Originally Posted by anyuka

Don't know much about yet, but have heard that the French have a very rigorous curriculum. Anyone know more info. they can offer me? Dc is pretty free spirited. But think would benefit from structure though and would love for dc to learn another language. Speaks well beyond age level already in english. Any advice appreciated!

French immersion schools and French schools going by the system in France are not the same thing.

I know many people who are have children in French schools meaning schools that are run by the French government and using the same curriculum that is in France.

Yes, they are very rigorous.
The pros: they are way ahead of North American schools academically.
The cons: They can be very rigid and not necessarily good for children with learning variations.
My son has friends in one of these schools and the boys have hours of homework every night including the weekend.

French immersion schools in North America are not at all the same thing.
They go more or less by the same curriculum as the English schools however in French.
They can be good and not so good.It depends on the school and the teacher.

Pros: The younger you are when you learn the language the easier it is, so French immersion is a wonderful way to learn an language at a young age and I know people who became fluent in French from going to one.

Cons: On the other hand I have met adults who went to these schools and neither can speak or write English or French properly.

Another thing to consider is when the children get older and are thinking about going to university.
It is known that children in immersion schools have a lower grade average.

It is a lot to consider… We finally chose not but I do sometimes have second thoughts about it.

[Tigerchild]

We have a very popular French Immersion school near where I live. They DO use the French government school curriculum (It has some kind of name, I don't remember what it was). But it's not really marketed to the general public, virtually all of the families I know that go there have one or more parent who is a French speaker who didn't want their kids to lose the language (most of them went to English speaking daycare), or they would prefer a seamless educational transition (as possible) when their time at Microsoft is up and they move back to France.

So it's not presented as a "hey, let your kids learn French!" and it's kind of assumed that there is some available support at home. I am sure there are SOME families that don't speak French at home that put their kids in there though. All the kids I know that have gone there spoke English without accident (no suprise, they all went to the English-only daycare and preschool that I worked at!).

The cool thing about that school is that it's EXTREMELY racially and ethnically diverse! Something I was totally not expecting, because all the French speakers I personally know are white French people or Canadian people. But that makes sense--just like English is spoken across the world because of English colonialism, so is French! The parents I know that sent their kids to that school treasured the diversity aspect as well, it's a lot more diverse than most of the public (or even private) schools in my area.

[GuildJenn]

Originally Posted by Tigerchild

The cool thing about that school is that it's EXTREMELY racially and ethnically diverse! Something I was totally not expecting, because all the French speakers I personally know are white French people or Canadian people. But that makes sense--just like English is spoken across the world because of English colonialism, so is French! The parents I know that sent their kids to that school treasured the diversity aspect as well, it's a lot more diverse than most of the public (or even private) schools in my area.

FYI the biggest segment of the French-speaking diasphora is in Africa.

[Tigerchild]

Intellectually I knew that, being a geography/history buff BUT....as I said, I only know white French people (heh, now that I think about it, they are even less diverse than that--all of them grew up in either Paris or Montreal so they're all urbanites too! ) personally. Aside from one of my bff in HS's grandma who is Vietnamese but speaks fluent French (but communicated to me in the bits and pieces of Vietnamese I knew, since I don't speak French), that's who I know!