French Immersion

Learning French, Canada’s other official language, is an important choice for your child’s education. For over 40 years, many Canadian children have enrolled in French Immersion programs in an effort to, not only learn French, but learn in French. There are many benefits second language learning can provide and research has yielded a variety of advantages. A second language can:

• increase your child’s thinking skills as he/she processes two languages rather than one
• broaden your child’s appreciation and understanding of another culture, as well as increase sensitivities to the differences between cultures
• encourage your child to become a more independent learner
• encourage your child to become a more self-disciplined learner
• enhance your child’s listening skills
• enhance your child’s concentration skills
• boost your child’s self-esteem
• make learning a third language easier
• increase your child’s opportunity for employment.

There are certain myths associated with learning in a second language and one of the greatest myths is that French Immersion students are weaker in English Language Arts than their English counterparts, thus making them less well-prepared for post-secondary education.

However, it has been proven over the decades that students in French Immersion programs out perform their English counterparts in all four aspects of English Language Arts (reading, writing, speaking, production).

From a very young age, French Immersion students learn to play with different language, which helps develop different parts of the brain. French Immersion students spend more hours in language instruction each year than students in English programs, thus giving them more opportunity to develop language skills.