"Why immersion has a prominent place in the Action Plan for Official Languages"

Notes for an address
by the Honourable Stéphane Dion
President of the Privy Council and
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs

Hugh McRoberts Secondary School
Richmond, British Columbia

March 14, 2003

Check against delivery

It is a real pleasure for me to be here today at Hugh M^cRoberts Secondary School, during French Immersion Week in your province. I have heard a great deal about the good reputation of your French immersion program. I have been impressed so far by the quality of French I heard from some of your fellow students.

I am here today because I would like to say that French immersion, this form of instruction you value so much as parents, students and teachers, is one of the main priorities of the Government of Canada. That is why it has been given a prominent place in the Action Plan for Official Languages.

The Action Plan was released by the Prime Minister of Canada on Wednesday. It is the basis for next act, the new momentum given to our country’s official languages. It will be the next act, the one that follows the Official Languages Act of 1969 – amended in 1988 – and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982. We will now work together to give new momentum to our linguistic duality.

The Action Plan is built on three pillars of development: education, support to communities in official language minority situations and bilingualism in the federal public service. To set it in motion, the Government will invest an additional $751 million over five years to promote our official languages: a considerable investment for a cause we all believe in.

Second-language instruction, which includes immersion programs, will have its own fund of $137 million over five years. This additional funding increases by $42 million annually what our Government already allocates to the teaching of French and English as second languages. We estimate that in 2007-2008, the last year of the Action Plan, the Government of Canada will contribute 90% more to instruction in official languages than was provided before the Plan’s announcement.

That is a lot of money, but money on its own is not enough. There has to be a Plan to ensure that all the measures directed to linguistic duality reinforce each other. The Action Plan for Official Languages does just that.

A number of strong measures provided for in the Action Plan will help to give considerable momentum to immersion learning. More teachers, better quality instruction, more accessible and better quality teaching materials, more summer internships, more exchange programs, more opportunities for students to pursue post-secondary education in their second language, are all elements found in the Action Plan. We will respond far more effectively to the desires of parents and students for access to high-quality immersion programs.

The Action Plan also provides for a campaign to promote this type of instruction to young people and their parents so they know the advantages and indeed of its very existence.

The Government of Canada will work closely with the provinces and territories to implement this Action Plan since they are the governments with the constitutional jurisdiction for education. They have indicated that they ask for just this: to strengthen our partnership for immersion. Richard Stewart, who is here today, the MLA responsible for Francophone Affairs for the Government of British Columbia, is a champion of the French cause. There is every reason to believe that our two governments, represented by Richard, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Honourable Sheila Copps, and your Education Minister, the Honourable Christy Clark, will succeed in reaching agreement for strengthening French second-language instruction and immersion programs in British Columbia. The Government of Canada will support the Government of British Columbia’s initiatives – as well as those of other provinces and territories – geared to opening new classrooms and modernizing teaching methods.

To increase the number of teachers qualified to teach a second official language, our Government will also support provincial and territorial initiatives directed at recruiting future specialists, training them, and offering them professional development opportunities. In addition, through summer jobs and exchange programs, young Canadians will get the chance to experience the practical benefits of their knowledge of both official languages.

Our objective, ambitious but realistic, is to double the proportion of young Canadian secondary school graduates who have a knowledge of their second official language. Today, 24% of young Canadians in the 15 to 19 age group know the other official language. We need to raise this proportion to 50% by 2013. The federal government supports the provinces and territories, parents, teachers and their schools, as well as the respected association, Canadian Parents for French, in achieving this objective, which is, I repeat, quite realistic.

Experience illustrates eloquently that it is possible to increase bilingualism among young people. Half of Anglophone Quebecers between 15 and 24 had mastered French in 1971, while eight out of 10 had done so in 2001. The proportion of Francophone Quebecers the same age with a command of English rose from 30% to 38% between 1981 and 1991. In 15 years, between 1981 and 1996, the proportion of young Canadian Anglophones living outside Quebec able to express themselves effectively in French almost doubled from 8% to 15%.

Today, we have learned from these experiences: teaching methods have been improved and we now know how to teach languages more effectively. In addition, this is the first time such an objective has been proposed to Canadians, which is in itself a motivation. Yes, it is possible to ensure that in 10 years one young Canadian out of two will master both our official languages.

Immersion will be a key form of instruction in reaching that goal. Currently, 324,000 students are enrolled in French immersion in Canada. According to a press release¹ issued last week by the British Columbia Ministry of Education, in this province alone some 32,000 students attending 228 schools were enrolled in French immersion.

Immersion is gaining in popularity in your province, as the news release states: "Despite declining student enrolment across B.C., enrolment in French immersion has increased by seven per cent in the past ten years."² But the situation is less encouraging for the country as a whole. We have hit a ceiling at the national level: enrolment in French immersion programs has not risen over the last 10 years, fluctuating around 7% of total Anglophone enrolment Canada-wide. Since the upward trend at the end of the 1970s and 1980s, second-language training is no longer increasing across Canada. To achieve our objective, we must rekindle interest in immersion.

Why invest in learning our two official languages, and more specifically in immersion? Why double the proportion of our young people able to master English and French? First of all, because Canadians are asking us to do so. According to the annual Environics poll conducted in the fall of 2001³ for the Centre for Research and Information on Canada, 86% of all Canadians (and 82% of Anglophones) think it is important for their children to learn a second language and 75% of those Anglophones believe this second language should be French. As a matter of fact, 90% of Francophones who want their children to be bilingual would choose English as their second language. Another poll, released this week, indicates that 65% of Canadians agree that "some French language instruction should be mandatory in elementary and high schools in Canada."⁴

It is inconceivable that we do not respond to this demand which is evident in every part of Canada for second-language instruction – especially for French immersion – to be more accessible to all.

Indeed, Canadians are right to press their governments for enhanced access to training in their two official languages. As your Education Minister, the Honourable Christy Clark, has stated: "French immersion is so popular because it enhances intellectual growth and career prospects."⁵ Another reality we should take into consideration is that French is the mother tongue of nearly one quarter of Canadians. As Richard says so eloquently: "French immersion helps strengthen links and increase understanding among French and English-speaking communities in Canada."⁶

Increased bilingualism among our young people is an even more important issue, given that interest in foreign languages is on the rise in other parts of the world, particularly in the United States⁷ and Europe. Currently, Anglophone Canadians are actually less bilingual than the British, who are the least bilingual of Europeans.⁸ This is a reality that puts our competitiveness at stake.

For it is a fact that our linguistic duality is not only rooted in our past, but is also one of the conditions for our future success. Canada is extremely fortunate to have two official languages of international stature. French is an official language of 24 countries in the world, and English of 40.⁹ The language most frequently known by Europeans, in addition to their mother tongue, is English for 41% of them, followed by French for 19% of them.¹⁰ The United Nations has English and French among its six languages of work. Forty-eight countries belong to the Organization internationale de la Francophonie,¹¹ while the Commonwealth comprises 54 countries.¹² Canada is privileged to belong to and play a leading role in these international forums.

Estimates of the number of French speakers around the world range from 100 million to 250 million. French is the second most frequently taught language in the world. It is the second of the languages most prevalent on the Internet. French and English are the main languages of diplomacy. French is an official working language of the United Nations, the International Red Cross, the International Olympic Committee, the European Economic Community, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the International Labour Bureau.

Since French is one of Canada's official languages, we have the experience and the resources to promote training in this language. Learning French under such favourable conditions can facilitate training in other languages.

Indeed, our know-how is recognized internationally. A December 2000 report entitled "Foreign Language Teaching: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries, prepared by the Center for Applied Linguistics, states: "One of the most successful and widely researched practices in [...] immersion education over the past three decades is [found] in Canada."¹³ Our language immersion programs are used as models in half a dozen countries: the United States, Australia, Finland, China (Hong Kong), Singapore, and Spain.

In conclusion, our two official languages are two wonderful wide-open windows that give us access to the world. In this new century, in an era of globalization where communications are increasingly important and where the economy depends more and more on knowledge and innovation, Canada must build on its linguistic duality and the international nature of its two official languages more than ever.

Canada has the advantage of having made significant investments in English and French as a second language instruction. We can start with the solid infrastructure already in place. We need to develop it to allow a greater number of Canadians to master our two official languages, encouraging them to learn even more languages.

Many Canadians appreciate that linguistic duality does not just reflect our past. It is part of the future of a prosperous Canada in a world of growing trade where, increasingly, the ability to communicate in many languages is valued more and more. Canadians are aware that knowledge of another language gives them access to a broader cultural heritage and contributes to their personal enrichment. That is why Canadians value their linguistic duality. They want to build on immersion, this Canadian jewel that has inspired so many countries. The Action Plan will help Canadians write the next act of the fascinating adventure of Canada’s linguistic duality.

1. Government of British Columbia Ministry of Education, French Immersion Strengthens Student Achievement, Press release, March 2, 2003.
2. British Columbia, French Immersion.
3. Centre for Research and Information on Canada, Portraits of Canada 2001, January 2002.
4. Environics/Focus Canada survey commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies, March 2003.
5. British Columbia, French Immersion.
6. British Columbia, French Immersion.
7. Gallup Poll, April 2001.
8. European Commission, Eurobarometer: Public Opinion in the European Union, Report number 54, February 2001, pp. 1 and 2.
9. UNESCO, World Culture Report 2000, Cultural Diversity, Conflict and Pluralism, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 2001.
10. Commission, Eurobarometer, op. cit.
11. http://www.francophonie.org/
12. Commonwealth Secretariat, Report of the Commonwealth Secretary-General 2001, Continuity and Renewal in the New Millennium, September 2001.
13. Center for Applied Linguistics, Foreign Language Teaching: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries, December, 2000.