How does a child learn French in an Immersion Program?
Children in immersion programs learn French very much the same way they have learned their mother language; through observation, listening, repetition, and mimicking gestures and sounds. First, the children associate words with their meanings. Very shortly, they repeat words, phrases and sentences, and eventually they communicate in French. Their exposure to French will be immediate in that, as of the first day of school, all staff at L’Ecole Française du Maine will express themselves solely in French. Comprehension comes first. We observe our youngest students in “la Maternelle” are able to understand key phrases almost immediately and they quickly begin to intersperse French and English words. (For example: “I am going to the “toilette” after I put away my “cahier”). The frequency of the French word use increases over time and eventually the students use French primarily. By the time they reach the elementary grades, the children are then expected to converse amongst themselves and a
