Tell me about French Immersion

[dianna11]

Many people in our neighborhood send their kids to sk-gr 6 French Immersion. It's a good program, the kids love it, and apparently, they don't water down the curriculum to accommodate the language.

I am curious though, how well being in French Immersion translates to a regular high school. I have some friends who graduated high school with their bilingual diploma, but none went to post secondary - so I'm not sure how people who have started out in one system integrate into another later on.

ANy thoughts?

I x-posted this to "Education", but I figured that it likely wouldn't have much relevance to anyone who is not in Canada.

[eirual]

I took it (gr. 1-8) and in retrospect appreciate. My parents kept me in it against my will through middle school (I hated the teacher I had all 3 years more so than the language itself) and once I was 'allowed' not to take it any more I dropped it.

11 years later I've taken a conversational and a theory French course to brush up on it, and the background really gives you a foundation for for the flow and construction of the language.

Anywhoo, I think it's good.

[dianna11]

I took it (gr. 1-8) and in retrospect appreciate. My parents kept me in it against my will through middle school (I hated the teacher I had all 3 years more so than the language itself) and once I was 'allowed' not to take it any more I dropped it.

11 years later I've taken a conversational and a theory French course to brush up on it, and the background really gives you a foundation for for the flow and construction of the language.

Anywhoo, I think it's good.

So how did you find regular school when you left French immersion? Did you find that it was hard to get used to?

[eirual]

Not one bit. It was just in English which was that much cooler.

[Ghislaine]

My own experiences with immersion involved living in other countries rather then school programs.

My understanding is that the language will be retained if it's continued to be used through puberty. If it isn't used through puberty then the child will lose the language. However they have a step up when it comes to relearning the language later.

[Kiara.I]

I took french immersion from Kindergarten to Grade 10. I only stopped because I switched to the IB program, otherwise I was fully intending to continue in French Immersion. I'm not sure from your post, are you asking about French Immersion starting in Grade 6? That's a whole different kettle of fish, I assure you.

Early immersion (K onwards) is great. Our school did both english and french immersion. The immersion kids started doing some english classes in Gr. 3, and gradually increased to about 1/2 in each. At the end of Gr. 4 there was an English test, and if you did too badly in that they suggested to your parents that you move to english only (rare for that to happen). By grade 7 the French immersion kids did better in every single course, including english, than the engish only kids. Some of that has to do with self-selecting groups, of course. The parents who put their kids into french immersion tended to care about education, be more involved, etc. (statistically)

Late immersion (starting in Gr. 6) is rather different. My Jr. high catered primarily to late immersion schools, and I could see a big difference. They'd only been doing french for 2 years, compared to my 8, and their accents were not good. Their competency was not good. But, that's to be expected. I don't know how that would play out by the end of Gr. 12 if they kept it up.

Also, a lot of it depends on your school district, your school, and the teachers. If they are going to have the same teacher for both french and english, I'd say skip it. My brother had that one year and it removes the need for the kids to cope in french, since they know that the teacher can also speak english, you know? It's way better to have two separate teachers.

[vancouverlori]

I'd say if it's a good program, then you have nothing to worry about. As other posters mentioned, by Gr. 4 or 5, about half the courses are in English anyway, so as long as English is spoken at home, it would be a cake walk to transfer to English only. The only bummer is mandatory French classes - because even taking a couple of years ahead, the level of the work is similar to what was done in early elementary school, which I found insulting when I did spend a few months at an English school. I simply refused to do the homework, and even though I got 93% on every test, the teacher still sent me to "Study Hall" every day that I had that class. But since they couldn't make me do the work there either, I just read a book, which is what I'd have been doing anyway at home.

And even for kids where English is not necessarily the main language at home (I can think of a few kids), it's still the major language on the playground and on major media. Other than a few idiomatic idiosyncrasies, those kids were fine too.

I did French Immersion (and was part of the first class that did FI as well as IB in highschool), as did my sister (who then went on to regular English highschool), as did DD until she stopped going to school for health/emotional reasons. It was very valuable. And although my sister doesn't speak it much now, she's not much further behind me, since I don't use it much either. But it's there whenever I need it.

I'd say it's a case of can't hurt, might help. ;)