Spelling of Geminates by French Immersion Adults
Elaine Ho, Elena Nicoladis, Eliza von Baeyer, Chris Westbury
The benefits of immersion education programmes have been debated in Canada since their national inception in the
1960’s. Specifically the gains of knowing two languages have been countered by the problems that sometimes
develop through a bilingual education. Previous studies examining various language-related skills of immersioneducated children have found that these children lag behind their monolingual peers (Fashola, Drum, Mayer, &
Kang, 1996; Geva, Wade-Woolley, & Shany, 1993; Noonan, Colleaux, & Yackulic, 1997; Nicoladis & Genesee,
1997; and Voltera & Taeschner, 1977).
This finding has also been found in the context of spelling, where children educated in French Immersion are
developmentally behind when compared to monolingual children (Cormier & Kelson, 2000; Hayden, Fagan &
Brailsford, 1991; St.Pierre, Laing & Morton, 1995). All of these studies have suggested that differences in
performance are temporary, and will disappear as the children get older and become expert spellers in both
languages.
This conclusion does not fit, however, with anecdotal evidence which suggests that adult bilinguals still have
difficulty spelling, both in French and in English. Certain key areas of spelling have been reported by adult
bilinguals as problematic: shared phonological morphemes with different spellings, silent letters, and geminates. In
the current study, geminates will be the focus.
Certain words which are found in both English and French have different spellings. Of particular interest are words
which have two consonants in one language (geminate), and only one consonant in the other language (e.g.
“appartment” in French and “apartment” in English). These types of words, along with words which have geminates
in both languages, words that have single consonants in both languages, and “control” words (which are matched for
length, and similarity to the test words) will be presented through a recording on a computer. French-immersion
participants were asked to type the word that was presented, completing both French and English sets of words.
English speaking monolinguals were asked to complete only the English set of words, to be used as a comparative
control.
Twenty-four French-immersion adults and 24 English monolinguals were tested in this study. Preliminary results
have found definite differences in time required to spell all words (with French immersion adults being slower than
English monolinguals), less effective strategies being used by the immersion adults, and increased difficulty with the
words that include geminates.
References:
Cromier, P., & Kelson, S. (2000). The roles of phonological and syntactic awareness in the use of plural
morphemes among children in French immersion. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4, 267-293.
Fashola, O.S., Drum, P.A., Mayer, R.E., & Kang, S.J. (1996). A cognitive theory of orthographic
transitioning: Predictable errors in how Spanish-speaking children spell English words. American Educational
Research Journal, 33, 825-843.
Geva, E., Wade-Wooley, L., & Shany, M. (1993). The concurrent development of spelling and decoding in
two different orthographies. Journal of Reading Behaviour, 25, 383-406.
Hayden, R., Fagan, W.T., & Brailsford, A. (1991). Emergent writing in English and French: Language
control. Reflections on Canadian Literacy, 9, 111-117.
Nicoladis, E., & Genesee, F. (1997). Language development in preschool bilingual children. Journal of
Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 21, 258-270.
Noonan, B, Colleaux, J., & Yackulic, R.A. (1997). Two approaches to beginning reading in early French
immersion. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 53, 729-742.
St. Pierre, L., Laing, D., & Morton, L. (1995). The influence of French on the English spelling of children
in early French immersion. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 51, 330-347.
Volterra, V., & Taeschner, T. (1977). The acquisition and development of language by bilingual children.
Journal of Child Language, 5, 311-326.