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In the Spotlight...

National Conference on Bilingualism and Biliteracy Development a success!

More than 100 delegates attended the National Conference "Contextualizing Bilingualism and Biliteracy", held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Program highlights include national and international keynote addresses, panel and poster presentations. Many of the presentations are available below, and may be used for educational or professional development purposes. To access them, please click on the appropriate presentation title below.

Special thanks to the members of the Conference Organizing Committee:


Hélène Deacon, Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, Patricia Cleave (Chair), and Martha Crago

Presentations


Rapid language shift accompanying L2 immersion at onset of schooling: Evidence of losses in L1
Dr. Kimbrough David Oller
The University of Memphis

Dynamic changes in the skills that French immersion children use in their reading
Dr. Hélène Deacon
Dalhousie University

Getting the ball rolling: The influence of nascent second language skills in learning to read in French immersion Dr. Pierre Cormier
University of Moncton

The Links Between the Two Languages of Bilinguals
Dr. Aydin Durgunoglu
University of Minnesota Duluth

Bilingualism and Down Syndrome
 Dr. Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird
Dalhousie University

Narrative abilities in bilingual children with specific language impairment (SLI)
Dr. Patricia Cleave
Dalhousie University
Dr. Luigi Girolametto
University of Toronto

Evolving perspectives on learning French L2 through immersion
Dr. Roy Lyster
McGill University

Peer Assisted Learning Strategies: Preventing Reading Failure in L1 and L2 Readers
Dr. Lesly Wade-Woolley
Queen's University





My reading disabilities were hard to identify because the tests were designed for English readers. They didn't reflect my cultural background.

It's only by asking the right questions that we can identify and treat my reading disabilities - and take steps to keep French as a first language vibrant and alive.

We're creating solutions