Fred Genesee

• PhD
• Professor Emeritus at McGill University

Aims and Objectives Increasingly, students who speak a minority language at home (minority-L1) enroll in Early French Immersion in Canada. A frequent question is the extent to which they develop academic abilities in English. Accordingly, this study asks: (a) Do a similar percentage of minority-L1 students meet provincial standards for academic ach...

This longitudinal, mixed-methods study reports on the development and implementation of an early phonological awareness screening and intervention program for struggling emergent readers in a French immersion school in Manitoba. The program was created by a professional learning community made up of the school administrator, teachers, and clinical...

Recent evidence suggests that deaf children with CIs exposed to nonnative sign language from hearing parents can attain age‐appropriate vocabularies in both sign and spoken language. It remains to be explored whether deaf children with CIs who are exposed to early nonnative sign language, but only up to implantation, also benefit from this input an...

Titone and Tiv's Systems Theory of Bilingualism aims to “urge cognitive scientists and neuroscientists to better embrace sociolinguistic and sociocultural experiences as part of their theoretical and empirical purview”. No stronger case for such a framework can be found than in studies of developmental aspects of bilingualism. In fact, inclusion of...

The developmental trajectory of monolinguals has often been used as the benchmark against which the progress of all language learners is assessed and understood, and the abilities of monolinguals are used to define the native-like competence that is widely cited as the ultimate goal for all language learners. Moreover, language learning standards a...

Difficulty in acquiring object clitics (OCs), and the omission of OCs more specifically, is used as a marker of developmental language disorder (DLD) in children learning French. Research also suggests that OCs are a complex morphosyntactic property of French and, as such, they could be particularly taxing for working memory (WM) resources. In ligh...

Extensive research has evaluated the effectiveness of dual language (DL) programs in Canada and the U.S. The majority of that research has focused on typically-developing students who represent the majority ethnolinguistic group in the broader community. This article reviews research on the suitability of DL forms of education for students with div...

This study investigated access to and outcomes of Early French Immersion (EFI) for students with special education needs (SEN) attending a large school board in Canada. Data analysis was carried out on: provincially mandated achievement test scores for all Grade 3 students with SEN participating over a three-year period ( n = 705) who attended eith...

This study investigated access to and outcomes of Early French Immersion (EFI) for students with special education needs (SEN) attending a large school board in Canada. Data analysis was carried out on: provincially mandated achievement test scores for all grade 3 students with SEN participating over a three-year period (n = 705) who attended eithe...

Pierce et al . (2017) have proposed that variations in the timing, quality and quantity of language input during the earliest stages of development are related to variations in the development of phonological working memory and, in turn, to later language learning outcomes. To examine this hypothesis, three groups of children who are at-risk for la...

Immersion education is a form of bilingual education that aims for additive bilingualism in which students normally receive at least half of their subject matter instruction through an additional language and half through their first language for several grades. Distinguishing between one‐way and two‐way immersion programs, this entry summarizes th...

A battery of standardized language tests and control measures was administered to three groups of at-risk language learners – internationally adopted children, deaf children with cochlear implants, and children with specific language impairment – and to groups of second-language learners and typically developing monolingual children. All children w...

Rapid Automatized Naming is an important predictor of reading fluency. Whether Rapid Automatized Naming measures abstract sublexical correspondence fluency (Theory A) or word-specific fluency (Theory B) is unresolved. English, and to a lesser extent, French orthographies are opaque for reading. Thus, if Rapid Automatized Naming predicts word readin...

In order to build complex language from perceptual input, children must have access to a powerful information processing system that can analyze, store, and use regularities in the signal to which the child is exposed. In this article, we propose that one of the most important parts of this underlying machinery is the linked set of cognitive and la...

Language learning, while seemingly effortless for young learners, is a complex process involving many interacting pieces, both within the child and in their language-learning environments, which can result in unique language learning trajectories and outcomes. How does the brain adjust to or accommodate the myriad variations that occur during this...

In the field of second language education, researchers increasingly call for crosslinguistic pedagogical practices meant to encourage bilingual learners to draw on all of their linguistic resources regardless of the focus of instruction or the status of the target language. These recommendations include a relaxation of the strict language separatio...

Using event related brain potentials (ERPs), we examined the neurocognitive basis of phonological discrimination of phoneme /h/ in native English speakers and Francophone late second language (L2) learners, as a function of L2 proficiency and stimulus/task demands. In Experiment 1, native and non-native (L2 only) phonological contrasts were present...

Bilingual education, for the purposes of this chapter, is defined as a program at elementary or secondary school where two (or more) languages are used as media for content instruction. In Canada, due to the success and popularity of French immersion, bilingual education programs tend to follow an immersion model, described in more detail later. In...

This study aimed to gather information from school- and clinic-based professionals about their practices and opinions pertaining to the provision of bilingual supports to students with developmental disabilities. Using an online survey, data were collected in six socio-culturally and linguistically diverse locations across four countries: the Unite...

Children with developmental disabilities (DD) often need and sometimes opt to become bilingual. The context for bilingual acquisition varies considerably and can impact outcomes. In this first article of the special issue, we review research on the timing and amount of bilingual exposure and outcomes of either direct language intervention or educat...

Aims and objectives The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of age of acquisition on verbal working memory (WM) in bilinguals. In light of previous studies that have found a bilingual advantage on non-verbal WM and less consistently on verbal WM, we included participants with native-like second language (L2) proficiency who had...

Bilingual education, for the purposes of this chapter, is defined as a program at elementary or secondary school where two (or more) languages are used as media for content instruction. In Canada, due to the success and popularity of French immersion, bilingual education programs tend to follow an immersion model, described in more detail later. In...

Internationally-adopted children are a unique population of language learners. They discontinue acquisition of their birth language when they are adopted by families that speak other languages. Their unique language learning history raises important practical, clinical and theoretical issues. Practically speaking: what is the typical language learn...

This study examined whether decoding and linguistic comprehension abilities, broadly defined by the Simple View of Reading, in grade 1 each uniquely predicted the grade 6 writing performance of English-speaking children (n = 76) who were educated bilingually in both English their first language and French, a second language. Prediction was made fro...

Early experiences may establish a foundation for later learning, however, influences of early language experience on later neural processing are unknown. We investigated whether maintenance of neural templates from early language experience influences subsequent language processing. Using fMRI, we scanned the following three groups performing a Fre...

There has been growing interest in children who learn language in diverse contexts and under diverse circumstances. In particular, dual language acquisition has become the focus of much research attention, arguably as a reflection of the growing awareness that dual language learning is common in children. A deeper understanding of dual language lea...

Presentation on findings spanning six international sites in Canada, United States, Netherlands and United Kingdom regarding the bilingual opportunities of children with developmental disabilities such as Down Syndrome, Specific Language Impairment and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Significance Using functional MRI we examined the unconscious influence of early experience on later brain outcomes. Internationally adopted (IA) children (aged 9–17 years), who were completely separated from their birth language (Chinese) at 12.8 mo of age, on average, displayed brain activation to Chinese linguistic elements that precisely matche...

Children acquiring two languages, either simultaneously or sequentially, have more variation in their linguistic input than their monolingual peers. Understanding the nature and consequences of this variability has been the focus of much recent research on childhood bilingualism. This volume constitutes the first collection of research solely dedic...

This article examines international research on student outcomes in one-way, two-way, and indigenous language immersion education. We review research on first and second language competence and academic achievement in content areas (e.g., math) among both majority and minority language students. We also discuss the relationship between bilingualism...

This article reviews research that has examined the linguistic and academic outcomes of at-risk learners in bilingual/immersion programs. Specifically, we review research on at-risk students with: disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, low levels of academic or general intellectual ability, poor first language ability, special education needs (in...

Baum and Titone's Keynote Article is a welcome addition to the ongoing and flourishing study of the neurocognitive effects of bilingualism. By focusing their review on executive control in bilinguals from the perspectives of both aging and neuroplasticity in general they have broadened our thinking in useful ways. Because my own research has focuse...

Language use and joint attention (JA) strategies were examined during interactions between francophone mothers and fathers and either their birth children ( n = 10) or their internationally adopted children from China ( n = 8), once when the children were 15 months old and again at 20 months, on average. Results showed that mothers engaged in more...

ABSTRACT The present study compared the performance of twenty-seven French-speaking internationally adopted (IA) children from China to that of twenty-seven monolingual non-adopted French-speaking children (CTL) matched for age, gender, and socioeconomic status on a Clitic Elicitation task. The IA children omitted significantly more accusative obje...

The goal of the present study was to examine if internationally adopted (IA) children from China (M = 10;8) adopted by French-speaking families exhibit lags in verbal memory in addition to lags in verbal abilities documented in previous studies (Gauthier & Genesee, 2011). Tests assessing verbal and non-verbal memory, language, non-verbal cognitive...

The growing interest in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has resulted in enthusiasm in and active pursuit of improved methods of foreign/second-language (L2) teaching in Europe. However, the definition and scope of the term CLIL both internally, as used by CLIL advocates in Europe, and externally, as compared with immersion education...

We assessed the language, cognitive, and socioemotional abilities of 27 internationally adopted children from China, adopted by French-speaking parents, 12 of whom had been assessed previously by Gauthier and Genesee. The children were on average 7 years, 10 months old and were matched to nonadopted monolingual French-speaking children on age, gend...

This article describes and discusses two case studies of content-based instruction for second language education — foreign/second language immersion for majority language students in Canada and dual language education for minority language students in the U.S. After discussing the rationale for CBI in general, we examine 45 years of research on eac...

This study presents findings on patterns of communication between internationally adopted children and their mothers in order to better understand the nature of these interactions and their influence on language learning. We examined maternal language use and joint attention behaviors of mothers and their children in 21 mother–child pairs: 10 pairs...

The extent to which risk for French as a second language (L2) reading and language learning impairment are distinct and can be predicted using first language (L1) predictors was examined in English-speaking students in total French immersion programs. A total of 86 children were tested in fall of kindergarten, spring kindergarten, and spring Grade...

This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner's first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P60...

This paper focuses on typical and atypical development of reading of children schooled in a second language. This is done by taking into consideration the international literature and especially some of the most important Canadian and U.S. studies that constitute a reference point in this specific area of research. Similarities and differences betw...

Immersion is a form of bilingual education that provides students with a sheltered classroom environment in which they receive at least half of their subject-matter instruction through the medium of a language that they are learning as a second, foreign, heritage, or indigenous language (L2).

ABSTRACT Acquisition of English grammatical morphology was examined in five internationally adopted (IA) children from China (aged 0;10-1;1 at adoption) during the first three years' exposure to English to determine whether acquisition patterns were characteristic of child second language (L2) learners or monolingual first language (L1) learners. R...

The present study examined the language development of children adopted from China to examine possible early age effects with respect to their use of complement clitics, lexical diversity and verb morphology. We focused on these aspects of French because they distinguish second language learners of French and native French-speaking children with la...

This paper focuses on typical and atypical development of reading of children schooled in a second language. This is done by taking into consideration the international literature and especially some of the most important Canadian and U.S. studies that constitute a reference point in this specific area of research. Similarities and differences betw...

Gestures are ubiquitous and natural in our everyday life. They convey information about culture, discourse, thought, intentionality, emotion, intersubjectivity, cognition, and first and second language acquisition. Additionally, they are used by non-human primates to communicate with their peers and with humans. Consequently, the modern field of ge...

This study examined whether individual variance in letter-name knowledge and phonological processing assessed in English (L1) in kindergarten French immersion students predicts their French (L2) decoding and reading comprehension scores at the end of grade 1; whether L2 oral language factors also contribute significantly to predictions of variabili...

The French language development of children adopted (n=24) from China was compared with that of control children matched for socioeconomic status, sex, and age. The children were assessed at 50 months of age, on average, and 16 months later. The initial assessment revealed that the 2 groups did not differ with respect to socioemotional adjustment o...

This study investigated the link between phoneme and onset-rime awareness and reading outcomes in children learning to read in a second language (L2). Closely matched phoneme and onset-rime awareness tasks were administered in English and French in the spring of kindergarten to English-dominant children in French immersion programmes (n=98). Regres...

This study examined the conversational repair skills of 2- and 3-year-old French— English bilingual children and monolingual French-speaking children. While the ability to respond to requests for clarification has been well researched in monolingual children, it has not been investigated among bilingual children except to examine their ability to r...

ABSTRACTBilingual and monolingual children's (mean age=4;10) elicited production of the past tense in both English and French was examined in order to test predictions from Usage-Based theory regarding the sensitivity of children's acquisition rates to input factors such as variation in exposure time and the type/token frequency of morphosyntactic...

On August 23, 2009, psychology lost an innovative researcher with the passing, at 86, of Wallace E. Lambert. A professor of psychology at McGill University from 1954 until 1990, Wallace (“Wally”) Lambert was among the founders of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. His highly productive career included contributions to social and cross-cultural...

Notwithstanding the evident professional, personal, and social advantages of bilingualism in Canada and internationally, fear and pessimism are often expressed about raising or educating children bilingually. These fears are often founded on four myths: (1) the myth of the monolingual brain; (2) the myth of time-on-task; (3) the myth of bilingualis...

This work is comprised of a set of papers focussing on the extreme polysynthetic nature of the Eskaleut languages which are spoken over the vast area stretching from Far Eastern Siberia, on through the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and Canada, as far as Greenland. The aim of the book is to situate the Eskaleut languages typologically in general linguis...

ABSTRACT There is ample evidence from research in Canada and the United States that second language immersion programs are effective for English-speaking children with average or above average ability from middle class, majority group backgrounds. The present review examines the suitability of immersion for English-speaking children who are at risk...

Bilingual code-mixing is the use of elements (phonological, lexical, and morpho-syntactic) from two languages in the same utterance or stretch of conversation or in different situations. Bilingual code-mixing is ubiquitous among bilinguals, both child and adult. Child bilingual code-mixing has been interpreted by researchers and laypersons as an in...

Research findings on reading acquisition in early French immersion programs are reviewed. Findings on general reading outcomes, in English and French, are reviewed first, followed by a review of reading outcomes for students who are at risk for reading difficulty because of below-average levels of academic ability, poor first language abilities, di...

IntroductionIssues in Bilingual Education for Majority-language StudentsLanguage Development and Academic AchievementFocus on Form or MeaningAgeTimeStudents at RiskLanguage TypologyMultilingual EducationNext Steps and Conclusions Acknowledgment

IntroductionDual language programs in public schools were developed in both Canada and the USA during the 1960s, a period of considerable social change in North America, and indeed worldwide. Dual language education in each country can be said to have been a reflection of more general worldwide concerns for issues of social inequality and instituti...

This report reviews results of research on the outcomes of French immersion students with special educational needs related to low levels of general academic ability and low levels of first language ability (and possibly impairment), as well as those of students with difficulty or who are at risk for difficulty in learning to read. Studies of the e...

This report reviews results of research on the outcomes of French immersion students with special educational needs related to low levels of general academic ability and low levels of first language ability (and possibly impairment), as well as those of students with difficulty or who are at risk for difficulty in learning to read. Studies of the e...

This study examined two- (n = 10) and three-year-old (n = 16) French-English bilingual children's repairs of breakdowns in communication that occurred when they did not use the same language as their interlocutor (Language breakdowns) and for other reasons (e.g. inaudible utterance). The children played with an experimenter who used only one langua...

The current research was undertaken to assess the role of intelligence, as measured by standardized, group I.Q. tests, in the acquisition of a second language. Anglophone students from three different grade levels (4, 7 and 11) in each of two types of second language programs were evaluated on a battery of French language tests, including tests of...

The present research tested the hypothesis that predictions concerning second language (SL) achievement and use would be improved by considering the motivational support the learner expects from the target language group (TL) in addition to considering the learner's own motivations for learning the language. The hypothesis was tested by asking adol...

Current evidence indicates that young bilingual children can use their languages differentially and appropriately in different language contexts at about two years of age. We examined whether there is an even earlier developmental stage when bilingual children do not use their languages in pragmatically differentiated ways. We recorded natural lang...

The study presents the results of the fourth evaluation of trilingual school programs in French, Hebrew and English being offered in a number of elementary schools in Montreal. The pupils, all of whom are native English-speaking, receive all academic instruction during the primary grades in French; cultural and religious studies are taught via Hebr...

To trace how age and language experience shape the discrimination of native and non-native phonetic contrasts, we compared 4-year-olds learning either English or French or both and simultaneous bilingual adults on their ability to discriminate the English /d-th/ contrast. Findings show that the ability to discriminate the native English contrast im...

The book provides a review of scientific research on the learning outcomes of students with limited or no proficiency in English in U.S. schools. Research on students in kindergarten to grade 12 is reviewed. The primary chapters of the book focus on these students' acquisition of oral language skills in English, their development of literacy (readi...

In Chapters 2 through 5, we presented research findings and methodological issues specific to each domain of learning. In this chapter, we turn to common trends in the research findings reviewed in Chapters 2 through 5 and then go on to identify directions for future research. COMMON TRENDS Role of ELLs' First Language The first notable trend is th...

INTRODUCTION Literacy instruction is undoubtedly one of the critical focal points in the education of all children – native English speakers as well as English language learners (ELLs). Literacy is both an end in itself and a means to other ends since, without formal education, most children would not learn to read and write and, without reading an...

In this study, we tested the predictions of 2 opposing perspectives on the nature of the deficit in specific language impairment (SLI): the domain-general, cognitive/ perceptual processing view and the domain-specific, linguistic representational view. Data consisted of spontaneous speech samples from French–English bilingual children with SLI; you...

The book provides a review of scientific research on the learning outcomes of students with limited or no proficiency in English in U.S. schools. Research on students in kindergarten to grade 12 is reviewed. The primary chapters of the book focus on these students' acquisition of oral language skills in English, their development of literacy (readi...

This study investigates subject omission in six English-Inuktitut simultaneous bilingual children, aged 1;8-3;9, to examine whether there are cross-language influences in their language development. Previous research with other language pairs has shown that the morphosyntax of one language can influence the development of morphosyntax in the other...

This article reviews findings from scientific research that has been conducted in the United States since 1980 on the educational outcomes of English language learners (ELLs). The studies selected for review here are a subset of a more com-prehensive body of research conducted during this period that is reported in Genesee, Lindholm-Leary, Saunders...

This book dispels many myths about dual language development and answers key questions that might arise as you work with children and their parents. Student profiles, definitions of key terms, and "clinical implications" sections for selected chapters make this a valuable reference for in-practice SLPs and educators, an accessible resource for pare...