Student Engagement in an Ottawa French Immersion High School Program

This article makes a contribution to the field of French immersion studies by examining the engagement realities of two groups of students in an Ottawa French immersion high school program: those with and without a parent who makes them eligible for minority French language instruction as outlined by Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Free ‐ doms . Findings indicate that students from both official language groups, who came from varying class backgrounds, similarly demonstrated the ability and willingness to follow the secondary French immersion program offered at the university level. Although students with Anglophone parents were found to benefit from cultural capital such as family sup ‐ port and “voluntary minority” belief systems, students with a parent eligible for minority French language instruction benefited from French language capital acquired with family, in social contexts and sometimes in French school. At times, students also had overlapping and cross ‐ cutting realities depending whether they came from EFI or LFI programs. To conclude, this article suggests that French immersion programming and related policies should take into consideration the multifaceted engagement realities of secondary student populations from the two official language communities. Key words: French immersion studies, student engagement, official ‐ language communi ties, immigration Les resultats de la recherche demontrent que les etudiants issus des deux groupes linguistiques officielles et ayant diverses profils sociaux font etat d’un interet similaire dans leurs habiletes et leurs desirs de poursuivre leurs etudes au sein du programme d’immersion francaise offert au niveau universitaire. Bien que les eleves ayant des parents anglophones semblent beneficier du capital culturel (tel que le support de la famille, les systemes de croyances associes aux «minorites volontaires»), ceux qui sont issus de familles dont l’un des parents est admissible a l’instruction dans la langue de  la minorite francaise ont egalement pu beneficier du capital associe a la langue fran‐ caise par le biais de la famille, dans les contextes sociaux et parfois dans les ecoles francaises. Les eleves provenant des programmes d’immersion tardifs et precoces peuvent parfois vivre des realites transversales ou qui se chevauchent. En conclusion cet article suggere que la programmation de l’immersion francaise ainsi que les politi‐ ques y afferant doivent tenir compte des multiples facettes des realites que vivent les eleves du secondaire issus des deux communautes de langue officielle. Mots ‐ cles : Etudes des programmes d’immersion, engagement des eleves, commu ‐ nautes de langues officielles, immigration