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Canada has inherited from its history the opportunity, the privilege and the obligation to promote the French language and French-speaking cultures in Quebec, Acadia, throughout Canada and throughout the world, and to make that heritage accessible to Canadians of all origins. It is an exhilarating but demanding challenge, in a massively Anglophone North America, at a time when the forces of assimilation are such that, for the first time in human history, the number of languages spoken in the world is diminishing rather than increasing. But we Canadians will rise to that challenge.

Canada is working on all fronts for the French cause. On the international scene, the governments of Canada, Quebec and New Brunswick are making a substantial contribution that is appreciated by all their partners in the global French-speaking community. In Quebec, our only majority Francophone province, almost all the population speaks French (95%). This does not happen by itself, however: the federal and provincial governments carry out language and cultural policies to promote French which, while very different, are complementary in the field. I hope it will not be taken amiss if I mention in passing that the federal government spends more for culture in Quebec than the provincial government and all municipalities combined.¹

In New Brunswick, Canada’s only officially bilingual province, one third of the population is Francophone. The province’s Legislative Assembly recently passed a new Official Languages Act that was very well received by Francophones and Anglophones alike, whereas the same legislation would likely have been divisive only ten years ago.

In every other province and territory, Francophones make up less than 5% of the population. But despite the assimilating force of English, those communities are thriving and now have institutions and rights unparalleled in their history. For example, there were no French schools in one half of the provinces in 1982. Even in 1990, Francophones managed their own schools only in Quebec, New Brunswick and, to a limited extent, Ontario. Today, Francophone school governance structures are in place in all ten provinces and three territories.

The other front on which Canada is advancing the French cause is that of its own non-Francophone population. That population is clearly in the majority, making up 22 million out of 29 million Canadians.²  Efforts are being made to make learning French more accessible to those non-Francophones, who are made up essentially of Anglophones. Today, I would like to address that aspect of the issue. Here in Paris, before an international Francophone audience obviously concerned by the advance of English, I would like to consider the issue from another angle, and see to what extent an Anglophone population can become an ally of French, and thus be part of the solution rather than the problem.

I will show, in I think a very compelling way, the extent to which the future of French hinges not only on preserving it where it has been spoken for a long time, but also on its being learned where only yesterday it was unknown. I would like to show how important an issue it is that Canadian Anglophones learn French, why Canadian Anglophones themselves have an interest in learning French, indicate the extent to which progress is being made in that regard, and suggest how we could do even better.

1. Why does French need Canadian Anglophones?

Three considerations emerge. The first is a question of numbers. Nothing is more important in sociolinguistics than numbers. Because of the declining birth rate, the population of Canadians with French as their mother tongue is hardly growing at all, as shown in table 1. That same table also indicates this population is shrinking in proportion to the Canadian population, which is increasingly being renewed through immigration. Between 1996 and 2001, the percentage of non-Francophone immigrants (as defined by their mother tongue) was 95%. In spite of efforts to attract more Francophone immigrants, there is every indication that immigration to Canada will continue to reduce the proportion of Canadians with French as a mother tongue.

But if a Francophone is defined as someone who can carry on a conversation in French, regardless of whether his or her mother tongue is French, a very different perspective emerges. As shown in table 2, the number of Francophones is growing quickly and represents an increasing proportion of the Canadian population. Indeed, I doubt there is now a country where the number of French speakers is growing more quickly than in Canada.

And so the expansion of the French fact in Canada is coming increasingly from our language being learned by Canadians with another mother tongue. There is no indication this sociolinguistic trend will reverse itself in the foreseeable future. So this is a first reason why Canadian Anglophones’ learning French is of crucial importance: it is simply a question of numbers.

After numbers, the second consideration is empathy. By that I mean the favourable disposition of many Canadian Anglophones toward their country’s Francophone dimension. In Canada as elsewhere, it is only in recent decades that multilingualism has come to be seen as an asset and an enrichment, rather than a constraint or a problem. We can even talk of a revolution in Canadian attitudes: according to one survey, support for official bilingualism stands at 69% among young Anglophones (18 to 29-year-olds) living outside Quebec, compared with 27% among their elders (60 and older).³

Of course, this empathy for a language can develop even if one does not speak it. Many Anglophone Canadians do not speak any French but still feel pride in what it represents in Canada and solidarity with their Francophone fellow citizens. But the fact remains that learning French tends to strengthen that empathy. Studies confirm that support for Canadian bilingualism is stronger where it is practised.⁴

The third consideration is stronger than empathy: it is nothing less than ... love. Yes, love! Francophones and Anglophones are falling in love with each other more and more, and are forming what sociolinguists call, in their jargon, exogamous couples, meaning couples of different languages. Young Francophones are leaving their communities, moving to major cosmopolitan centres to find work or to study, and starting families more and more often with Anglophones. Indeed, outside Quebec, nearly two thirds of Canadian Francophone children ( under age 18) are now in exogamous families, meaning families in which only one of the parents have French as a mother tongue. This is shown in table 3. This exogamy is by far the main cause of assimilation into English.

The figures are indisputable in this regard. Indeed, let us consider the situation outside Quebec, in the provinces and territories with an Anglophone majority. When both parents are Francophone there is no assimilation to speak of: the French language is almost always passed on to the children – at a rate of 95% – but that rate drops to 42% when one of the parents is not Francophone. (See table 4.)

There is nothing a government can do about love: people marry whom they want! But this is where a very interesting piece of information comes into play: the non-Francophone spouse’s knowledge of French. If that spouse knows our language, the rate of transmission of French to the child is – again outside Quebec – 70%. If he or she does not know French, that rate drops to 32% (See table 5.) So overall, in terms of the French language, we “save” two out of three children in the former case, and “lose” two out of three in the latter. The difference is enormous.

While governments cannot do anything about love, they can promote learning a language. We need to increase the likelihood of young Canadian Francophones raising families with young Anglophones who, without necessarily speaking French fluently, have had the opportunity to learn it.

2. Why do Canadian Anglophones need French?

It is in the interests of Canadian Anglophones, particularly young people, not to remain unilingual. To choose as a second language, French, which is an international language and the mother tongue of almost one quarter of their fellow citizens, is a logical choice for them.

Speaking to a European audience, I do not think I have to overly stress the importance of learning languages. But that importance is perhaps less obvious to a North American Anglophone. We are not talking of a multilingual continent like Europe. The North America of today is, with the exception of Mexico, probably the most linguistically uniform continent in human history. And in our modern world, English is even more of a lingua franca than Latin was in Antiquity. What Anglophone has not at some time reasoned: “What good does it do to learn another language? Whenever I travel and try to speak a few words, people lose patience and answer me in English.”

And yet, in our global world where Canadians are increasingly called upon to interact with other countries and other cultures, isolating oneself within unilingualism, even English, is certainly a mistake. If Canada wants to remain a country ever more open to different cultures, dynamic, and highly competitive, and if, relative to young Europeans in particular, young Canadians want to give themselves the best chances of getting a good job, our country has to develop its population’s language skills. Specifically, Canada has to capitalize more on the vast potential of having two official languages that are international languages.

When you think about it, English and French make an excellent combination. First, English: this is a language at no risk of being supplanted. When a young German-speaking Swiss talks with a young French-speaking Swiss, it appears they do so more and more often in English. In Canada, it is very rare for a Francophone and an Anglophone to have to use a third language to understand each other.

Now French: one of the few languages with international scope. Canada does not have the problem of Belgium, of which one of the two languages, Dutch, despite all the respect it deserves, has a limited influence. Estimates of the number of French speakers around the world range from one hundred million to two hundred and fifty million. Twenty-four countries have French as one of their official languages.⁵  According to the 2001 Eurobarometer study by the European Commission, the language most frequently spoken by Europeans in addition to their mother tongue is English (41%), followed by French (19%), German (10%), Spanish (7%) and Italian (3%).⁶  In other words, nearly one fifth of non-Francophone Europeans say they know French. It has often been reported that French is also the second most frequently taught language in the world.⁷  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 Organization.

Canada is a multicultural country which is receiving more and more immigrants who, from the outset, speak neither English nor French. This was the case for almost half of the immigrants who arrived in 2002. (See table 6.) When they settle outside Quebec, their priority, in addition to passing on their language of origin to their children, is to learn English. Nevertheless, none of those many languages is in a position to rob French of its proper status within Canada. French remains, by far, the most frequent choice of Anglophone Canadians who decide to learn another language.⁸  (See table 7.) I know very few Canadians of non-Chinese origin who speak Mandarin; in contrast, I have met many young Canadians of Chinese origin who speak excellent French in British Columbia immersion schools.

Similarly, more than one unilingual Anglophone Canadian has told me that, if they were to learn another language, it would be Spanish rather than French. And yet, most of the Canadians I know who speak Spanish also speak French and English. The fact is that our two official languages are natural springboards for going on to learn a third or fourth language.

In short, the interest is mutual. While it is to be hoped by Francophone Canadians that more of their Anglophone fellow citizens will learn French, the latter also gain from the deal. It is in English Canada’s interest to build on our country’s Francophone dimension. Is it doing enough in that area? I will now show that it is not and that there is room for improvement.

3. An officially bilingual country that is too unilingual in fact

Canadians’ bilingualism has indeed increased over time. The young generation of Canadians is certainly the most bilingual in our history. In 1981, only 8% of young Anglophones outside Quebec could speak French. Today, 14% of those young Anglophones speak French. Half of Anglo-Quebecers aged 15 to 24 had a good command of French in 1971, compared with eight out of ten in 2001. Within one generation, an impressive number of English-speaking Quebecers have become bilingual. What an example for other Canadians!

And yet, despite that progress, Canada’s performance on the bilingualism front is far from brilliant when measured with European criteria. Indeed, it is even mediocre if one doesn’t take into account Quebec, whose Francophone and Anglophone populations are clearly more bilingual than the Canadian average. With 69% of its population unilingual, “Canada less Quebec” has a higher rate of unilingualism than all European countries. It is small consolation that the United States and New Zealand, two other Anglophone countries, present a sorrier figure. (See table 8.)

This disappointing performance by Canada is surprising when you consider that my country is recognized worldwide for having developed highly effective language teaching methods. Our language immersion programs are used as a model by a number of countries, including the United States, Australia, Finland, Singapore, Spain and the region of Hong Kong.⁹

So I do not think the problem lies with the teaching methods used in Canada. Rather, it lies with the fact that too few teaching hours are devoted to language learning. It is as simple as that.

Many European countries devote more than 300 minutes a week to second-language learning, whereas Canadian provinces devote considerably less. While New Brunswick devotes 250 minutes a week, all other Canadian provinces devote 200 minutes a week or less.¹⁰

Moreover, although Canada ranks in the middle when compared to European countries in terms of the percentage of students taking second-language courses in primary schools (ages 6-13), it compares very unfavourably in secondary schools (ages 13-18).¹¹

If Canada ranks poorly in second-language learning at the secondary level it is because, in all Canadian provinces with the exception of Quebec and New Brunswick, second-language courses are optional for students past the age of 15. The three Prairie provinces are among the few places in the industrialized world where second-language learning is optional at all levels of schooling. In every country in Europe, the learning of at least one second language in secondary school is compulsory until the age of 18. Further, in 16 out of 33 European countries examined, it is compulsory to learn two second languages in secondary school.

Conclusion

I started out with the importance of Canada’s Anglophone population for the French cause. I have gradually come to look at the issue from the other side: the importance of French for Canada’s Anglophone population. When two interests complement so well, it should be taken advantage of. I believe there is room for improvement on that front.

Canada rests on its status as an officially bilingual country, not realizing that it is falling behind, vis-à-vis Europe in particular, in terms of effective language skills. Increased bilingualism among our young people is an even more important issue considering that interest in learning languages is on the rise elsewhere in the world, notably in Europe, but even in the United States as well.¹²  Anglophone Canadians are currently less bilingual than the British, who are themselves the least bilingual Europeans. Such is the sad reality. A concerted effort is needed.

The governments of our federation must rectify the situation. I am sure Canadians will support them. According to one survey, 86% of Canadians (including 82% of Anglophones) believe it is important that their children learn a second language, and 75% of those Anglophones believe that other language should be French.¹³  Another survey indicates that 65% of Canadians would approve of “French courses being mandatory in elementary and secondary schools in Canada.”¹⁴

Our federation’s governments should respond to the request of so many Canadians that second-language instruction, particularly French immersion, be more accessible to all. The Government of Canada wants to do its share. The Action Plan for Official Languages that the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, launched on March 12, 2003, provides a new fund of $137 million over five years for French and English second-language instruction. This additional funding increases the $42 million a year our government already provides for French and English second-language instruction. It can be estimated that by 2007-2008, the last year of the Action Plan, the Government of Canada will be providing a budget for official-language learning that will be 90% higher than it is currently.

A number of the dynamic measures set out in the Action Plan will help us give impressive momentum for the teaching of our official languages. More teachers, more accessible and higher-quality teaching materials, more summer jobs, more exchange programs, more opportunities for students to pursue post-secondary studies in French, are all elements of the federal government’s Action Plan. But education is within provincial jurisdiction in Canada. The provincial governments need to redouble their efforts. I am optimistic, for there is a whole new generation of Anglophone men and women politicians who have experienced French immersion schools or have children enrolled in them, and who realize the importance of this issue for Canada as a whole.

French is not only part of our heritage. It is also, and above all, a key ingredient of a prosperous future for all Canadians. In a world of increasing interaction, where the ability to communicate in several languages is valued more and more, Canada needs to build on the international character of its two official languages more than ever. I am confident it will do so in a way that ensures that Canada will help the cause of French, and French will help the cause of Canada.

1. Statistics Canada, “Government Expenditures on Culture, 1999/2000,” The Daily (May 27, 2002), p. 3.
2. Statistics Canada, “Profile of languages in Canada: English, French and many others,” 2001 Census (December 2002).
3. Environics Research Group, Focus Canada (2000).
4. Margaret Adsett and Micheal Morin, “Contact and Attitudes Towards Bilingualism in Canada,” Proceedings of the 4^th International Symposium on Bilingualism (2003).
5. UNESCO, World Culture Report: Cultural Diversity, Conflict and Pluralism (2000) (UNESCO Publishing, 2000).
6. European Commission, Eurobarometer Report 54, Europeans and Languages - Executive Summary (Brussels, February 15, 2001), pp. 1-2.
7. Among many sources: Canadian Parents for French, Alberta Branch, “Facts About French,” Internet site; “Vive le français! French is back at A&M Commerce,” Commerce Journal (August 9, 2000); Christopher P. Pinet, “A few ideas on why Americans should study French...,” The French Review (April 1999); Richard Shryock, “French, The Most Practical Foreign Language” Associate Professor of French, Dept.of Foreign Languages & Literatures,Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (http://www.majbill.vt.edu/fll/french/whyfrench.html); Dyane Adam, Commissioner of Official Languages, The Internet: A Tool for Promoting the International Francophonie, speech delivered at a meeting of the Club Richelieu d'Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, November 29, 2000.
8. “French is by far the most commonly taught second language in English-dominant Canada.” Alister Cumming, Second Language Education in Schools in Canada, Modern Language Centre, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/MLC/pufahlrep.pdf )
9. In a report prepared in 1993 for UNESCO by the World Federation of Modern Language Associations, the authors note that, thanks to Canadian initiatives and resulting professional discussion, a number of principles can be recommended to those wishing to resolve current problems resulting from bilingualism in their society. That opinion was reconfirmed in December 2000 in a report entitled “Foreign Language Teaching: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries,” prepared by the Centre for Applied Linguistics (December 2000), which states: “One of the most successful and widely researched practices in [...] immersion education over the past three decades is [found] in Canada.”
10. This data was compiled by the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat based on national reports of the status of modern language learning and teaching in Europe prepared for the European Centre for Modern Language, provincial education websites in Canada and other official sources.
11. It should be noted that percentages for Canada combine students in immersion with students taking core French and English and do not include enrollment for second-language courses other than French and English. Statistics Canada does not provide exact data on this subject. However, Internet sites from a number of ministries of education in the country indicate that the percentage of students which have chosen to learn a second language other than French or English is less than 2%.
12. Gallup Poll, “About One in Four Americans Can Hold a Conversation in a Second Language,”April 6, 2001.
13. Centre for Research and Information on Canada, “Portraits of Canada 2001,” The CRIC Papers (January 2002).
14. Environics/Focus Canada, Association for Canadian Studies, March 2003.