The local chapter of Canadian Parents for French continued its efforts to raise the profile of French Immersion here by hosting a meeting last night for parents looking for more information about the benefits of the program.
Ted Karp, executive director of CPF Ontario, was the guest speaker. Two French Immersion students at Fort High also talked about their experiences in the program and the advantages it has afforded them.
“Through my experiences, the advantages to learning a second language are innumerable,” said Grade 12 student Chelsea Green. “They are what you make of them.”
Green last week took first place in the secondary French Immersion division at the Concours d’art oratoire, or French-speaking contest, in Emo. She also is a French tutor at the Fort Frances Public Library.
Aaron Petrin, another Grade 12 student, said he has been in the French Immersion program since senior kindergarten and is proud of his bilingualism.
“Having started in the program so young, it makes it easier to communicate comfortably when you’re older,” he noted.
Petrin recently travelled to France with a group of Fort High French Immersion students during the March Break.
“During the trip, I was especially grateful for what I had learned,” he said.
“Students in the immersion stream generally have a higher success rate [in school],” Green noted, adding they have more confidence because of their linguistic abilities.
A recent report from Statistics Canada confirms Green’s claim. The study showed 15-year-old students in French Immersion programs in Canada outperformed their non-immersion counterparts in reading skills in every province except Manitoba, where the two groups scored the same.
Karp talked about the history of bilingualism in Canada as well as the effect learning a second language can have on a young mind.
“In essence, it allows for a more open-minded approach to the world around us,” he said. “In most of the world, learning a second language is seen as an essential part of a quality education.”
In Canada, the ability to speak French is an important factor in getting a job. “Doors are going to be opened or closed as a result of the ability to function in both official languages,” Karp stressed.
The Northwest Catholic District School Board held a meeting at St. Michael’s School in early March to inform parents that the SK French Immersion program may have to be cancelled this September if enrolment numbers did not increase.
While the board since has voted to run the French SK program in the fall even with the current enrolment of 15 students (five below its minimum of 20), the local CPF is trying to boost the program’s profile to ensure it will continue to run here for years to come.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
