Merrill Swain

Evaluating Bilingual Education Merrill Swain

This book challenges the popular assumption that scholarly research is generally inaccessible to the lay reader. Evaluating Bilingual Education: A Canadian Case Study was written as a synthesis and overview of a number of evaluations of French immersion programs in Canada. It is a non-technical yet thorough description of Canadian research in this area, intended not only for researchers, but also for parents, educators and policy makers. Details are provided on the salient features of immersion programs in Canada, the instructional approach used, and the academic, linguistic, social and psychologucal outcomes associated with these programs. This in-depth description of one approach to bilingual education - immersion - permits the reader to determine its relevance to his/her own particular socio-political context and educational setting.