LANG Committee Report

F. Support for second-language instruction and learning

Witnesses sent the federal government a clear message about second-language instruction and learning: a second-language learning continuum must be established to enable Canadians to acquire a second official language, develop their second-language skills and have opportunities to use that language.

Although section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms concerns only minority-language education, stakeholders would like second official language instruction and learning to be recognized as rights in Canada.

1. 2008-2013 Roadmap Investments: Initiatives and success stories

1.1 Official Language Support Programs — Support to Second-Language Education and Official-Language Monitors (Canadian Heritage)

Canadian Heritage’s Official Language Support Programs (OLSP) provide support for second-language instruction. Under the Roadmap, the Support to Second-Language Education fund received $190 million over 5 years. As is the case for minority-language education, federal government support for second-language instruction is subject to bilateral agreements with the provincial and territorial governments. According to the Quebec English School Boards Association, the Canada-Quebec accord has had a positive impact on students’ French-language proficiency:

Firstly, with the vital help of the Canada-Québec Entente on minority and second language education, our students are graduating from English public schools with an increased capacity to live and work in French …we have produced students who not only see it as not a chore to speak French, but see it as an automatisme. It is part of their daily life and culture ….[199]

The purpose of the Official-Language Monitors Program, which was introduced in 1977, is to promote Canada’s two official languages by enabling young people to have a linguistic and cultural experience in a province or territory other than their own. Official-language monitors are assigned to primary, secondary or postsecondary institutions to assist second-language or French-first-language teachers or professors in engaging pupils or students in linguistic and cultural activities in the language being taught. This program, to which the Roadmap has contributed $20 million, is also the subject of bilateral agreements.

1.2 Expanding access to products (Canada School of Public Service)

To encourage students to learn a second official language and maintain their language skills at the postsecondary level, the Canada School of Public Service has introduced an initiative that expands access to 16 of its online products through 10 Canadian universities. The initiative has been granted a budget of $2.5 million over 3 years. The purpose of the initiative, which is being conducted as a pilot project, is “to help expand the pool of recent university graduates who consider the federal public service as an employer of choice and who meet the Government of Canada’s bilingualism requirements.”[200] According to the school, the initiative has been a complete success. As of March 31, 2012, 153 students across the country had taken advantage of the program. The Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada supports the school’s conclusion and has recommended that the government make the pilot project a permanent program.[201]

2. Evidence and recommendations

2.1 Importance of establishing a second-language learning continuum

The Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada supports the idea of establishing a continuum of second-language learning:

There needs to be a continuum of second-language learning from elementary school to the post-secondary level and then into the workplace. This recommendation must be taken into account in the next Roadmap.[202]

Every stage of the process is important. Canadian Parents for French (CPF) believes that second-language learning can start at the early childhood stage. According to CPF, many studies show that immersion starting at a very early age is the most effective way to transmit a second language to a child.[203]

Some attention must also be paid to the supply of second-language instruction and immersion programs at the secondary level. The Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers (CAIT) also believes that the system needs to “… enrich what’s offered in the French immersion program at the secondary school level to motivate young people to stick with it.”[204]

The postsecondary level is also a decisive stage in second-language learning. In his Annual Report 2008-2009, the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada stated, “All students are able to continue learning their second language in a postsecondary institution in their province, and should even be encouraged to do so.”[205] He has stated that minority-language postsecondary institutions — both French-language and bilingual — are able to provide young Canadians with opportunities for intensive second-language learning and that this potential needs to be better exploited.[206] The Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne (AUFC) promotes the second-language instruction experience and the expertise of Canada’s French-language universities:

It must be acknowledged that we are the only institutions that really have considerable experience in second-language instruction. We have always had a number of Francophile students at our institutions. They are even the majority at some of our institutions. So we are able to offer immersion school graduates an authentic experience. That enables them to spend time in a completely Francophone or bilingual environment with university programming in French.[207]

In his appearance before the Committee, the Commissioner reiterated how important it is for the federal government to support postsecondary institutions in the area of second-language learning:

… I recommend that the Government of Canada provide financial assistance to universities so that they can develop and carry out new initiatives to improve students’ second-language learning opportunities.[208]

The purpose of the partnership between the federal government and postsecondary institutions is to provide support for linguistic duality and renew the federal public service:

It is a question of coherence. By encouraging and supporting Canadian post-secondary students in learning their second language, the federal government not only supports their personal and professional advancement, but also strengthens all Canadian federal institutions that require bilingual resources to sufficiently meet the needs of their clients.[209]

The CAIT supports the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada’s vision:

Moreover, this would involve investing in the education continuum by equipping post-secondary institutions with programs that promote bilingualism and linguistic duality. The universities have a big role to play in training young bilingual people to help the public service in recruiting the some 5,000 bilingual employees it will need each year in the future.[210]

The AUFC agreed with those views and suggested a bursary project for immersion school graduates:

The Association’s second innovative project involves offering awards for excellence to secondary immersion school graduates. It would be a Canada-wide program because there are immersion graduates all across Canada. It would be a modest, one-year project, granting only 50 $5,000 awards, but it would have a positive effect on linguistic duality in Canada. … It goes without saying that the Association's project would promote second-language learning and French immersion. Its purpose would be to promote secondary immersion schools, the Anglophone communities where they are located and the Francophone minority host communities. The result would be closer ties between those communities and greater recognition of linguistic duality by all Canadians. We have just submitted a funding application to Canadian Heritage to implement our immersion project starting in April 2012.[211]

The University of Ottawa has established the French Immersion Studies Program, which encourages students to pursue postsecondary studies in French. The Program enables French immersion high school students, graduates of core French programs and Francophile students to take university training in 74 undergraduate programs.[212]

The idea of establishing bursaries that would make it possible to admit more immersion school students to postsecondary institutions in minority communities is a plan consistent in all respects with the objectives of Part VII of the Official Languages Act. Consequently, the Committee recommends:

Recommendation 19

That, in a future horizontal official languages initiative, the Department of Canadian Heritage consider supporting a bursary program for immersion school graduates and Francophile or Anglophile students wishing to pursue some or all of their studies in their second language at a postsecondary institution in Canada.

2.2 Second-language instruction: will it be recognized as a right?

For Canadian Parents for French (CPF), the popularity of and growing demand for second-language instruction programs, including immersion programs, “… is the most significant grassroots expression of support for linguistic duality in English Canada.”[213]

As a result, more Québécois and Canadian parents want to give their children a chance to be bilingual:

In our opinion, this phenomenon raises learning French from personal choice and individual accomplishment and puts it in a broader socio-cultural trend, meaning the emergence of an institutionalized culture of learning a second official language by an increasingly large part of the Canadian population.[214]

CPF argued in favour of legal recognition of second-language instruction and learning. The institutionalization of such a right would be the logical consequence of the vision for society that the federal government put in place in the late 1960s. That next step obviously requires changes to legislation and policies currently in effect. Whatever the case may be, this vision “offers an unparalleled opportunity for government to display leadership and to continue to display this leadership on a number of fronts and to advance an ambitious agenda.”[215]

2.3 Implementing a Canadian framework of reference for language instruction and learning

The institutionalization of second-language learning is a concept that has made inroads in the Canadian educational community. The Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers (CASLT) informed the Committee that it and its partners are working to create a common framework of reference for languages in Canada based on the Common European Framework of Reference.[216] The European framework already enjoys a degree of recognition in Canada:

The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada studied the framework in depth and wrote a guide for its use in the Canadian school context. The Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training adopted the framework and curriculum development for official second language programs within the four Atlantic provinces.

And the Minister of Education in British Columbia developed a language curriculum based on the framework in 2010. Various ministerial departments, school boards, councils of ministers, schools and teachers throughout Canada have adopted, and continue to adopt, the basic elements of the framework.[217]

According to the CASLT, creating a similar framework in Canada would have a number of benefits for second-language learning. For example, it would help establish common language proficiency standards for the primary, secondary and postsecondary levels as well as the workplace.

Several stakeholders expressed support for the creation of a national tool for assessing language skills in Canada. CPF would like to see the establishment of national standards for assessing second-language skills:

We have highlighted some very concrete examples in our brief. The one that I would highlight for you right now would be the development of proficiency benchmarking and a national standard for our youth in Canada, so that we understand what bilingual means and our students are able to be proud and confident of their language proficiency in their second official language.[218]

Canadian Youth for French agreed with the idea: “… we need to have a standard language proficiency test that is used throughout the country everywhere.”[219]

The CASLT argued that common language proficiency standards would facilitate students’ interprovincial and international mobility and their transition to the labour market. Like the European framework, the Canadian framework would focus on communication in action, independence and lifelong self-directed learning, which is consistent with the concept of a continuum for second-language instruction.

The CAIT supports the creation of a Canadian framework:

We also need to take steps to create a national tool for assessing French language skills, calibrated against the common framework of reference, that covers the various sectors, including the school, university and even professional sectors. The CAIT would be happy to manage this national project with the participation of one or two ministries of education and partners such as the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers. The Canadian expertise is there; we just need to bring it together and coordinate it to create this new Canadian tool.[220]

According to the representatives of the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI), the implementation of a Canadian framework would make it possible to review second-language study programs and to identify bilingualism level targets for young graduates:

The federal, provincial and territorial governments should agree on a target for the rate of bilingualism among young graduates of the educational system. This target should be realistic, and to be met, would require a review of second-language programs on the basis of a Canadian adaptation of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. It should also result in a national campaign to promote the advantages of bilingualism to young people, as well as the creation of incentives for universities to offer second-language programs similar to the French immersion studies program at the University of Ottawa.[221]

The Committee believes that creating a Canadian framework is a step that will lead to the institutionalization of second-language instruction and learning in Canada. It is a long-term national project that appears to be already under way.

2.4 Priority areas for government action

The stakeholders who appeared before the Committee identified four priority areas of government action on second-language instruction. The first is the promotion and valorization of second-language instruction amongst Canadian parents. CPF pointed out to the Committee that it is important to target allophone parents in efforts to promote second-language instruction. In 2010, the organization surveyed allophone parents to determine their interest in French second-language courses for their children. Approximately 80% of those surveyed responded that, “if they had been given the opportunity, they would have also enrolled their students in French immersion.”[222]

Second, promotional efforts must be combined with measures to increase the number of spaces available in French immersion programs. Witnesses criticized current unequal access to immersion programs:

In some provinces, immersion programs are unfortunately like a lottery: only the lucky will have access to them. We deplore that. Parents who choose French immersion for their children should have the right to it, regardless of where they live.[223]

Access is even more of a problem for students who live in rural areas, allophones and children with learning difficulties.[224]

Third, Canadian Youth for French and the CASLT urged the federal government to invest in training for teachers specializing in second-language instruction to ensure there are enough qualified professionals to meet the growing demand for second-language instruction programs. That training must be accompanied by new programs and educational resources:

…there is still much to accomplish in order to revise and update certain curricula in line with new language-teaching and learning practices. We need to ensure that teachers have the necessary tools and opportunities for continuing education and that administrators are well aware of teachers’ needs and of new second-language teaching methods.[225]

The Committee is pleased to note that the University of Ottawa’s OLBI and the Canadian Centre for Studies and Research on Bilingualism and Language Planning appear to be national and international leaders in “official language education, language skills assessment, research and language planning.”[226] For example, nearly 50 language teachers attend professional development sessions on second-language instruction at OLBI every year. The program is offered in partnership with the CASLT. In addition, OLBI is involved in the national and international coordination of initiatives promoting Canada’s official languages expertise and competencies.

In view of the above, the Committee urges the Department of Canadian Heritage to consider the demands that have been presented to the Committee in planning its support for second-language learning programs. Partnerships with leaders such as OLBI are essential to the development of second-language learning and instruction in Canada.