1) “Using the Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching observation scheme (Spada, N., & Frohlich, M., 1995), the second-language learning environments of elementary-level students of French in four submersion & four immersion classrooms in the Montreal area are compared. The database is composed of almost 60 hours of observations during language arts lessons – 28.4 hours in the four submersion classrooms, so named because they are designed for native speakers of French but comprise a large number of minority-language students obliged to attend French-language schools, & 30.5 hours in the four French immersion classrooms, composed of a majority of Anglophone students attending English-language schools. Results indicate clear differences between the two environments. Language arts lessons in the four submersion classrooms are predominantly analytic; the content focus is primarily on language form & most materials entail only minimal discourse. Conversely, language arts lessons in t