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Bilingualism in Canada |
Bilingualism Loses Ground
Canada’s record on bilingualism suffered during the 1990’s
After strong growth throughout the 1970s and 1980s, bilingualism levels stagnated in
the last decade. Here is a look at issues affecting bilingualism across Canada:
Education
There is no doubt that federal language programs and the inclusion of minority language
rights in the 1982 Charter improved the status of Canada’s two official languages. However,
provincial governments have been reluctant to cooperate with the federal government.
The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism hoped that Francophone minorities
would serve as a bridge to Quebec. This has not happened, as successive Quebec governments
showed little interest in protecting the rights of French-speaking Canadians living
outside the province. Instead, Quebec’s efforts to preserve the French language focused
on provincial legislation limiting the right of Quebec parents to have their children
educated in a language other than French.
Furthermore, several provincial governments refused to grant linguistic minorities
the education rights entrenched in the Charter. Parent’s groups in Alberta and Prince
Edward Island went to Court over their Charter rights to control and manage Francophone
schools. Similarly, groups such as Canadian Parents for French lobbied intensely to
implement French immersion programs throughout the provinces.
Here are issues currently affecting minority language education and French immersion
programs in Canada:
Minority Language Education
A recent federal report highlighted the following minority language education issues:
- Francophone minority language students often score lower on standardized tests than
other students.
- There is a shortage of qualified teachers to teach in Francophone minority language
schools.
- There are few post-secondary educational opportunities outside of Quebec for Francophone
minorities.
- Because of the lack of post-secondary opportunities, students frequently complete
their secondary education in English.
- In Quebec, it is difficult to provide adequate English language instruction for
students living in rural areas.
- In Quebec, minority language school instructors must teach to a more diverse student
population. The number of Francophone students enrolled in English schools in Quebec
doubled between 1991 and 2002. (Source: Privy Council
Office Website). Furthermore, in Montreal, over 25 percent of children attending
English schools are allophones, whose mother tongue is neither English nor French.
French Immersion Programs
After a strong start, interest in French immersion programs waned in the 1990s. French
immersion programs have many of the problems found in Francophone minority language
programs:
- Lack of qualified instructors to teach French immersion
- A high drop out rate from French immersion at the secondary level, due to student’s
perceptions that they will be unable to obtain a post-secondary education in French.
- The need for students to transfer out of French Immersion to enroll in other programs
such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program.
The following table shows the decrease in French immersion enrollment at the elementary
level in Manitoba:
Enrollment in French Immersion in Manitoba
| Year |
95/96 |
96/97 |
97/98 |
98/99 |
99/00 |
| Enrollment Numbers |
19,096 |
18,780 |
18,198 |
17,620 |
17,392 |
(Source: Manitoba
Education and Youth Website)
Between the 1994/95 and 1998/99 school years, New Brunswick, Canada’s only officially
bilingual province, was the only province to show a strong increase in French immersion
enrollment.
Francophone and Anglophone Minority Communities
Both the Anglophone population in Quebec and the Francophone population outside of
Quebec have declined in recent years. For Anglophone Quebeckers, this is largely due
to moving outside of the province. However, Francophones living outside of Quebec face
a real problem with assimilation. Most live in areas where less than five percent of
the population speaks French. Furthermore, Anglophones in Quebec are concentrated primarily
in Montreal, while Francophones living outside of Quebec are often geographically dispersed.
It is difficult for these families to pass along the French language to their children
when the environment and culture are predominantly English. Furthermore, the percentage
of exogamous couples, where one spouse counts French as their mother tongue and the
other speaks English, is rising.
Although Quebec has been criticized for how it treats its Anglophone minority, this
group has rights that Francophones outside Quebec lack. According to a recent Health
Canada study, language barriers can affect a patient’s access to health care and the
quality of care they receive. In Quebec, Bill 142 guarantees Anglophones the right to
receive health care and social services in English.
The Public Service
Throughout the 1990s, severe budget cuts and downsizing hurt bilingualism’s advance
in the public service. A recent Treasury
Board study had mixed results. On the one hand, it found that forty-two percent
of federal public service employees consider themselves bilingual. Furthermore, the
number of positions requiring bilingualism has increased to thirty-seven percent. Bilingual
services are available in all major urban centers across Canada, and in rural areas
with significant demand.
On the other hand, the study highlighted two areas of concern. First, English remains
the preferred language of business in the public service. Even in designated bilingual
regions (the National Capital Region, New Brunswick, parts of Northern and Eastern Ontario,
Montreal and parts of Quebec around the Eastern Townships) employees spend the majority
of time working in English. Montreal was the sole exception. Second, while the number
of positions requiring bilingualism has increased, there are not enough bilingual staff
to fill them. Fifteen percent of public service employees in bilingual positions could
not understand and carry on a conversation in both official languages.
The study also found that support for bilingualism policies drops dramatically from
East to West. A frequent comment from B.C. public servants was that it made more sense
to for them to learn Cantonese as a second language, due to the large Asian population
in that province.
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