ABSTRACT
I suspect there is no such thing as ‘bilingualism without tears’, any more than there is ‘growing up without tears’, or ‘life without tears’. But somehow, the myth has been perpetuated in our society that becoming bilingual as a child is a ‘snap’ - or perhaps I should say that this is a myth perpetuated by the anglophone majority of our society, who, themselves, have never been faced with the necessity of learning a second language, and who have watched from a distance, young immigrant or minority children playing in English with their friends. Whatever the source, the belief that learning a second language is easy for young children is at the heart of many of our current educational policies. Why else do early total French immersion programmes exist in Canada? Why else is there currently such an emphasis in the United States that bilingual education be completed by grade 1 or grade 2? For the most part, it is because it is thought that ‘early = easy’, as far as second language learning is concerned.
