Abstract
This paper focuses on an early partial immersion programme in Australia, in which children study mathematics in French. Testing of children's ability in maths in both their first and second languages has been undertaken on a regular basis as part of a long-term evaluation of the immersion programme. In the first year of testing, 1995, there was no significant difference in results of students who took the test in English or French; however in 1996 a difference was revealed, with Grade 5 students taking the test in English doing significantly better than those who took the test in its French version. Item difficulty analyses were conducted to reveal the misfitting questions, and a content analysis was subsequently conducted on the aberrant items. The study reveals new information about children's reading processes in their second language and provides insights into the development of the students' language in a partial immersion programme. It also provides further evidence for transfer - bilingual children's ability to express knowledge learnt in one language in their other language.
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