Early french immersion later on

This paper summarizes the results of the annual evaluations of an Early French Immersion program in the Carleton Board of Education and the Ottawa Board of Education. In Early French Immersion programs, unilingual English‐speaking children are initially instructed entirely in French. After several years of instruction in French, French and English are both used as languages of instruction. This paper presents in detail the results of an evaluation of this program at grades 6 and 8. The results show that in English language skills, and work‐study skills, the immersion students perform as well as, or better, than English program comparison groups; that in mathematics and science, the immersion students perform as well as their comparison groups; and that in French language skills, the immersion students’ performance is approaching or equivalent to that of native speakers of French in some tests of French. The value of long‐term evaluations in highlighting the cumulative benefits of bilingual education is noted.