Few studies have examined willingness to communicate (WtC) changes resulting from short-term intensive immersion programmes. This study investigated the antecedents to and changes in WtC during one such programme held at a Macau university. The programme required students to reside on campus and participate in extensive task-based communicative…

Students seeking to study abroad are increasingly able to select their preferred level of immersion in such areas as program duration, similarity of classmates, language of instruction, and housing environment. As researchers endeavor to understand the relative contribution of these decisions to intercultural learning outcomes, information is…

Early English immersion in China has been studied from many angles, but no research to date has investigated affective variables, which may have a profound relevance to successful English acquisition. The present study examines the roles of motivation, attitudes towards learning English, willingness to communicate, perceived competence, language…

This study examined the factors that best predict which elementary school children will transfer out of a French immersion program. Learner characteristics, teacher and parent evaluations, and family background were examined. Analyses suggest that attitudinal and motivational factors are of primary importance to the continuation of second-language…

A two-year study of "Learning Disabilities Found in Association with French Immersion Programming" indicated that children who encounter difficulty in primary French immersion programs may have a specific learning disability characterized by a maturational lag in the temporal lobe regions of the brain. In addition, it was found that…