Way to be complete MORONS, NB government!

[yubsie]

Well, stormkpr, I think I've found something to blog about that totally pisses me off and makes me mad as hell.

MAUDIT TABERNAC! QUEL STUPIDITE! LE GOUVERNMENT EST FAIT DES FOUS!

Hmm, this got long... They scrapped Early Immersion.



Early French Immersion was the ONLY good thing in the entire New Brunswick education system, why did you SCRAP it? Are you TRYING to completely cripple the employment prospects of your children? Let's keep them from being bilingual! That will keep them from moving to Alberta so they can find work!

The reason Early Immersion works so brilliantly is that kids in grade one are still in the key phase of language acquisition! They're in the magic window that is the BEST time to introduce a second language! Kids who go through early immersion end up fluently bilingual. Complete with a proper accent! You can't hold off on immersion until grade six! When they mixed the entry points in grade nine, we went from reading books aimed at grade eight francophones to books that said "Easy Reader" on the cover and had footnotes explaining canard. CANARD! IT'S A FREAKING DUCK!

"When they have a good strong base in their first language, reading and math skills, and then you introduce that second language, they will make much better progress,'' he said.

You, sir, are WRONG. Languages are one of the things where it is CRITICAL to introduce them younger. They will make much better progress if they're at a stage of language development that facilitates it. Which is NOT grade six and it never WILL be. You're also ignoring the fact that the early immersion kids usually do BETTER on all the standardized tests than the core students. They're going to be learning to read either way, it doesn't matter if they're doing it in French or English. And when my sister struggled through learning to read, my mother was told to KEEP her in French because the early immersion classes had a much better basis in phonics.

The changes follow a controversial report that concluded 91 per cent of the roughly 1,500 New Brunswick children who started early immersion in 1995 dropped out of the program by the time they reached high school.

They drop out of the French Immersion program because scheduling is MORONIC and it's drop that or drop a course they need for university. But you know what? By the time they drop out of the program, they've been taking a vast majority of their classes in French for TEN YEARS. They are ALREADY BILLINGUAL.

As of 2006, less than one per cent of graduating students were proficient in speaking French.

This statistic is horribly skewed. If you were forced to drop out of the program (Because, oh, you had to drop grade twelve French language arts because it conflicted with the history class you needed to graduate, which oh yeah STILL only fit in your schedule if you took it IN FRENCH...), you aren't allowed to SIT THE TEST. Of course you're going to get low numbers graduating with the certificate if you don't let people who were forced out of the program TRY FOR IT. (Honestly! The only difference between me and someone who took grade twelve French Immersion language arts is that I didn't read Le Petit Prince!)

However, Fraser said he was pleased the government decided to maintain the target of 70 per cent of students being functionally bilingual by the time they graduate high school.

What the HELL? You get rid of the program that has the best chance of making them billingual and expect the number of billingual graduates to MAGICALLY increase? How's that supposed to happen? The Billingualism Fairy?

C'EST UNE PROVINCE BILLINGUE, TETES CARRES!

This, incidentally, confirms my desire to stay away from New Brunswick because I don't want to subject my children to this education system.

MANGE LA MERDE MONSIEUR LAMROCK! TU AS TUER LA SEUL BONNE CHOSE A PROPOS DE TA PROVINCE! ET OUI, J'AI ECRIVER TU ET PAS VOUS! TU N'EST PAS UN TU A MOI! JE N'AI PAS DU RESPET POUR TOI! POURQUOI AS TU PAS ECOUTER LES PERSONNES QUI DISAIENT QUE CECI EST UN IDEE TERRIBLE? PENSER DES ENFANTS! LES ENFANTS QUI DOIT TROUVER DU TRAVAIL DANS UNE PROVINCE BILLINGUE ET TU LES ARRETES D'ETRE BILLINGUE! COMMENT POUVE TU PENSER QUE CECI EST UNE BONNE IDEE?

Comments

[barbiejedi.livejournal.com]

As a language nerd whose main interest is child language acquisition, and one who is teaching English as a second language to pre-school and early elementary school kids... yes yes yes yes. A++++ post/rant will memory/ready again.

[yubsie]

And everyone who looks at language acquisition was TELLING them not to do this. And yet they don't listen. Sorry Mom, no regularly seeing your grandchildren for YOU. :p

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

J'aime bien cela! Pas le sentiment, bien sur, mais c'est amusant pour moi.

[yubsie]

J'essaie de faire ma colere amusant. :p

[lestack.livejournal.com]

... I know there's a lot of swearing ... :p and I see "think of the children" which makes me lol aside the swears :p

[yubsie]

Yep, lots of a swearing and demanding he think of the children. There's also a spiel about how oh yeah I SO called him "tu" because he doesn't deserve "vous". :p

[lestack.livejournal.com]

you badass! :p

Lol that reminds me of when my girlfriend says "I SO decaffed that asshole" because that's the worst thing a sbux barista can do to anyone :p

[yubsie]

Ooh, she's HARDCORE. :p

[carrole.livejournal.com]

I think I got the gist of your last paragraph--and you're right on.

I teach English, and part of learning to teach English is about early language acquisition, and how ESL students always do better to begin learning these other languages as children because of their developmental stages. You are so right.

[(Anonymous)]

I do notice an attitude difference between students who take early French Immersion and Core French. The EFI student seem to have positive attitude (or at least accept learning French). Core French students who start in grade four in Ontario come with negative attitudes. They already know from their parents that they will not become bilingual even if they complete grade 12 French.

The province can offer the grade five or six intensive French program. It will be difficult to change the attitudes in one year.

[yubsie]

The last paragraph that I can thank the Early Immersion program for being able to write? :p

And really, that makes a lot of sense. I want the Bilingualism Fairy to grant me the fifth language of Politician so I can try to get the point across to this guy. :p

[chibifrieza.livejournal.com]

I could read it! I could read it! XD Yay, Grade 12 French that I almost didn't take but decided was preferable to Calculus when I discovered I needed one or the other to qualify for a scholarship! :P It isn't that I didn't like French; I just liked my spare better....

Beautiful rant, anyway. I completely agree.

EDIT: Actually, grade 11 would probably have been sufficient to comprehend that, but you know what I mean. Anyway, it's been years. In fact, I dreamed the other night that I was trying to respond to someone in French, but all that was coming to mind was Japanese or German. ~_~

[yubsie]

You had the option of spares? I have so many classes that were "I needed a first period class, so it was this, fashion design, culinary tech or automotive tech." :P And meanwhile I was dropping classes I DID want because they conflicted with OTHER classes I wanted. :p

EDIT TO RESPOND TO EDIT!: In Japanese class I would go through this process where I'd try for Japanese and keep coming up German. French only comes up if I'm REALLY lost, because German I know isn't English but I have to THINK about it. French just comes out. :p

[chibifrieza.livejournal.com]

We did indeed. And I took as many as I could get away with, because most of my music was extracurricular so I figured I was doing enough. I think I graduated with exactly 100 credits (minimum requisite for high school diploma, with the maximum possible in Alberta being apparently 120), but ended up taking French the year after I graduated, kindasorta by correspondance, and challenging the diploma exam, because I took a year off between high school and university, which was great because I got to earn money and discover, in time to rectify it, that I couldn't get the Alexander Rutherford scholarship that honour roll students are pretty much guaranteed unless I had another course-worth of credit in either math, science or a language. So, since I already had Physics 30 and no other science prereqs, and I didn't feel like learning calculus, I figured I'd complete my high school French education. :P

Wow, epic run-on in there. Whoops?

RESPONDING TO YOUR EDIT-RESPONSE EDIT: Being fluent only in English, I went through that process three times. Latin wasn't too bad, but I hit German and the French kept popping up, and then there was Japanese and that was just a mess, and now if I've been mentally practising another language and then have to thank a cashier or bus driver or say a simple thing suddenly, I do a rapid mental cycle through four languages and sort of aim for the right one. ^_^'> I miss sometimes, but only around people I know (i.e., I get careless :P).

[yubsie]

We had to take a full course load unless we were in our fifth year of high school. Because of interesting timing, I graduated with more than the maximum number of possible credits. (They started letting us take one grade eleven course in grade ten when they switched to a five period day but didn't remember to adjust the numbers accordingly :p)

Math, science or language? One of these things is not like the others. :p

I had my BRILLIANT moment in German class where I remembered how bad I am at the names of numbers in any language, including English. I was reading "404" and said "Vier hundert und... quatre?" :p

[i-paint-the-sky.livejournal.com]

While I agree with pretty much all of this (and yes, the NB education system is definitely something you get angry about), they do have a SLIGHT point that you learn a second language better when you have a firm grasp of your first language. Concurrent bilinguals (those who learn two languages at the same time from birth) tend to, ON AVERAGE, have a lower fluency in either language in comparison to those who only speak the one language (so someone who learned French and English at the same time probably won't be as fluent in English as someone who learned English only as a first language). However, holding off to grade 6 does seem a bit extreme. I believe middle immersion starts in grade 3 or 4 in Ontario and I think that might be the ideal, because it allows students to fully master English first. Plus at this point the child can actually make a choice about whether they want to be in immersion or not.

Also when you learn two languages concurrently the knowledge of these languages is stored closer together in your brain. Just a random fact.

Also there is some evidence to suggest that learning languages later in life isn't as difficult in comparison to learning them while you are young, but it is easier to learn to speak a language with the proper accent when you are younger, so they sound more fluent. And probably would be more comfortable using French, because I know one of the things that always made me most uncomfortable with the language was having to speak it aloud.

So uh...in conclusion, I think they need to start immersion before grade 6, but not necessarily at grade 1.

[yubsie]

Well, starting n grade one isn't really concurrent since the kids will usually have been in an English only environment for six years already. I seem to remember reading that... eight or something was when the major change occurred? All the language experts are telling them this idea is rubbish, so I'm not sure why they're going ahead with it.

(And I've been reading about a lot of jealous younger siblings who were all excited about getting to do early immersion just like their older siblings, but now get to do this miserable excuse for a program instead.)

[i-paint-the-sky.livejournal.com]

Yes, but most won't have reading/writing skills until about grade 1 or so. And I believe the change is around the age puberty begins (this is the age where children who have not learned language will become unable to learn it). So middle immersion should work.

And late immersion does work too. It just takes more effort to keep up with it.

[yubsie]

Starting grade two or three would probably work. Grade six is way too late though. :p

Oh, it's not that late immersion doesn't work, since people DO learn second languages as adults. It's just a lot easier at a younger age. And in a bilingual province, it's important to give kids the best chance they can at learning both languages.

[seryan.livejournal.com]

Quote:

All the language experts are telling them this idea is rubbish, so I'm not sure why they're going ahead with it.

Money. Early Immersion costs it. They don't want to spend it. Within short order, I've no doubt the NB politicos will be voting themselves another raise.

[yubsie]

Oh, right. I'm sure there's some sort of equation involving money and stupidity. :p

[seryan.livejournal.com]

Hey, this is the province where they voted to cut hospital beds, then gave themselves a raise in the same session!

[yubsie]

Yeesh, can't they at least PRETEND to be sensical? :p