You are here:
| Young Child's View of Starting French Immersion |
 |
 |
 |
|
from 'The Young Child's View of Starting French Immersion' by Sandra Weber, Associate Professor at Concordia University and Claudette Tardif, Associate Professor at Faculté Saint-Jean of the University of Alberta, published in CPF's 'So You Want Your Child to Learn French!' Second Revised Edition 1990. The authors observed four French immersion kindergartens and two English Kindergartens. Some of the French immersion kindergarten students were observed the following year in a grade 1 class. Interesting comments from the article are: "During the first days of school, we carefully observed both the regular and immersion students with some of the parents' most often voiced concerns in mind. However, contrary to our expectations, the second-language element did not really seem to be a major source of frustration or difficulty for the children." "The fact that not understanding the teacher's language seemed to be only a minor nuisance to the children could indicate that children are more tolerant of ambiguity than are adults. Even in their first language, young children are accustomed to not understanding everything adults say. In addition, they do not feel as socially awkward about not understanding as adults might in a similar situation, nor are they as reluctant to ask for help. Not knowing everything, relying on adults, and asking lots of questions are part of the socially accepted role of being a child. Research (for example Gardner and Lambert 1972; Krashen 1982) has indicated that social and psychological factors can play an important role in the acquisition of a second language. Perhaps, as adults, we project our own fears of a second-language learning situation onto children without stopping to ask if children experience things socially in a different manner than we do." "In other words, the children did not need to understand every word spoken by the teacher. They could rely for help on the 'scaffolding of meaning' (Bruner 1975) provided by Teacher's paralanguage (gestures, body movement, intonation, and expression) and by concrete materials, pictures, symbols, and rituals. The way the teachers spoke and organized the situation was just as important as what they said in getting the message across. For example, a low table set with four place mats, cutlery, glasses, food, and drink extends an invitation to four children to sit down and eat even if they do not understand the accompanying French input." For both English and French immersion kindergartens, one of the first issues for the children is to learn the new routine i.e. when is reading circle time, snack time and recess. From 'French Immersion, Yes you Can Help!' national edition from CPF Alberta, from the section titled 'Social and psychological effects', 'Studies have found no evidence of emotional or social difficulties linked to a child's immersion experience. The gentle approach to French in the early years of an immersion program helps to build students' confidence and ability to understand what is going on. Stresses experienced by the children are often found to be related to factors other than immersion. In their study of kindergarten students, Weber and Tardiff reported, "We were very surprised at just how easily children adapted to the situation, ... If anything, it was the school-specific rather than the language-specific aspects of the classroom experience that seemed to pose a challenge to some of the children: separating from parents, getting used to the concept of recess (not going home), learning the classroom rules about how to behave, adjusting to the demands of an unfamiliar schedule and way of doing things-these seemed to be the real challenges in both the regular and immersion classrooms".' |