Canada: N.B. schools scrap early French immersion

[Harold Schiffman]

 Forwarded From  edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu


Globe and Mail



N.B. schools scrap early French immersion



New Brunswick - Canada's only officially bilingual province - -is
scrapping early French immersion in its anglophone school system in
favour of an intensive French program for all students as of Grade 5.
The move follows a controversial report that concluded that 91 per
cent of the roughly 1,500 New Brunswick kids who started early
immersion in 1995 dropped out of the program by the time they reached
high school. The decision drew quick opposition from the New Brunswick
president of Canadian Parents for French, who said the move flies in
the face of research that "earlier is better" when it comes to
learning a second language. Walter Lee said Premier Shawn Graham will
always be remembered for cancelling early immersion.



Opposition education critic Madeleine Dubé said the government should
have invested more resources in early immersion. Education Minister
Kelly Lamrock, however, said other studies have shown that students
who begin second-language training later achieve better results. The
Liberal government wants 70 per cent of students to be bilingual by
2012, but at the moment, only a fraction of graduating students are
proficient in French.



Full story:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080314.wnbfrench0314/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostemail

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