Learning a second language improves a child's skills in all areas.

There are several benefits to enrolling your child in French immersion. Beyond making your child an engaged citizen of Canada by speaking both official languages, becoming fluent in a second language improves English language skills as well as mental agility and creative thinking.

In other words, learning French makes children better at math and sciences as well. The same areas of the brain that allow children to switch back and forth between 2 different languages also enhance abstract thought, mental manipulation and recognition of visual patterns. Learning a second language also promotes alternative views and creative problem solving.

French Immersion versus Core French

Immersion programmes produce better French speakers than other French options. The instruction is more intensive and children gain the skills faster to study other subjects in French. And with languages, like most things, the earlier the better. Early immersion programmes see much better results than middle or late immersion. Children's language acqusition brain activity peaks between the ages of 2 and 4. Most French immersion programmes begin in SK (age 5) when a child's ability to learn new languages has already waned.

Giles School students begin in an intensive French immersion programme at the Pre-K level (age 2.5).

Will French Immersion Put Your Child Behind In English?

The opposite is true. Studies show that while in the early grades, the written English language skills of French immersion students are behind that of unilingual English students, the lag disappears by the end of Grade 2. By Grade 5, French immersion students outperform English-only students in some aspects of English language skills. And by grade 6, immersion students clearly outperform English-only students in all skill areas.