Evaluating Bilingual Education: A Canadian Case Study (Multilingual Matters) - Hardcover

This book challenges the popular assumption that scholarly research is generally inaccessible to the lay reader. Evaluating Bilingual Education: A Canadian Case Study was written as a synthesis and overview of a number of evaluations of French immersion programs in Canada. It is a non-technical yet thorough description of Canadian research in this area, intended not only for researchers, but also for parents, educators and policy makers. Details are provided on the salient features of immersion programs in Canada, the instructional approach used, and the academic, linguistic, social and psychologucal outcomes associated with these programs. This in-depth description of one approach to bilingual education - immersion - permits the reader to determine its relevance to his/her own particular socio-political context and educational setting.

The authors, each from a different background, share a passion for sociocultural theory. Each author brings stories, data and experiences from her area of expertise: second language pedagogy and teacher development (Linda); elementary classroom teaching with second language and bilingual students (Penny) and teaching and research in bilingual education and second language learning (Merrill). Merrill Swain is Professor in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Sharon Lapkin is Professor Emerita at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her research has centred on French second language education in studies ranging from large-scale program evaluations to qualitative studies of language learning in progress. She served for close to ten years as co-editor of the Canadian Modern Language Review and is currently a Director of Canadian Parents for French, a not-for-profit promoting opportunities for Canadian youth to learn and use French.