Canadian Immigrants Not Learning English (or French)

[Taualumna]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

You don't think you'd learn English best through immersion anyway? Sure, it's going to be hard to actually learn the academic content in English until you speak it, but for learning a foreign language isn't having to use it and speak it one of the best ways?

They often can't. Many of these kids go to schools where the majority of the students come from communities that speak the same language, so the kids would not be speaking English in school. Even if the schools were more diverse, there usually will be other kids who come from the same ethnicity and speak the same language, so the kids will only hang out with each other. Things have changed a great deal in the last 15-25 years in cities like Toronto and Vancouver.