Lisa Gardiner Hannah ‘Scruton Frank Gration Be Wilf Geier “Knowing both languages has opened many doors for me; doors of opportunity and doors of the mind. There’s an | interesting and exciting world out there, waiting for those | who are ready to reach.” MARC GARNEAU, Canadian Astronaut - Charlotte Jordan _Kiti Shan. Primary School 635-3115. Financial Support by the Local Chapter We were able to donate almost $26,000.00 to the schools and community with the proceeds of our sales of French dictionaries and verb books, music cas- settes, t-shirts and our bingo. Our main goal is to. provi le | and printer is to provide fa meee vith their extra French [iibasaad ame resource dol- resource mate- fMN=t lars. We, CPF rial in the gave them a schaois.... We performa 5200 - give each of C.D. computer the following im including a schools; Kiti package of 10 K’Shan, Cassie Hall, Skeena Junior and Caledonia a total figure to use for purchasing resources. The teachers including Learning Resource and Librarians decide what are the most important items for their school. We also give money to the Public Library, Holly Nguyen, the children’s librarian and a past Immersion — student, Our main goal purchases items she deems necessary for the French collection. This year Kiti K'’Shan decided to purchase a Performa 580 C.D. computer software programmes. The total donated was over $5000.00. Cassie Hall decided to divide the total amongst ithe teachers. The bulk of the purchases were class sets of novels and resource books for the science and social studies curricufum. We gave them a Performa 5200 C.D. computer which came with the software package as well. The total donated was over $5000.00. Skeena Junior pur- chased a computer and we gave them a Performa 5200 C.D. computer with the software package too. The total donated was over $5000.00. Caledonia - purchased film strips as supplementa- ry resource for a required novel, video grammar ser- ies, video camera and an assortment of novels and language resource books. The total donated was $1500.00. We donate $4000.00 annually for scholarships. This is given out to & deserving students in French Immersion and in Core French 12. We provide. air fare for the finalists from grades 6- 12 to go to Vancouver for the public speaking compe-- tition (Concours d'art ora- toire) and for a cultural weekend for two grade 8 © students. We try to add the cul- tural component by pravid- ing funds for French perfor- mances and offering pro- grammes for students and their parents in French. This year Cassie Hall's Library is piloting an auto- mated computer program- me for users similar to the Public Library. We have donated up to $3000.00 for this project. Plus we will have a Work Bee to apply protective tape over the Why is Immersion in French? by André Obadia Why French some may -ask? Why not Chinese ‘which is spoken by over a “billion people? or Japanese? It is important to remind ourselves __ that French is spoken by about 120 million people, 90 mil- lion of whom speak it as a mother tongue or as a second or official language. What makes a language a ‘world’ language or. an ‘in- ternational’ language is the geographical spread that it has on the planet. French is spoken in all five continents and it is a language shared by 45 countries which form La Francophonie, a sort of French Commonwealth. Although Chinese is the most spoken language in the world, it is limited almost exclusively to China; Hindi, spoken by about 300 million people is limited to mast parts of India; Spanish about 225 million people in Spain, Central and South America, the south of the U.S. and New York, etc. In terms of ‘international expansion’ English is the only language that surpass- es French. It is obvious that by learning French and English, which contains about 100,000 words of French origin, we are giving Canadian children = an opportunity to master two world languages. French also enjoys a certain traditional prestige in the world. It is not just associated with freedom computerized scanner labels, and democracy, science, philosophy, literature, fine aris, etc. it is also an official language of world organiza- tions. It is estimated that about 35 percent of United Nations employees speak French. One, of course, cannot forget the history of Canada and {ts French population, Active French communities are present in all ten pro- vinces, the Yukon and Northwest Territories. i ls French immersion Worth it? by Catherine Hembling Do you ever wonder if French immersion is worth all « Reading capabilities, especially for instructions. e Writing skills for reports, technical publications and . the effort? Read on! ' Ruth Emergy, former Senior Economist with the ' Federal Government, spoke to teachers on a Pro-D day ‘ about ‘The Labour Market of the Future’..She said that ; according to studies, the following are the attributes ‘ Canadian employers in middle-sized and small business- ‘es are looking for. in entry level employees. '® Efficient oral communication skills, for both listening and sveakina: focused and varied. publicity. « Thinking skills, common sense, logic for problem solving. * Organizational skills for doing overlapping activities. 2 Learning skills for learning from others as well as knowing where to find information. — * Math skills - technical and basic. . * Information technology skills to produce written mate- rial and.to access information from networks. : Registration, is on going. Kindergarten and Grade 1 The Terrace Standard. Wednesday, June 12, 1946 - AZ Steve Melton Renée Mitchell Amy Pa mneliJones with the same letter, and at | leaving off the initial sound of § ‘sounds in languages. In first § 5-6 years, The Benefits of Being Bilingual “Parents Magazine, May 1996” Although it might seem that teaching a child:how to speak a second language could compromise their proficiency in English, the opposite may in fact be true, a recent. study from McGill University, | Montreal has found: “Fesearctiers. tested J kinddigartners'a ‘and’ a'tirst- tgrad ers enrolled in‘ both regular and French Immersion: schools.. In kindergarten, the bilingual students were shown to be better at’ identifying rhymes and words that started ‘This skill i is : -particula ry . helpful for ~ children: : a- word--probably because the French. speakers were more sensitive to the different x ne grade, they were more adept a - at identifying the syllables in" words, since syllables are more prominent in French than they are in English. This skill is particularly help- ful for children when they are learning how to read. A bilingual child’s linguistic skills improve in gen- eral. because the second language - provides a basis for comparison that monolingual students don't have, -according to researcher Fred Genesee, Ph.D., a pro- fessor of psychology. A child. also becomes more aware of the fact that language is a formal system with specific grammatical rules. However, chiidren reap significant benefits only when they are fluent in another language, rather than from just knowing a few foreign words, according tt to Genesee. i “Personal management skills": focus, determination, flexibility, tact and stress management. Team work skills for fitting quickly into a project environment: ‘Knowledge of another language, with responsiveness to cultural diversity. Ms. Emery’s sketch of today’s economy outlined three drivers: demographic change, technology and the global- ization of Canadian trade. In the context of workers in a global-economy, French immersion students have some ‘Teal advantages: the ability to communicate in another language, the development of their neurological capacity for other language learning, overcoming the fear of making mistakes that many unilingual adults feel, experience of another culture. Worthy, practical and solid reasons to have your: child in French immersion. a