THE INFLUENCE OF FRENCH ON THE ENGLISH SPELLING OF CHILDREN IN EARLY FRENCH IMMERSION

An investigation of the nature of the spelling ''lag'' known to exist in the development of English spelling in early French immersion students was conducted using an English dictation. The dictation included 11 phonemes common to both English and French and two phonemes where French spelling influence had been observed, each phoneme being presented in words at three levels of frequency. The dictation was administered to 72 subjects in midlag in grade 3 and 55 subjects emerging from the lag in grade 6. The results reveal in grade 3 a tendency to employ French orthography to spell English words which increases as words become less familiar. By grade 6 the tendency diminishes greatly but remains evident for certain phonemes when the visual spelling lexicon is less secure.