ABSTRACT
From the time it began in 1965 in St Lambert, Quebec, up to and including the present, immersion education has been viewed as a somewhat radical means of teaching French to anglophone students. Not only was it uncertain how well students would learn French under conditions where it was used as a medium of communication to teach curriculum content areas, but also it was uncertain whether the curriculum content would be adequately learned and the first language adequately maintained and developed. These concerns were expressed by parents and educators alike, and formed the basis of the many research and evaluation studies which have been undertaken across Canada. The extensive bibliography in Swain and Lapkin (1982) listing reports, published articles and books concerned with immersion education, attests to these concerns.
