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