This study investigates modality in textbooks designed for learners of English by exploring the frequency and distribution of modal verbs in two corpora--one of authentic native-speaker language and a pedagogical one used by francophone learners of English in Quebec--with a view to identifying areas where added support for learning may be…

Second language (L2) learning is widely acknowledged as complex due to variables such as learner, context, and target language. Such variables are particularly relevant to the learning of immigrant or indigenous languages in countries such as Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. The motivational roles of such variables are considered…

This article examines the salience and content of representations of language education in a corpus of English- and French-Canadian newspapers. Findings suggest that English-Canadian newspapers foreground official-language education issues, in which public schools are represented as the primary means by which Canadians can gain equal access to…

This study reports on a year-long intervention based on comprehension practice of input-rich materials. It was inspired by an innovative program in Canada in which primary school francophone children learned English as a second language (ESL) through simultaneous reading and listening. In our study the participants are a class of 10- to…

This article describes a collaborative research project with four Quebec college teachers offering French and ESL classes designed to support immigrant students' bilingual learning. Using action research, a professional learning community was created that allowed the researcher and teacher participants, through cycles of planning, action, and…

Research on third-language learning (L3) has documented that plurilingualism is an asset in many respects. Particularly relevant for this study is research showing that L3 learners use more strategies more frequently and efficiently than L2 learners. However, previous studies have mainly concentrated on L3 learners' strategy use at the university…

Grounded in the cross-linguistic influence(s) (CLI) literature, this study used objective measures to compare the use of English, lexical richness and syntactic complexity, and grammatical accuracy and fluency in the texts of three groups of Grade 6 French immersion students: Canadian-born anglophones (C-A), Canadian-born multilinguals (C-M), and…

Due to the growing number of plurilingual learners in the world today (Hammarberg, 2010), the present multiple case study examines four plurilingual participants' beliefs toward first language (L1) and second language (L2) mediation in the acquisition of French as a third language (L3). During a 16-week classroom-based study in a French university…

This article examines how a second language (L2) dialect affects how accurately the L2 is perceived and produced. Specifically, the study examined differences between the production and perception of French vowels /i/, /y/, and /u/ by learners of either Quebec French (QF) or European French (EF). These vowels differ across the two varieties, both…

Represents a comparative analysis of the instructional policies for heritage language programs in Ontario and Quebec. It is concluded that the differences in the programs reflect a distinct difference between the two provinces with relation to interethnic relations. (VWL)

The delivery of French immersion programs in Canada is discussed in terms of whether an immersion program in lower, middle, or upper grades is the most effective. (three references) (Author/LB)

Reviews three European corpus comparison studies and their findings are replicated with a corpus of Quebec learners writing. Pedagogical implications are proposed. (Author/VWL)

Contrastive analysis has an important role to play in the contemporary second-language classroom. It will move more and more into a domain of analysis that will focus on the underlying conceptual systems of the native language and target language. (Contains 48 references.) (LB)

A comparison of core French curriculum guides for Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick reveals emerging trends in objectives, program structure, and methodology and a sense of consensus on French language instruction curriculum guide content. Findings may be of special interest in light of the proposed framework for a national…

A study compared student performance on oral and written French translation tasks by students exposed to either a related written text or a related tape recording. The written task was completed comparably by both groups, but the oral task was performed better by those having aural/oral instruction. (Author/MSE)