Saving Bilingualism: The Case for French Immersion as Official Educational Policy

Image By: The Globe and Mail

Many students who grew up through Canadian public education may at some point remember hearing the National Anthem. Whether it be every morning to mark the start of class, or only at assemblies, its melody is one many can recall almost as a reflex. Many may also remember the odd days when it would deviate from the English version many were used to, and launch into a bilingual remix. This small gesture acted as a romantic overture to the bilingual world in which many were supposed to be growing up in. However, outside of Québec, it is estimated that only 18% of Canadians are even capable of conversational French. The dream of national bilingualism is by no means realized. 

Particularly in provinces or parts of Canada where unilingualism remains dominant, learning another language can appear to be low on the educational priority list. For it to take precedence over the building blocks of math and science is not an easy sell, unless it can provide other benefits. As is sometimes the main counter-argument, knowing French indeed comes with a wide subset of practical advantages in the job market, or while travelling abroad. But, in a country where we maintain an identity and policy of constitutionally entrenched official bilingualism, the process of learning a second language in schooling must be treated as more than a mere economic asset. 

It has not been a particularly easy path for the immersion program throughout Canada, or even plain French-language education outside of Québec. The initial momentum behind the concept came about from grassroots Anglophone parents’ organizations in the early 1970s, and was by no means a paternalistic imposition by Ottawa or any education ministry.  By 1977 Canadian Parents for French operated nationwide to advocate for the implementation of French immersion in school curriculums. 

Yet, despite passionate support in civil society, its adoption has not been particularly enthusiastic by all involved. While the provinces that held a notable French-Canadian population or were adjacent to Québec found the adoption of some degree of French immersion fairly simple, the same could not be said for places where the language did not enjoy the same prominence. Already being slow to adopt any form of immersion program, the Albertan government in 1982 refused to allow the formation of a semi-autonomous French-language school board, despite the reality that their own language programs were sorely lacking. Only through appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada were concerned families able to bypass the uncommitted provincial government to provide this education to their children. Nevertheless, even with some slight upticks in numbers, Alberta, trailing slightly behind British Columbia, remains the province with the lowest enrolment of public students in a French immersion program– standing at approximately 7% of its primary and secondary student population.

As it stands today, the French immersion program is far from a failed experiment. Since its introduction, enrollment in public schools has enjoyed a steady, if slow, growth rate across the country. Particularly in the regions of Canada where it receives more support, both financially and institutionally, the program has been very successful in bringing students to the level of conversational French by the end of their secondary studies. Those that have stuck with it observed nearly 60% of the former students retaining a conversational, if not quite fluent, handling of the language. Unfortunately, this still only accounts for approximately 12% of total Canadian students. For  many others that are placed in the less intensive ‘Core French’ stream, the fluency numbers plummet. Knowing that complete mastery of both languages is an almost impossible, and often impractical, ambition for the country,  what is to be done to correct this massive disparity between language capabilities in young Canadians?

The immediate challenge facing any expansion of the French immersion program is one paired with a broader endemic curse to nearly all public school boards across Canada. Teachers, especially those that have French capabilities, continue to be in short supply. While there is no silver bullet to this issue, a partial solution may come through the simplest of means: salary increase. To be more precise, provinces should mandate that teachers, regardless of seniority within their respective school boards, should enter their field with a moderate percentage increase in base salary (think, 4-5%) if they are capable of demonstrating French proficiency to the level needed to instruct their students. Such an increase is no unprecedented practice for public workers. In the federal civil service, employees capable of demonstrating bilingual proficiency also receive a small, but noticeable yearly bonus. 

This is to be paired with a federal endowment to the provinces intended to bolster the French language within existing teacher’s colleges programs. As it stands, nearly every province outside of Québec offers at least some university programs in elementary or secondary education in French. However, this is not a system that is being expanded by the provinces. Ontario’s recent decision to refuse public funding to the incoming francophone Sudbury University, is emblematic of a general lack of willingness both by the general public and the government to invest in such a large institution. Thus, if we are only able to reform a pre-existing structure, it would be best to do so by making the path of teacher’s colleges one that is both more alluring financially, as well as capable of instilling  language-instruction abilities. 

Now, it is true that the idealistic prospect of French immersion education is not one that has been entirely unproblematic or easy to implement. Due to the current scarcity of the resources to support it, there have in the past been observations of the ‘two-track’ system it creates. That is, students living in or coming from advantageous socioeconomic backgrounds have often had priority, usually due to proximity to the school, in receiving spots in the French immersion stream. Learning in an immersed setting then becomes a prospect left only to the lucky or the privileged- a complete deviation from the spirit of national bilingualism. 

This is also not considering the reality that for many students who are engaged in the French immersion stream, while performing very well within a classroom setting, face the additional challenge of having few spaces to practice outside of school. Understandably, for these students living in primarily Anglophone provinces and lacking French-speaking family members or having peers in the non-French stream, it is difficult to truly entrench an understanding of the language, especially on the oral front.

It is in this larger context that I see the need to offer the admittedly ambitious plan of supplanting the division between ‘French’ and ‘Non-French’ streams. Although federal enforcement would be difficult, public education would massively benefit from universalizing the current French immersion model. In fact, Ottawa would be setting no new precedent by making funding contingent on the adherence of provinces to certain federal mandates. By embracing such a plan, not only will the problem of exclusion which currently persists be thoroughly mitigated, it will also ensure that students, especially those at younger ages, will have a broader base of peers to communicate with in both languages in class and on the playground. In tandem with an increased supply of enthusiastic and well-paid teachers, students will be accommodated in this system in a far greater number than is currently possible.

Although this will be costly, this is a long-term goal that we should nonetheless strive to achieve. Far from only enhancing the educational experience of our youth, this project will help reaffirm the cultural commitment that we made as a nation to the ideal of bilingualism. It is both an investment in Canada’s future generations, and an homage to its past.