On Blind Men, Elephants, and Immersion Programs

Abstract

On the 11th and 12th of May 2017, the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute at the University of Ottawa hosted the symposium: “Immersion in higher education: Where do we stand today?” This symposium was a wonderful opportunity to review the richness, complexity and plural dimensions associated to the concept of immersion. Indeed, the goal of the symposium was to not only mark the 10-year anniversary of the launch of the Régime d’immersion en français (RIF) at the University of Ottawa but also to bring together key stakeholders and specialists from various regions of Canada and the world to faire le point and review what has been accomplished in recent years when we refer to the application of content-based language teaching to the context of post-secondary education.