1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« We study the benefits of junior kindergarten for linguistic-minority 4-year-olds compared to their linguistic-majority classmates from the same low-income neighborhoods. » (p. 209)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« Two linguistic groups were sought: (1) linguistic-majority (children whose parents were born in Canada and were French-speaking as a first language, n=201); and (2) linguistic-minority (children whose parents were not born in Canada and spoke a language other than French at home, n=108) as a first language. » (p. 211)

Instruments :
- Version française du Learning Climate Scale (LCS; Forget-Giroux, Richard & Michaud, 1995);
-Version française du Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (EVIP-PPVT; Dunn, Thériault-Whalen, & Dunn, 1993);
- Number knowledge test (NKT; Okamoto & Case, 1996).

Types de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« At the end of the school year, linguistic-minority children made significantly greater improvements in language skills than their host society classmates. At the mid-year point, junior kindergarten teachers made efforts to help linguistic-minority children overcome the challenges of the school environment of their new host society by adapting their pedagogical strategies to those showing difficulty in their receptive vocabulary skills. They also offered greater means of contact to parents of linguistic-minority children having difficulty attaining language proficiency than to parents of children showing better improvements. Parents of linguistic-minority students showing smaller gains were more likely to use a larger proportion of the communication methods offered by teachers and participate in the parent–school relationship for the well-being of their children. Long-term results suggest that linguistic-minority children continued to make significant improvements. » (p. 209)