After immersion: Maintaining the momentum

Abstract

Surveys of recent graduates of French immersion programmes in Canada have found relatively few of them making substantial use of French in the years immediately following their schooling. What factors appear to be influencing this phenomenon? Do these young adults risk losing the second language skills that they have invested so much time in developing over their school careers? What advice can one give to those who wish to maintain their skills but have so far found little opportunity to do so? In this paper, these questions are considered in the light of the views of the immersion graduates themselves, the literature on second language retention, and some case studies of adult Canadians who have been engaged in maintaining or improving the French skills they first learned at school.