Students' attitudes to the secondary French immersion curriculum in a Canadian context

This paper makes a contribution to the field of French immersion studies by examining student attitudes towards the secondary French immersion curriculum. Some of the students had made the decision to stay engaged with the programme while others had become disengaged from it. Drawing on the results of interviews with 23 students in a high school in Ottawa, Canada, the study reveals that the attitudes of engaged and disengaged students were informed by the everyday realities of their respective linguistic and academic situations. Students referred to their family backgrounds and interests in learning and using French inside and outside of school, to their learning styles, to the marks they obtained in school, and to their educational experiences. At times, engaged and disengaged students also shared overlapping attitudes, informed by factors such as language, class, culture and race. This paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of the study for the future curriculum development of French immersion programmes in Canada and in other countries.