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The effectiveness of a foreign language immersion program for children from different ethnic and social class backgrounds: Report 2

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Naomi E. Holobow ,
Fred Genesee  and
Wallace E. Lambert
Naomi E. Holobow
Affiliation:
McGill University
Fred Genesee*
Affiliation:
McGill University
Wallace E. Lambert
Affiliation:
McGill University
*
Fred Genesee, Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Ave., Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1, Canada
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Abstract

This report presents the results of the second year of a 4-year longitudinal evaluation of a partial French immersion program in Cincinnati, Ohio. This program is of particular interest because it includes children from lower socioeconomic group and ethnic minority group (black) backgrounds in addition to majority group (white), middle-class students who have been the subject of virtually all evaluations of immersion to date. The native language development (English), academic achievement (math), and second language attainment (French) of pilot groups of middle- and working-class students and of black and white students who were in grade 1, as well as those of a follow-up cohort of kindergarten students, were assessed. The results showed that performance differences in English and mathematics between subgroups of students did not depend on the program of instruction they were receiving. Moreover, it was found that the working-class and black students scored as well as the middle-class and white students on the French language tests. The results are discussed further in terms of the immersion students’ level of proficiency in French.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 179 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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