Gender Assignment in French Immersion and Core French Graduates: "J’aime la français, mais pas le grammaire..."

This study examines gender assignment in graduates of French immersion (FI) (n=100) and Gr.12 core French (n=155) programs who responded to a diagnostic questionnaire distributed at the beginning of their first university French course. We compare accuracy rates attributing gender to the 10 most commonly used consonant-initial nouns. While it was expected the FI students would outperform their peers, overall results are very similar, and indicate both groups would benefit from targeted instruction. Seeking possible evidence of a masculine default strategy, we were surprised to observe, in the FI group, a generalization of the feminine form of the definite article.