School District 72’s (SD72) Rachel Black, vice-principal for French programs, aims to dispel myths surrounding French Immersion.
“We really want our community to know that French Immersion is for everyone,” Black said during her presentation at the SD72 board meeting on Feb. 27. “French Immersion has been redefined over the last few years, so it is no longer what we once thought it was. The myth that you have to be a certain type of learner to be successful in French Immersion we know is no longer true.”
In her presentation, Black said the program’s goal is to enable non-Francophone students’ fluency in English and French. Further, stats she shared in the presentation suggest bilingual and multilingual people have higher employment rates and higher income.
Other benefits include in Black’s presentation included increased possibilities of socialization and travel, a greater openness to differences in other cultures, opportunities for community support, superior cognitive outcomes, working memory retention, and even delayed manifestation of dementia symptoms.
“Statistics would also tell us that students in our Immersion program perform as well or better academically than their peers in English-only programs,” Black said. “When we are learning a new or additional language, it’s not at the cost of their first language. So that is true when students are assessed in English or French, (and) it’s true when we look at stats across subjects. It’s also important to note that English reading and writing is typically on track about a year or two after that formal English reading and writing instruction happens and that typically begins at Grade 3 or Grade 4.”
A study was also conducted with students enrolled at the district’s French Immersion middle school, École Phoenix, in which around 103 students participated. One of the questions asked was regarding students planning on finishing the French Immersion program in Grade 12.
“We’ve got 63 out of 103 who are going to finish, they’re determined,” Black said about the results. “We have work to do where we’ve got 20 kids who are saying maybe and 10 who are saying no. I think (the) next step for us is thinking about how can we hold on to those students. What are the barriers? What are the factors that may lead them to make a decision to leave the program?”
Friendship ended up being the greatest factor, according to the survey, in determining if students would stay or leave the program.
“We know how important friendships are for our middle school students, so it speaks to how our students really need to feel connected to their peers in our program.”
The final question was if students would recommend the program to their peers. Of the 103 students asked, only six said no and 35 were not sure.
SD72 has two elementary schools, École Willow Point and École des Deux Mondes, where instruction is in French from kindergarten to Grade 2. English is only introduced in the two schools in Grade 3 and the language is only 20 per cent of instruction in Grades 4 and 5. At this time, a combined 388 students attend the schools. At École Phoenix, Grades 6 and 8 only receive 20 per cent of instruction in English and the middle school has 230 early Immersion students and 21 late immersion students (meaning they started their French education in Grade 6).
The only secondary school offering French Immersion is Carihi Secondary. At Carihi, Grades 9 and 10 have a 50/50 split in language instruction, and it decreases to 25 per cent French instruction in Grade 11 and finally to 12 per cent French instruction in Grade 12. Carihi has 266 French Immersion students.
“The hope and the goal are upon graduation from the program, our young adults can participate easily in conversations in French, that they can take post-secondary courses if they want to where French is the language of instruction or/and they can accept employment where French is the language of the workplace,” Black said. “It would be an advantage if students are looking at pursuing many avenues at university.”
