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2004 Immersion Conference: Pathways to Bilingualism

Featured Speaker

Merrill Swain Professor, Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Presentation: Bilingualism Through Immersion Education

Dr. Merrill Swain is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her interests include bilingual education (particularly French immersion education) and communicative second language learning, teaching and testing. Her present research focuses on the role of collaborative dialogue in second language learning. She was President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics in 1998-99, and is currently a VP of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA). She is recipient of the 2003 Prix Robert Roy Award which is given to “an outstanding Canadian second language educator who has been active in the second language professional community in teaching, research, writing and dedication to the improvement of second language teaching and learning in Canada. She is also the recipient of AAAL’s 2004 Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award. Her most recent book is one co-edited with Bygate and Skehan “Researching pedagogic tasks: Second language learning, teaching and testing. (Longman’s). A book of major interest to the participants of this conference is Johnson and Swain “Immersion Education: International Perspectives” (Cambridge University Press).

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