Describing Students’ oral ability in intensive and regular ESL programs in Abitibi-Témiscamingue

Golestani, Pooneh (2019). Describing Students’ oral ability in intensive and regular ESL programs in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. (Rapport ). Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Repéré dans Depositum à https://depositum.uqat.ca/id/eprint/904

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Résumé

In the early 80s, research findings on the efficacy of the Intensive English Program (IEP) in Quebec, an alternative to the well-known language immersion programs in Canada, gave researchers, educators and policy-makers alike a glimpse of the success of such programs in the development of English as a second language (ESL) for students in cycle 3 of primary school. These findings showed that not only were students surpassing their peers in second language (L2) proficiency, they even outperformed their peers at the secondary level who had received the same number of hours of instruction in English (Spada & Lightbown, 1989). This means that regardless of the similarities in the type and hours of instruction received at the secondary level, students who received IE instruction in their primary years did better at the secondary level, when compared to students who received regular English instruction at the primary level. Furthermore, the students’ attitudes towards learning ESL were also very positive and posed no danger of diminishing the learning of their first language (L1) (Lightbown, 1991). The long-term effects of the intensive learning environment were also very positive (Lightbown & Spada, 1991).
The implementation of the IEP in Quebec has been met with many challenges. Although research in the areas of efficacy and implementation are numerous, there is less information on the implementation of the program in rural regions of Quebec, where the linguistic environment varies significantly from that of the research contexts previously studied. A recurring question about the program has been its relevance and ultimate efficacy in rural regions of Quebec, where little to no English is used outside the classroom (FSE, 2012; Lightbown, 2014). The current study explores the relationship between the availability of English outside the classroom and the development of oral ability among students in the Intensive English Program (IEP) in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The findings suggest that the oral ability gains of students in the IEP surpass those of their peers in the regular core program, despite minimal input and output opportunities for both groups in their L2 outside the classroom. Although the study did not make a comparison between the gains from students in urban regions, where opportunities for input and output are potentially higher than what the students in this study have experienced, the efficacy of intensive exposure to L2 in the context of IEP can still be recognized as significant.

Type de document:	Thèse ou mémoires (Rapport )
Directeur de mémoire/thèse:	Lira-Gonzales, Maria-Lourdes
Mots-clés libres:	Intensive English Program; Oral ability; Quebec; Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Divisions:	Éducation > Maîtrise en éducation
Date de dépôt:	27 févr. 2020 20:21
Dernière modification:	17 août 2020 12:30
URI:	https://depositum.uqat.ca/id/eprint/904

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