Help for immersion?

[mommy4ever]

Hi there,

My dd11 has recently come home from ps. She has been in the immersion program since preschool. She speaks quite well in french, however when it comes time to work in french, she doesn't seem to have any real knowledge of french. She didn't even know what 'Mets les phrases a la forme interrogative.' or 'point d'interrogation' was. I also asked her if she know what 'virgule' was. She said she'd heard of it, but didn't know what it was.

I am completely floored by the lack of teaching that has occurred.

What can I use to help her? I'd say catch up, but now that we're home, that's irrelevant.

I'm ready to dump the french immersion altogether, as there are massive gaps, then simply do french as a second language, and start over.

I don't think the pages should be too hard, they are grade 4/5 immersion.

I don't know how much remedial work I can do, before I am simply starting over.

[CleoQc]

It seems to me that your problem is twofold.

On one hand, she does speak French quite well, so there was some learning that occured.
On the other hand, she does not have any formal grammar down. She was taught like most kids in immersion programs, via oral methods, like a child learning his/her own language.

She probably does not need a 'French as a second language' approach, if she speaks it already. What she does need is formal grammar.

I would recommend something like:
http://www.bescherelle.com/cat_fiche.php?id_article=267852

[mommy4ever]

Hi Cleo,

That is weird as I went through immersion until grade 6, in grade 6 we were merged with and to the horror of the francophone students and then transferred to the francophone program with no hitches. She'd be lost in a francophone program.

But it doesn't surprise me....

I keep hearing that the curriculum is so much better than when we were kids... however, I'm continuously finding more and more that she hasn't learned.

[CleoQc]

I can only compare to the immersion programs around me, right now. I wasn't aware of any such programs when I was a kid...

[Nan in Mass]

Is it a translation problem? Mine understands many things in context that he can't translate when asked out of context. He'll read a paragraph and understand it, but if I ask what specific words mean, he often can't tell me. It seems like translation is almost a different skill.

On the other hand, it could be a grammar problem. Mine learned his French informally, by immersion, and now is having a terrible time learning to write because he knows very little French grammar. I am not unhappy with what we did, since my son can actually use his French in a way that I couldn't my school French, but it does make a rather weird situation now.

[mommy4ever]

I grew up in a bilingual community. We had lots of people come from Quebec in the 40-60's so there was 3 program. Francophone, french immersion and English with french as second language. It started in 1974-76. I went to school starting in 1979.

So I have a reference to what it was, and am extremely disappointed in what it is today, at least in the school system we're in.

She knows most of the vocabulary, she has a pretty sound basic vocabulary, and the words she doesn't know, tend to be the same I don't. Typically it has to do with new technology or with slang. She speaks decently overall but when it comes to basic grammar, it's a different story, although the grammar issues does appear in her spoken language to some extent, not as bad as the older daughter(13) who you can tell is thinking in English and trying to translate directly, and it doesn't work that way.

I am looking to see what there is for french grammar out there, that is at an immersion level, not a francophone, if that is possible :lol: I got one workbook, where the grade 1 vocabulary had me thinking pretty hard, as it was French as a first language..lol

[CleoQc]

If you go here
http://www.guerin-editeur.qc.ca/Default.aspx
and do a search on FL2
you will find some resources. I am not familiar with any of them (I don't need French immersion). Maybe you can call them?

Good luck!

[mommy4ever]

Thanks Cleo.

Any suggestions for a 6yo starting french? Well, sorta starting, she was in ps in french immersion for K and 7 mo of grade1.

[JessiKKa]

French isn't easy.
Have you tried "Assimil French with ease" (or something along those lines) ?
It's a great book that requires 15/20 min each day.
You can make a lot of progress in reading comprehension.

[CleoQc]

I like assimil :-)
obviously I never tried French with ease but % have experience with German and spoken Latin. Enjoyed both of them