Abstract
This study examined the oral language skills of grade-two anglophone children enrolled in French Immersion and English-stream programs. The study had two objectives: (a) to compare performance between the groups on measures of receptive vocabulary, narrative comprehension, and narrative production (i.e., structure and language) in English, and (b) to explore the applicability of the Canadian Language Benchmarks/Niveaux de compétences linguistiques canadiens (CLB/NCLC) to assessment of their conversational competency. All children (English-stream n = 27, French Immersion n = 33, aged 7-8 years) were tested in English. In addition, the French Immersion students were tested using equivalent measures in French. The results comparing performance in English revealed no differences between the groups on receptive vocabulary, narrative comprehension and narrative structure. However, the English-stream children outperformed their French Immersion peers in narrative language. Furthermore, CLB/NCLC listening and speaking criteria were applied to conversational samples yielding level scores in English (both groups) and French (French Immersion only). The range of benchmarks that are appropriate for this population is discussed in detail.
Highlights
This study examined the oral language skills of grade-two anglophone children enrolled in French Immersion and English-stream programs
We investigated benchmark levels achieved in conversational competency in English in nativeEnglish speaking students in French Immersion and English-stream classrooms as a means of qualitatively assessing the adaptability of the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB)/NCLC to these two populations
We compared the English performance of the two groups on receptive vocabulary and narrative comprehension and production
Summary
This study examined the oral language skills of grade-two anglophone children enrolled in French Immersion and English-stream programs. The study had two objectives: (a) to compare performance between the groups on measures of receptive vocabulary, narrative comprehension, and narrative production (i.e., structure and language) in English, and (b) to explore the applicability of the Canadian Language Benchmarks/Niveaux de compétences linguistiques canadiens (CLB/NCLC) to assessment of their conversational competency. The current study, was guided by two objectives: 1) to compare the outcomes of French Immersion and English-stream students in grade two on measures of English vocabulary and narrative competence; and 2) to investigate whether the Canadian Language Benchmarks/Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (CLB/NCLC) criteria in English and French can be adapted to monolingual English and emergent English-French bilingual students in the early elementary grades
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