1. International School
• Social Context:
• Canada is a relatively young
nation, founded in 1867 with a
population of approx. 25 million
citizens.
• Political power is highly
decentralised.
• Canadians of British and French
origin form the largest ethnic
groups in Canada;
• 40 % British and French 27%.
French and British Canadians
are unequally distributed across
the country.

2. St Lambert School
• The St. Lambert Experiment
• With the growing importance of French as the main
working language of Quebec and increasing
dissatisfaction with the linguistic barriers between
English and French Canadians, a concerned group of
English-speaking parents in St Lambert, outside
Montreal, began to meet informally in the early 1960’s
to discuss the situation (Lambert & Tucker, 1972).
• After meeting for 2 years, they succeeded in getting
the school district to set up an experimental
kindergarten immersion class in September 1965.

3. Aims of the St Lambert Experiment
The children should:
• become competent in
speaking, reading and writing
French;
• reach normal achievement
levels throughout the
curriculum including the
English language;
• appreciate the traditions and
culture of French speaking
Canadians as well as English
speaking Canadians.
• In short, the aims were for
children to become bilingual
and bicultural without loss of
achievement.

4. Teachers and Students role
• Teachers role:
• Guide
• Facilitator
• Students role:
• Independent
• Autonomus
• Student-centred