Speech profile of French immersion students in grades four, five and six in St. John's, Newfoundland

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the speech characteristics of French immersion students (FI) in the elementary grades to determine if there was a progression in the speech development of FI students from grades four to six and to see if a speech profile for each of grades four, five and six could be developed. The task was undertaken with a view to developing language descriptions to be used in evaluating the oral production of FI students in elementary school. -- The sample consisted of eighteen students, six from each of grades four, five and six, representing a range of achievement levels. The sample from each student was grouped according to its rating on eight categories described. The results of the comparisons of the speech samples indicated that there was no discernable progression from grades four to six nor could students be assigned a grade level from the quality of the speech samples. The only area in which a progression was observed was for the variety of vocabulary used.