02/03/10

The Roots of French Immersion in Canada:

In 1965, after a two-year struggle, a small group of Anglophone parents from St. Lambert Quebec won approval from the local school board to initiate a novel educational program.  The parents envisioned a program that would provide their children with an improved opportunity to learn French than was currently being offered to most Anglophone children in Quebec’s public schools.  These12 parents believed children could best learn French in an immersion setting in which the classroom and the teacher would become the mediums through which the French language, culture and heritage would be learned.  The parents, also known as the St. Lambert Bilingual Study Group, thus began a French immersion kindergarten.  Recognizing this undertaking as unique, the parents agreed to have their pilot project studied.

So encouraging were the results of the studies released in 1969, that parents from other provinces were clamouring to have French immersion made available for their children.  Within 10 years, French immersion was offered throughout Canada.  Canada set the standard for immersion education and still today, countries around the world look to Canada for help in establishing their own language immersion programs.  What began as a dream of 12 parents has become a worldwide phenomenon.  In Canada alone, French immersion has grown from attracting approximately 30 students to more than 316,000.