Sixth grade primary students’ relationship to writing after an intensive second language learning experience
In Quebec, a growing number of schools are organizing intensive learning for English as a second language (ESL) in the sixth grade of primary school. This article presents a portion of the results of a study on the impact of this intensive learning on students’ relationship to writing in both French as the language of instruction and ESL. Mini-interviews were held with thirty students from five classes at three different moments of the school year (beginning, middle, end). The results indicate that the interviewed children have diversified writing practices in French (the language of instruction) outside of school assignments, and these practices vary little over the course of the year. For a few of them, the intensive ESL learning module stimulated the emergence of a few extracurricular writing practices in English. Most reported being positively engaged in school writing activities under certain conditions, and considered them useful in the progression of their learning. Finally, a number of students showed the development of a metalinguistic attention that enables them to perceive differences between the two languages.