Immersion plan pan
Published Thursday August 7th, 2008
Education Former lieutenant-governors say province isn't starting second-language training early enough
FREDERICTON - Former lieutenant-governor Margaret Norrie McCain believes New Brunswick should have abolished French immersion and replaced it with a universal system of "enriched, extended" French for all children.
McCain is an expert on early childhood development and is advising the province's cabinet committee on designing a system of specialized sites that will offer a wide range of integrated services to children and parents.
"I supported the government's plan and I would have abolished the French immersion altogether, because I think there are better ways of acquiring second-language proficiency," McCain said in an interview.
"The science of language acquisition shows us that the best time for it to happen is when the brain is malleable and developing the language function is between six months and two years."
McCain said her quarrel with the French immersion program is that it creates an elitist system that funnels the best students to one stream and leaving behind classrooms that have a difficult time achieving high standards.
The Liberal government rolled out its new plan for French second-language education on Tuesday. The program will have a universal kindergarten to Grade 2 system that introduces French in separate modules focused on art, songs and games. Immersion will begin in Grade 3 and students don't enter the program will be required to take an intensive French course by Grade 5.
The department is keeping Grade 6 late immersion and allowing any student who achieves an intermediate level of French after Grade 10 to take French courses in their final two years of high school.
The revised plan was a result of a public furor caused by parents of immersion students who protested the government's original intention to set back to Grade 5 the beginning of immersion instruction in New Brunswick schools. The heart of the issue was the lack of public consultation conducted by the Department of Education on the change. Parents sought a court ruling and won, forcing the government seek public input before it released its current program.
McCain called the policy change "a concession to the parents who were very loudly protesting."
She said her preferred option would be language teaching that would be available to each child.
"Every child, not just 20 per cent (in immersion), get enriched, extended core French across the board," McCain said.
McCain is helping the province devise a system of integrated early childhood development centres. The Department of Social Development has $400,000 set aside this year to set up four of these centres.
McCain said she hopes these centres will eventually be set up so two-year-olds will be able to start second language education there.
"If the centres get rolled out to the two-year-old level, that is where the centres will be the most effective," she said. "When you introduce the language there, that is when you will have much more language proficiency there."
The province's education minister said he couldn't develop his new system around the concept of the early childhood centres.
"At this point we're talking about four or five pilot sites, and I would not be building a universal education system around what will be very meritorious projects, but are not yet universal curriculum," Lamrock said.
New Brunswick Senator Marilyn Trenholme Counsell, also a former lieutenant-governor, said she too believes these early childhood centres should be teaching a second language.
But she also stresses the importance that parents can play in raising bilingual children.
"I think the parents should be introducing both languages before (the children) get to kindergarten," Trenholme Counsell said. "This could be the beginning to a more significant and much greater movement in New Brunswick in terms of raising a new generation of bilingual New Brunswickers."
Trenholme Counsell differs from McCain in that she opposed the government's first model for second-language instruction. She said she informed the Liberal government of her displeasure, so she is heartened by the reformed plan.
"I think they have been responsive to the people. I think they have reached a very fair compromise, we will only know in a few years if it is working," she said. "I'm very satisfied that they will have more testing because there hasn't been nearly enough testing or rigor in the system."
As the province's lieutenant-governor, Trenholme Counsell spent much of her time focusing on literacy issues.
So when it comes to raising generations of bilingual children, she said it is crucial to start early.
"This can be helpful because we know the more you expand the brain the more you stimulate the neurons in a child's brain the more capable they are in learning anything," she said.
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My friends daughter was in grade 1 EFI this past year. She is lefthanded, so when she learned to write, she wrote perfectly....except backwards which some children who are left handed do. Her teacher called the parents in for a meeting and suggested that they should remove her from EFI and put her into Core as she would need attention to correct her writing. Apparently, there are resource teachers available to Gr 1 Core students, that are not available to Gr 1 EFI student.
As a teacher in the EFI classroom, it must be so frustrating that the only answer you can give a struggling student is to switch to Core because you haven't the resources to support them in EFI.
So respectlfully Ms. McCain et al. - do not get caught up in the gov'ts rhetoric. Dig a bit deeper.
The answer to alot of NB's problems would be to put kids in school at age 3 - have it all publicly funded, teach a second language. There would be less daycare costs. More mothers would work and then pay more taxes. Kids developmental issues could be dealt with earlier. And folks would flock to New Brunswick so their kids could be a part of this program.
Unfortunately this gov't doesn't like listening to real change....and aren't interested in true self-sufficiency.
- There are indeed resource issues in schools
- This would lead to an argument as suggested to start kids
earlier. . . but what then would they risk missing out on / not learning at home? What would that policy say about how we feel about family's role in childhood development? Without assuming I know the answers, why do we want kids to learn French? Are we prepared to do a cost benefit of starting kids early? Are we prepared to see v. different values and beliefs arise, and deal with the streaming that would inevitably result due to differing view points?
This INFURIATES me. And the extended attitudes of those like Smalltown, above, just go to prove that this province is focused on the forcing of french at any expense. Including the elimination of English.
Picture what would happen politically if somebody said, "100% of students should take English only". What do you think would happen?
This is NOT Quebec. If you want everyone to take french, move your butt to Quebec and stop trying to ram it down my throat and my kids' throats!
Here's an idea. Eliminate french completely, teach everyone in English only with 1 french class per day, and take all the money being wasted on bilingualism and reallocate it to health care.
One major problem with the universal K-2 French programs is that they will be delivered in large part by Teachers with little or no training in French. Obviously, there will be Teacher discrepancies from one classroom to the next.
How will a child benefit, for instance, from learning a song in French if the Teacher is not equiped to elaborate on what is being learnt beyond the lyrics and perhaps the basic meaning?
Obviously, most Teachers will have no choice but to find ways to cope with the demands. I say 'most' because this mess will no doubt only increase the numbers of New Teacher recruits who leave the profession, in dismay.
How will young early learners benefit from the linguistic mess the government plans to heap down their throats?
Well, the outcome to that will most likely be streaming.
Goodbye, Liberals!
I would love to have such a program available for my 2-year old, but how would this be any less elitist than EFI?
Which parents would take advantage of these centres for two-year olds? Middle and upper class educated parents who are eager to have their kids learn French. And which ones will be able to take their 2-year olds to these centres? The ones with a stay at home parent or nanny. These sound a lot like the same families who now choose EFI.