DCHP-2

early immersion DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — Education, French relations

  a program in which English-speaking students are instructed in French in most subjects from the age of five or six.

  Type: 1. Origin — OED-3 defines immersion as a 'method or system of teaching (or learning) a foreign language in an environment where all communication is conducted in the language'. In Canada, the term almost always refers to the French language. The number of courses that must be taught in French varies by province and school board. In BC, for example, Kindergarten to Grade 3 classes are exclusively taught in French, with the percentage then dropping in subsequent years after Grade 3, ending at about 13% in Grade 12 (see VSB reference). This program complements the late immersion program, for which students may enroll in Grades 6 or 7 (COD-2, s.v. "late immersion"). Internet search results indicate that early immersion appears most frequently in Canada (see Chart 1).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "early immersion", which is marked "Cdn".

  See also: core French  French immersion  late immersion  

  • 1973  In the early immersion program, pupils have all instruction in French in kindergarten, Grade 1 and, in some schools, Grade 2. English is then introduced at 40 per cent in Grade 3 and continues at 60 per cent until Grade 11. 
  • 1974  Dr. Swain referred to the early immersion program at St. Lambert, Que., where by fifth grade it was noted that the children's "feelings towards French people have become decidedly more favorable. [...]"
  • 1978  Five schools now offer an early immersion program. 146 students participate in extended French classes - and the number of elementary students being exposed to minimal basic French has increased. 
  • 1986  She proposed phasing out the entire early immersion program, with the 1987 Grade 1 class being the last. 
  • 1990  Most early immersion students enter in kindergarten, which provides about 500 hours of exposure to the language. 
  • 2003  Within two or three years, the late French immersion students would be strong enough in French to join the early immersion stream, the Yukon branch of Canadian Parents for French (CPF) said in a statement. 
  • 2006  Ms. Adams would not give her opinion on which entry point she thinks could be eliminated, but did point out the overwhelming majority of children are in early immersion. 
  • 2007  "By the time they get to Grade 9 or 10, it is very hard for the teacher to distinguish between who was in early immersion and who was in late immersion," he said. 
  • 2008  The programs that will be researched are French immersion, both the bilingual and early immersion; delivery of special needs; and magnet programs like Sports Etudes that attract a lot of interest. 
  • 2015  Results for that first cohort weren't great: Among 438 early immersion students, only 42 per cent achieved the advanced proficiency level, the goal of the program. That's well off the provincial target of 85 per cent of students obtaining the advanced level.