The impact of early French immersion education on language use patterns and language attitude of post-secondary students

Even though there are increasing numbers of Early Partial Immersion (EPI) programs in Louisiana, there was no data available on the long-term impact of these programs. The purpose of this study is to delve into the experiences of 10 former immersion students in order to reveal their accounts and perceptions of their bilingual abilities, their language use patterns and language attitudes at the post-secondary level. In short, this study is to find out what former EPI students are doing, or are not doing with the target language at the post-secondary level. This dissertation focused on a diverse population of former French EPI students from two Louisiana parishes: St Martin Parish and Lafayette Parish who were enrolled at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette during the time of the study. A qualitative research design, incorporating ethnographic methods, was chosen to address the particular aims of the study to examine the immersion experiences and perspectives of these former EPI participants.;These Louisiana students reveal a strong L2 foundation, but this foundation tends to weaken beyond immersion as there are fewer opportunities to increase and promote their French use. This study suggests that the overall essence of the immersion experience was good but challenging; there is an overall lack of language use carryover from immersion to post-secondary level. This study sought to reflect individual perspectives and offer to parents as well as immersion advocates and policymakers insight into some of the long-term impacts of French immersion at the post-secondary level.