In this three-part series on bilingualism, Fabrice Jaumont, educator and author of The Bilingual Revolution: The Future of Education is in Two Languages, looks back over the creation of the first French-English dual-language classes in New York. In April 2006, three determined mothers burst into the office of Giselle Gault-McGee, the principal of the P.S. 58 elementary school in the...
The French-American School of Tampa Bay will open on September 12 on the west coast of Florida. The region’s first French immersion school will teach students from kindergarten through fifth grade. The school’s founder Willy LeBihan is still surprised. “The Tampa area is going through an incredible economic boom and attracting increasing numbers of Francophones, but the nearest French schools...
In the last step of a process which started more than a year ago, the Louisiana Board of Regents met in Baton Rouge on Wednesday, August 22, and allocated the funding required to create a Master’s degree in elementary French immersion education. A first class of ten students will begin the course at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in...
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the state’s Department of Education have approved the creation of a Master's degree in elementary French immersion education. A first class of between five and ten students will begin the course in May 2019. The Louisiana Board of Regents will meet in Baton Rouge on August 22 to allocate the funding required to...
The California Department of Education has announced the creation of 1,200 dual-language programs in public schools over the next 12 years. But some critics say this initiative doesn’t go far enough. California has a population of 40 million people but only seven French-English bilingual public schools. The state intends to make up for this shortcoming through the Global California 2030...
This week-end, Americans will be celebrating Bastille Day by eating crêpes and drinking wine and cheering on the French team in the World Cup final. Foreign language advocate and devoted Francophile Kathleen Stein-Smith takes a look at the influence and impact of French language and culture in the United States. It is possible sit in a café, to have a macaron...
Two dual-language French-English classes are set to open next August at Whitney Young Elementary, a public school in Louisville, Kentucky. The school sees the classes as a chance to help its underprivileged students. The dual-language French-English immersion program was approved in a four-to-one vote by the parent-teacher council at Whitney Young Elementary School on February 27, 2018. "It’s a wonderful...
Fabrice Jaumont has a vision. By the year 2050, the Education Attaché at the French Embassy in New York hopes to have introduced a dual-language program into every school in America. Utah already has one in five schools organized in this way, and French is one of the languages of choice. In fact, with more than 160 bilingual options in...
The school will be opening its doors for the first time on August 21, offering an additional option for the increasing number of Francophone families in Houston. The corridors are freshly painted, the floor has been laid, and the furniture is all in place in the classrooms. The Lycée International de Houston was inaugurated on July 14, 2017, and is...
Two French-English bilingual classes will open next August at the Pasadena, California, school district. In a state where public schools are rare, this free program is quick to seduce parents. Gary Prézeau is from Sherbrooke in the Quebec province. His wife, Kerry, is Australian. Based in Pasadena, California, since 2001, the couple endeavor to raise their son “in a bilingual environment.” Their five-year-...
On November 8, 2016, Americans will choose who will be their president for the next four years. On the same day, Californian voters will also decide the future of dual-language education in their state. In a sort of direct democracy, 17 propositions are being put to the vote in California this year. They include the abolishment of the death penalty...
In August 2016, Desert Sun Academy became the first public elementary school in Arizona to offer a dual-language immersion program in French and English, available for two kindergarten and first-grade classes. Hayden Enriquez, 5, spends three hours a day learning to count and name the colors of the rainbow in French. She will start learning the alphabet when she arrives...
After eight successful academic years, the Ecole Internationale de New York (EINY) is pushing forward with its “fully bilingual” curriculum in its new buildings. France-Amérique met with Yves Rivaud, the founder and head of the school, in the new nursery, pre-k and kindergarten which opened in September 2015. After working as a French teacher and head of several Franco-American schools...
