Nina Spada

An Innovative Program for Primary ESL Students in Quebec

An innovative intensive ESL program in Quebec is the focus of this article. As a background to the presentation of research carried out within this program, the context and conditions of ESL teaching in Quebecs French-language schools are briefly described. In these schools, where all subject matter instruction is normally provided in French, the program gives some students in Grade 5 or Grade 6 access to intensive instruction in ESL. For 5 months of 1 school year, the students spend virtually full school days engaged in English language activities. They do not receive subject matter instruction through English but participate in communicative activities and projects whose goal is to develop their ability to understand and speak English. This article reports on the findings of some research in these intensive ESL classes: descriptive studies of patterns of classroom interaction and instruction, the development of fluency and accuracy in learner language, and the long-term effects of the program. In addition, experimental studies have explored the effects of introducing some greater focus on form within or in addition to the communicative activities typical of most of the classes.

Time and the Distribution of Time in L2 Instruction

LAURA COLLINSUniversity of VictoriaRANDALL H. HALTERConcordia UniversityPATSY M. LIGHTBOWNConcordia UniversityNINA SPADAMcGill UniversityIn the French primary schools of Quebec, increased popularity inexperimental programs that provide young Francophone learners withintensive ESL instruction has been accompanied by increased variationin the way the instructional time is distributed. In a massed program,students complete the regular curriculum in French in 5 months andspend the remaining months learning English. In a distributed pro-gram, the intensive ESL instruction is spread across the full 10 monthsof the school year.Within the cognitive psychology and general education literature,there is substantial evidence in favour of distributed over massedpractice. There has been less research in the language programevaluation literature contrasting the learning outcomes of studentsreceiving similar amounts of L2 exposure in different distributions, butthe findings suggest an advantage for massed learning. The presentstudy compared the learning outcomes in two versions of the massedprogram and one version of the distributed program of students of thesame age and L1, with similar amounts of prior exposure to English.Pretest and posttest measures from 700 students revealed superioroutcomes for the massed learning conditions. The interpretation of thefindings takes into account selection criteria, overall instructional time,and instructional practices in the different ESL programs.

Macroscopic and Microscopic Views of L2 Classrooms

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