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Mixing Beginners and Native Speakers in Minority Language Immersion: Who is Immersing Whom?
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File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Hickey_Immersion_01.pdf | 298.71 KB |
Author(s)
Date Issued
March 2001
Date Available
18T16:49:08Z April 2013
Abstract
The mixing of L1 speakers with L2 learners occurs regularly in immersion situations where a minority language is the target language. This study looks at early immersion in Irish among children from diverse language backgrounds. It examines the children's frequency of target language use and the effect of the group's linguistic mix on that use. A sample of 60 children from different language backgrounds was drawn from pre-school classes with different compositions of children from Irish-only, Irish-English, and English-only homes. The results showed relatively low levels of target language use even by the native speakers. The linguistic composition of the group significantly affected the frequency of target language use by the L1 children and the children from bilingual homes but had less effect on the use by English speakers. The importance of addressing the needs of native speakers as well as those of beginners in such immersion situations is explored, and the implications for teacher training and teaching strategies are considered.
Type of Material
Journal Article
Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Journal
The Canadian Modern Language Review
Volume
57
Issue
3
Start Page
443
End Page
474
Copyright (Published Version)
2001, University of Toronto Press
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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