The participation of multilingual children in minority language immersion programmes is under-researched internationally. The Republic of Ireland (RoI) has become a linguistically and culturally diverse society. In the RoI, parents have the opportunity to educate their child in English-medium or Irish-medium (IM) schools. However, the cohort of…

There have been many instances when parents have been advised by educational professionals against bilingualism or immersion education for their child with special educational needs (SEN). Some parents follow the advice given and decide to use only one language with their child, mainly the majority language of the community. This study…

The introduction of assessment orientated policy in 2016 marks a significant change in Scottish education as it will establish standardised national testing. Teachers in Gaelic medium education are well placed to offer insights as they have had considerable autonomy regarding assessment and this paper is the first to consider the impact of this…

This paper describes some of the findings emerging from a small-scale pilot study investigating the potential of a tablet app, "Our Story (Ar Stòiridh)," to enhance language-learning opportunities for children in Gaelic-medium preschool playrooms. The intervention drew on design-based research, a methodology for investigating the…

This paper looks at reading in French immersion and how learning French is seen more as a skill rather than a social practice that could be examined through a more critical lens. Most of the teachers often teach students how to read but rarely will they discuss the role of French in Canadian society and how this is manifested in the texts they…

Using an ecology of language framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which English as a medium of instruction (EMI) at a private university in eastern Ukraine allows for the use of Ukrainian, the state language, or Russian, the predominantly spoken language, in large cities in eastern Ukraine. Uses of English and Russian…

There is now consensus among researchers and educators that parental involvement in education is related to children's academic and social success at school. However, less is known about the reasons why some parents choose to become involved and others do not. In recent years, there has been a move towards developing theoretical models which can…

The aim of this study was to investigate vocabulary knowledge and growth across two different language-learning programmes in Hong Kong. The two programmes compared were English immersion programmes (IM) and regular English second-language programmes (RL2). While previous research has identified an overall advantage to IM with respect to language…

A central tenet of two-way immersion has been that the minority language children benefit from mother-tongue support in addition to instruction and interaction in the majority language (usually English) with their peers in high prestige programmes, while the English speakers gain valuable opportunities for peer interaction in their L2 with native…

In this paper, I first review previous research on the topic of safetalk. I then apply some of the insights derived from this discussion to a case study of the Luxembourgish primary school system. The study uses both ethnographic and discourse analysis, and focuses in particular on the role of French language varieties in a system that forces…

Focuses on an early partial immersion program in Australia, in which children study mathematics in French. Testing of childrens' mathematics ability in their first and second languages (L2) is part of a long-term evaluation of the immersion program. Reveals new information about children's reading processes in their L2 and provides insights into…

A recent survey of teachers in a French early partial immersion program revealed concerns for those who teach English as to whether an immersion program is suitable for all children. Teachers believed, among other things, that the problems of children who were learning English and French as second languages were compounded by the program.…

Extends the research on academic outcomes of second-language immersion schooling by comparing children's early experiences in and understanding of regular and French-immersion kindergartners through script analysis. Sixty-four female and 56 male kindergarten children were asked to tell about kindergarten from the time they got to school until the…

This paper presents a study on thinking and learning processes of mathematics and science in teaching through a foreign language, in Finland. The entity of thinking and content learning processes is, in this study, considered as cognitional development. Teaching through a foreign language is here called Content and Language Integrated Learning or…

Reports results of a study conducted with learners of Chinese who were involved in a late immersion program in a graduate school of education in Australia. The aim of the project was to explore the depths of learners' experiences of learning Chinese in an immersion setting. (Author/JL)