tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/french-language-24758/articlesFrench language – The Conversation2024-02-22T12:01:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2238672024-02-22T12:01:17Z2024-02-22T12:01:17ZLearning in two languages: lessons from francophone Africa on what works best<p>Children living in multilingual communities often learn in a language at school that does not match the language they speak at home. This mismatch makes it challenging for them to participate in classroom discussions and learn to read. In turn, this contributes to poor learning outcomes, grade repetition, and dropping out of school.</p>
<p>Bilingual education programmes that include mother tongue languages have become increasingly popular for improving learning outcomes. Bilingual education is associated with better <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728908003386">language and literacy skills</a>, reduced grade repetition and school dropout rates across the <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/10986/10331">globe</a>. Including mother tongue languages in education also places value on children’s cultural identities, improving confidence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09500789808666737">self-esteem</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-012-9308-2">learning</a>. </p>
<p>But simply providing bilingual education does not guarantee better learning results. This is the conclusion of a recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2023.2290482">paper</a> we published in which we reviewed bilingual programmes in six francophone west African countries: Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon. </p>
<p>We found mixed results, across and within countries and programmes.</p>
<p>We identified two sets of factors that constrain or contribute to the quality of bilingual education. These were: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>implementation factors, such as teacher training and classroom resources</p></li>
<li><p>socio-cultural factors, such as perceptions of mother tongue languages in education.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our findings emphasise the need to consider the local context when applying bilingual education programmes. </p>
<h2>Bilingual education in francophone west Africa</h2>
<p>Our research team conducted research in Côte d’Ivoire from 2016 to 2018. We measured children’s language and reading skills in both their mother tongue and in French, and compared outcomes between children attending French-only or bilingual Projet École Intégrée schools. </p>
<p>Children in French-only schools outperformed their peers from bilingual schools on the language and reading <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000723">assessments</a>. Teachers revealed they had better teaching resources and felt better prepared in French-only schools. </p>
<p>We were interested in whether bilingual education programmes in other francophone countries in the region had had similar experiences. In 2022, we searched academic databases for literature in English and French that discussed programme implementation and measured learning and schooling outcomes within bilingual education programmes. We reviewed nine programmes from six countries: Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon. </p>
<p>These countries are former French colonies or territories. French is the official or working language and often the language of instruction in school. However, these countries are highly multilingual. About 23 living <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/">languages</a> are spoken in Niger, <a href="https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/geolinguistics/linguistic-diversity-in-africa-and-europe.html">39</a> in Senegal, <a href="https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/geolinguistics/linguistic-diversity-in-africa-and-europe.html">68</a> in Mali, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1280625/number-of-living-languages-in-africa-by-country/">71</a> in Burkina Faso, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1280625/number-of-living-languages-in-africa-by-country/">78</a> in Côte d’Ivoire and <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1280625/number-of-living-languages-in-africa-by-country/">277</a> in Cameroon. </p>
<p>Our review showed that children can benefit from learning in two languages. This is true whether they are two official languages like in Cameroon’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-019-09510-7">Dual Curriculum Bilingual Education</a> (French and English) schools, or in a mother tongue and French, like in Mali’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/447544">Community Schools</a>. Children can also benefit regardless of whether they are gradually introduced to a language throughout primary school or whether both languages are introduced at the same time.</p>
<p>But a lack of resources, and a failure to take into account local conditions, affected the outcomes. The programmes that resulted in positive schooling and learning outcomes recognised and targeted common school-related and community-related challenges.</p>
<h2>Teacher training and resources</h2>
<p>One common school-related challenge was teachers not having teaching materials in all languages of instruction.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000161121">Pédagogie Convergente</a> programme in Mali, for example, ensured teachers had materials in both French and the mother tongue. Children had better French and maths scores. </p>
<p>But some teachers from the same programme did not always have teaching <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Patterns_of_French_literacy_development.html?id=MoNnAAAAMAAJ&hl=en&redir_esc=y">materials</a> in mother tongue languages. And some children struggled with literacy and writing skills. </p>
<p>Another common challenge was teachers not feeling prepared to teach in all languages, as teacher training often occurred in an official language, like French. The <a href="https://www.adeanet.org/clearinghouse/sites/default/files/docs/interieur_11_burkina_fre.pdf">Programme d’éducation bilingue</a> in Burkina Faso, for example, made an effort to train teachers in the mother tongue language so they felt confident following the bilingual curriculum. </p>
<p>Children in bilingual Burkina Faso schools had higher than average <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802149275">pass rates</a> on the primary certificate exam, <a href="https://www.memoireonline.com/06/22/12997/m_Le-rapport-des-enseignants-aux-langues-nationales-en-tant-que-mdiums-et-matires-den.html">repeated grades less</a>, and stayed in school more than children in traditional French schools. </p>
<p>Both examples are in contrast to the bilingual schools in Côte d’Ivoire, where teachers lacked materials and training in mother tongue languages. In turn, children demonstrated worse language and reading skills compared to their peers in French-only schools.</p>
<h2>Socio-cultural factors</h2>
<p>We identified common community-related challenges, particularly related to community buy-in and perceptions of mother tongue instruction. </p>
<p>For example, families with higher socioeconomic status were worried that Niger’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050208667760">Ecole Experimentale</a> schools would hinder children’s French proficiency and compromise their entry into secondary school. </p>
<p>Programmes such as the <a href="https://ared-edu.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/DC-Senegal-Workshop-Findings_04.2019-FINAL-ENG.pdf">Support Program for Quality Education in Mother Tongues for Primary Schools</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1765968">Senegal</a> worked to combat negative perceptions by educating families about the benefits of bilingual education. Children in the Senegalese programme outperformed their peers in traditional French schools in all school subjects.</p>
<p>The same programmes sometimes experienced different outcomes depending on the community. For example, although children in Burkina Faso’s bilingual schooling showed favourable outcomes, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-021-09885-y">parents</a> felt that French programmes were better suited for continuing to secondary school. </p>
<h2>What does this mean for bilingual education?</h2>
<p>Efforts to provide teachers with the resources they needed, and efforts to foster community support, were both consistently linked with positive schooling and learning outcomes in our review. </p>
<p>However, these efforts might work better in some communities compared to others, due to different resource constraints and socio-cultural differences. Studies that found poorer outcomes also found common challenges present. Therefore, bilingual education has the potential to facilitate positive learning outcomes if efforts are made to overcome common challenges based on communities’ needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bilingual education can improve learning outcomes but it’s important to consider local context.Kaja Jasinska, Assistant Professor, Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of TorontoMary-Claire Ball, PhD student, Developmental Psychology and Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063602024-01-30T20:15:08Z2024-01-30T20:15:08ZSchools have a long way to go to offer equitable learning opportunities, especially in French immersion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537617/original/file-20230716-25-rv538b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C89%2C6000%2C3538&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a research study on the accessibility of French immersion, one parent was told she faced a three-year wait to access reading supports for her child. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Andrew Ebrahim/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/schools-have-a-long-way-to-go-to-offer-equitable-learning-opportunities-especially-in-french-immersion" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Ontario Human Rights Commission’s <a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/right-to-read-inquiry-report">Right to Read report</a>, published last February, called for changes in the province’s educational system. The commission found shortcomings in how schools support students with special education needs. </p>
<p>We found similar trends in our <a href="https://uottawa.scholarsportal.info/ottawa/index.php/ILOB-OLBI/article/view/6618/5553">interview-based study</a> on the accessibility of French immersion for students with special education needs from low-income communities in Toronto. We interviewed eight mothers with diverse socio-economic status, home language and immigration backgrounds on their experiences with the French immersion program. </p>
<p>According to the Right to Read report’s <a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/right-to-read-inquiry-report/appendix-1-list-recommendations">recommendations</a>, children need accessible, effective learning assessments, as well as evidence-based interventions that occur in a timely manner. </p>
<p>These interventions include explicit, systematic programs that focus on <a href="https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/phonics-and-decoding">phonics (teaching the relationships between letters and the sounds of spoken language) and decoding (applying knowledge of letter-sound relationships to written words, or “sounding out”)</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/metalinguistic-awareness">metalinguistic awareness</a> (a larger awareness of language, including an ability to reflect on it) and other skills <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.99">that support reading accuracy and fluency</a>). </p>
<p>Research has highlighted difficulties accessing support for students with special education needs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.20012.kay">in French immersion programs</a>. As we also heard in our study, parents of children with students with special education needs from low-income communities in Toronto faced barriers accessing resources for their children.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reading-struggles-dont-wait-to-advocate-for-your-child-130986">Reading struggles? Don't wait to advocate for your child</a>
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</em>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A school building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571939/original/file-20240129-21-apeyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571939/original/file-20240129-21-apeyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571939/original/file-20240129-21-apeyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571939/original/file-20240129-21-apeyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571939/original/file-20240129-21-apeyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571939/original/file-20240129-21-apeyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571939/original/file-20240129-21-apeyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A report published by the TDSB found students without special needs represent 90 per cent of students in French immersion and 78 per cent of students in the board overall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Marginalized students underrepresented</h2>
<p>French immersion programs have become increasingly popular <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjnse/article/view/74139">across Canada</a>, since students who learn both English and French in school may <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/228709/pdf">benefit from increased intercultural awareness</a>, easier travel throughout Canada, better access to bilingual jobs as well as potential <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.63.5.605">developmental and social benefits</a>.</p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4922887/french-immersion-school-canada-demand-teachers/">high demand</a> for French immersion in Canada, and the program is often perceived as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1865988">an elitist system</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/french-immersion-and-other-regional-learning-programs-smart-choice-for-your-kids-or-do-they-fuel-inequity-195184">French immersion and other regional learning programs: Smart choice for your kids, or do they fuel inequity?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/0/docs/TDSB%20French%20Programs%20Review%20Mar082019.pdf">Toronto District School board (TDSB) French immersion report released in 2019</a>, marginalized students are underrepresented in its immersion programs. For example, the report — based on registration and census information — noted that in grades 7-8:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>49 per cent of students identify as white in French immersion and 30 per cent in the board overall;</p></li>
<li><p>students without special needs represent 90 per cent of students in French immersion and 78 per cent of students in the board overall;</p></li>
<li><p>Students whose family income is $100,000 and over represent 66 per cent of students in French immersion and 47 per cent of students in the board overall;</p></li>
<li><p>Children from families who speak English at home represent 63 per cent of French immersion classes and 35 per cent of the board overall.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Reading struggles</h2>
<p>Emily (not her real name) is one of the mothers who participated in our study. She has seen the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77cz9iUeDaY&t=82s">high cost of disability in our school systems</a>. With her permission, we have shared her story below to illustrate her family’s experience in a French immersion program.</p>
<p>Emily enrolled all of her three children in a French immersion program. Emily’s eldest child excelled in immersion, and continued to study French into university. However, Emily’s two youngest were struggling to read in French. The teachers assured her that her children would catch up in time and there was no need to worry. </p>
<p>Shockingly for Emily, once her middle child reached Grade 3, she was suddenly informed that her child was reading at a kindergarten level. </p>
<p>However, the wait to be assessed was approximately three years — meaning this child might be in Grade 6 before they received any formal assessment and intervention support. </p>
<p>At the suggestion of the school’s administration, Emily agreed to pay $3,500 for an external evaluation. She said about the experience:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I’ll never forget it, having that SST (school support team) meeting. I’m in front of the psychologist and all these different people and I literally lost control. The head of special education, she said, ‘It’s okay.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not crying because my daughter has a learning disability. I’ve come to terms with that.’ I said, ‘I’m crying because I had to pay $3,500 dollars …’… How many kids are falling through the cracks?’ That was very disconcerting for me. I was heartbroken.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A hand writing on French homework." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540522/original/file-20230801-17-ko6dda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540522/original/file-20230801-17-ko6dda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540522/original/file-20230801-17-ko6dda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540522/original/file-20230801-17-ko6dda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540522/original/file-20230801-17-ko6dda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540522/original/file-20230801-17-ko6dda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540522/original/file-20230801-17-ko6dda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schools have a long way to go to offer equitable learning opportunities for all students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Insufficient special education support</h2>
<p>Even after spending an exorbitant amount of money, Emily found out the hard way that there wasn’t sufficient special education support in French immersion for her child. She ended up removing her middle child from the immersion program the next year. Emily’s middle child did get the support she needed in the English program.</p>
<p>This is just one example of the stories we heard in our research study on the accessibility of French immersion. </p>
<p>Emily’s question stayed with us throughout our work: How many students are falling through the cracks? </p>
<p>The truth is, we don’t really know. Based on the attrition rates in French immersion from the TDSB, it must be high. According to a <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/0/docs/TDSB%20French%20Programs%20Review%20Mar082019.pdf">2019 report published by the TDSB,</a> from the early French immersion cohort where students start in senior kindergarten, approximately 70 per cent of the students have left the program by Grade 9.</p>
<h2>Need for early intervention</h2>
<p>In our study, one parent was told that her child couldn’t be assessed until Grade 3, which contradicts <a href="https://www.readingrockets.org/article/importance-early-intervention">evidence-based best practices</a> that call for early assessment and intervention. </p>
<p>Parents also said they often feel pressure to pay for expensive tutors, French summer camps and other language immersion opportunities so their children don’t fall behind. </p>
<p>They reported spending a lot of time supporting their children’s studies despite not speaking the language of instruction, and this ends up becoming an emotional and financial burden.</p>
<h2>Ensuring changes are implemented equitably</h2>
<p>Following the Right to Read inquiry, the Government of Ontario committed to sweeping change such as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/right-to-read-inquiry-report-literacy-ontario-1.6378408">mandating early literacy screening</a>. We have also seen a huge amount of <a href="https://www.idaontario.com/effective-reading-instruction/">professional learning</a> for teachers. Ensuring that positive change yielded by these approaches are effective in French immersion programs is critical. </p>
<p>We know that individual resilience and community support networks aren’t enough to combat systemic barriers. </p>
<p>We still have a long way to go if we want our school system to be an equitable learning opportunity for all students — particularly in immersion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206360/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Burchell receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Xi Chen receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird has received funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roksana Dobrin-De Grace receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p>Parents in a study about the accessibility of French immersion programs discussed inadequate support for learning to read and feeling pressured to pay for expensive tutors.Diana Burchell, PhD Candidate in Developmental Psychology and Education, University of TorontoBecky Xi Chen, Professor, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of TorontoElizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, Professor Emeritus, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Dalhousie UniversityRoksana Dobrin-De Grace, PhD Student in Developmental Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180172024-01-21T12:59:10Z2024-01-21T12:59:10ZAnti-racist, culturally responsive French immersion: Listening to racialized students is an important step towards equitable education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562480/original/file-20231129-19-xh48rb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4256%2C2765&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A study saw racialized students in Ontario French immersion programs write monologues and stories about their experiences, and also invited immersion stakeholders like teachers and parents to give feedback on
race and racism in Ontario immersion programs. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CDC)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/anti-racist-culturally-responsive-french-immersion-listening-to-racialized-students-is-an-important-step-towards-equitable-education" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://education.macleans.ca/feature/just-say-non-the-problem-with-french-immersion/">Debates among researchers, educators and parents</a> continue about the successes and challenges with French immersion programs across English-speaking parts of Canada.</p>
<p>Programs are criticized for being elitist by some and praised for being exceptional by others. </p>
<p>My master’s research <a href="https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2023.32817">showed how Ontario and Toronto French immersion policies exacerbate inequities</a>, finding that program locations favoured middle-class students, curricula demonstrated a Eurocentric focus and colonial lens and program entry-points favoured established residents over newcomers.</p>
<p>My PhD work research has relied upon a collective creation research method known <a href="https://learninglandscapes.ca/index.php/learnland/article/view/1024/1040">as “playbuilding”</a> to propose ways French immersion programs can be more culturally responsive and anti-racist.</p>
<h2>Issues in French immersion</h2>
<p><a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793612731/French-Immersion-Ideologies-in-Canada">Research about students in Alberta has shown</a> that language levels of French immersion graduates are low and many lack confidence in their French skills.</p>
<p>French immersion programs have been known to exclude many students, particularly those with <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/0/docs/TDSB%20French%20Programs%20Review%20Mar082019.pdf">special education needs, multilingual learners, immigrants and lower-income students</a>. In the past, some immersion programs even <a href="https://www.peelschools.org/documents/Elementary-FI-Program-Review.pdf/Elementary-FI-Program-Review.pdf">required IQ testing for admission</a>. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2023.32817">immersion programs in Toronto mainly found in white, middle-class areas</a>, it is unsurprising that white, middle-class students are the most present in Toronto programs.</p>
<p>In the Toronto District School Board, research about French immersion enrolment shows inequitable demographics have been <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/0/docs/TDSB%20French%20Programs%20Review%20Mar082019.pdf">improving in terms of racial and multilingual representation of enrolled students</a>. However, it also shows programs remain dominated by white, middle-class, anglophone students with few learning exceptionalities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black student seen sitting and reading between two white students." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566494/original/file-20231219-29-8mt8ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566494/original/file-20231219-29-8mt8ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566494/original/file-20231219-29-8mt8ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566494/original/file-20231219-29-8mt8ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566494/original/file-20231219-29-8mt8ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566494/original/file-20231219-29-8mt8ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566494/original/file-20231219-29-8mt8ha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">French immersion programs in the Toronto District School Board are still dominated by white students with few learning exceptionalities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley for EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Documenting student experiences</h2>
<p>French immersion is a heavily researched program; however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/glottopol.4039">research has largely ignored racial identity and racism</a>. </p>
<p>I invited French immersion stakeholders (like teachers, parents, staff and professors in teacher education programs) to engage with stories of racial minority students in Ontario French immersion programs, and my own experiences as a racialized French immersion teacher.</p>
<p>Firstly, my online study recruited two Black and one South Asian French immersion students from Ontario, aged 16–20. Over the course of two weeks, participants created monologues and wrote stories about their experiences as racial minority students in French immersion programs. Stories and monologues are <a href="https://mkunnas.wixsite.com/race-in-fi">available on our website</a>.</p>
<p>In the second stage of research, 39 French immersion stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, staff and professors in teacher education programs) viewed our website and responded to an online survey reacting to stories and suggestions for improving immersion. The findings from stage two support the findings from stage one.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A brown girl teen seen in discussion." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566682/original/file-20231219-29-bpakcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566682/original/file-20231219-29-bpakcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566682/original/file-20231219-29-bpakcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566682/original/file-20231219-29-bpakcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566682/original/file-20231219-29-bpakcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566682/original/file-20231219-29-bpakcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566682/original/file-20231219-29-bpakcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students wrote stories about their experiences as racial minority students in French immersion programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley for EDU images)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cultural learning and representation</h2>
<p>Cultural learning is required by the <a href="https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/fsl18-2013curr.pdf">French as a second language (including French immersion) curriculum</a>. Each grade focuses on different local or global cultures to help develop students’ intercultural competence. </p>
<p>For example, Grade 1 French immersion focuses on local francophone communities, Grade 8 focuses on France and Grade 10 focuses on French-speaking Africa and Asia. No matter the cultural focus, the curriculum calls for the inclusion of “diverse French speaking communities” in every grade.</p>
<p>Students in my study recounted that they did not learn about diverse French cultures. In some cases, they were not discussing culture at all. Students’ own cultures and races were also absent from their learning. </p>
<p>The representation in students’ learning was overwhelmingly white and European or Québécois. The lack of diversity is not representative of the curriculum or the reality of the French speaking world, which is <a href="http://observatoire.francophonie.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/LFDM-Synthese-Anglais.pdf">over 50 per cent people of colour</a>. </p>
<h2>Unchecked racism</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-critical-race-theory-make-people-so-uncomfortable-176125">In a racially structured and racist society</a>, the presence of racism in immersion programs is hardly shocking. However, the participants revealed many instances where racism could have been interrupted and was not.</p>
<p>In general, participants’ schools had a culture of racism where racist acts and speech (committed by students, teachers and administrators) were allowed to continue unchecked. </p>
<p>In many cases, teachers were not willing to intervene when racist incidents occurred in their French classes. In one case, a teacher even let a student use a racist French term repeatedly. </p>
<p>A few participants expressed that some teachers and administrators interrupt racism. However, even these teachers were not integrating anti-racist teaching (that is, integrating diverse racial representations and empowering students to combat racism and oppression).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-youth-yearn-for-black-teachers-to-disrupt-the-daily-silencing-of-their-experiences-177279">Black youth yearn for Black teachers to disrupt the daily silencing of their experiences</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566505/original/file-20231219-27-w516e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566505/original/file-20231219-27-w516e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566505/original/file-20231219-27-w516e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566505/original/file-20231219-27-w516e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566505/original/file-20231219-27-w516e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566505/original/file-20231219-27-w516e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566505/original/file-20231219-27-w516e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Educators have important roles in integrating diverse racial representations and empowering students to combat racism and oppression.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley for EDU Images)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Call for change</h2>
<p>Students should not be subjected to racism and should be learning about the diverse realities of the French-speaking world so they can see themselves as legitimate French speakers. </p>
<p>Listening to the voices of racial minority students in French immersion programs in dialogue with research documenting program inequities is an important step towards creating more inclusive French immersion programs and schools. </p>
<p>The preliminary findings of my study, in conjunction with earlier research documenting a Eurocentric focus and colonial lens in Ontario and Toronto immersion programs, point to the need for <a href="https://omlta.org/how-to-be-an-anti-racist-educator-series">supporting anti-racist</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FikFP9lnIcQ">culturally responsive teaching and intercultural awareness</a> to make programs more welcoming to all students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218017/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marika Kunnas receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Listening to voices of racialized students in French immersion matters for creating more inclusive schooling.Marika Kunnas, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Education, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110632023-08-23T16:33:00Z2023-08-23T16:33:00ZProtecting endangered languages feels right, but does it really help people?<p>Headlines <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/16/linguists-language-culture-loss-end-of-century-sea-levels-rise">abound</a> with the <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25834430-800-the-unique-vanishing-languages-that-hold-secrets-about-how-we-think/">plight</a> of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/we-will-save-this-one-desperate-effort-to-save-a-language-and-way-of-life-20190404-p51ar6.html">endangered</a> minority <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/more-than-40-languages-may-be-heading-for-extinction-officials-1172251-2018-02-18">languages</a> around the <a href="https://www.timeout.com/news/mapped-the-most-endangered-languages-in-the-world-right-now-033122">world</a>. Read a few of these and you’ll see some common themes: the rising number of languages dying worldwide, the distressing isolation of individual last speakers, and the wider cultural loss for humanity.</p>
<p>These stories often mention efforts to protect such languages. This is seen as a way to buttress their speakers’ sense of identity, to resist the grinding homogenisation of globalisation, and to set right minorities’ historical marginalisation. However, these stories tend to focus less on how such efforts materially help speakers of endangered languages. As I explore in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12463">peer-reviewed, open-access article</a>, such efforts sometimes help, sometimes harm, and sometimes they do both at once.</p>
<h2>Questions of identity</h2>
<p>Encouraging someone to keep speaking – or to learn anew – a shrinking minority language could certainly buttress his or her sense of identity. But when a bigger language is adopted somewhere, it doesn’t erase everything that came before. Often, intense contact between big and small languages leads to a fascinating new mixture – for example, <a href="https://hir.harvard.edu/sheng-in-kenya/">Sheng in Kenya</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.24.09mes">Tsotsitaal in South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/journal-gbaye-ivorian-street-slang-nouchi/">Nouchi in Côte d'Ivoire</a>.</p>
<p>In other cases, such language contact results in something closer to the incoming language, a new localised dialect. But as <a href="https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-traces-that-we-cant-shift/">linguist Peter Trudgill argues</a>, this too can hold a highly local identity. In another study in Ghana, one <a href="https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.33.2.03ofo">research interviewee</a> says of the localised form of English: “I own this language that everyone speaks”. Similarly in Singapore, “Singlish” (a mix of English, Cantonese, Malay, and others) holds an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2021.1997710">important identity function</a>. After all, these different new varieties are spoken nowhere else on earth.</p>
<p>These new contact-based vernaculars are globally unique, and many are spoken by disadvantaged minorities, but nobody calls for them to be celebrated or protected. Indeed, they are often looked down upon – for example, Singapore’s government has <a href="https://www.languagecouncils.sg/goodenglish/resources/grammar-rules/singaporean-blunders">a campaign to eradicate the “blunders” of Singlish</a>. Linguistically, though, these are just as fully structured as any other language. Perhaps it’s harder to romanticise something new than something old.</p>
<h2>Addressing historical wrongs</h2>
<p>The theme of righting historical wrongs among minority groups assumes they will somehow benefit from defence of their language. Sure enough, enabling a people to use their traditional language can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006920920939">make them feel better about themselves</a>. But is it really <em>helping</em> them? Let’s take this one step at a time.</p>
<p>If a people lost their language after being oppressed by colonialism and then further trampled on by rampant globalism, they probably lost a whole lot more than language. Canadian researcher Chris Lalonde focused his work on health and well-being in Canada’s indigenous communities, and what he found was much more complicated. A <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/j.cogdev.2007.02.001">co-authored report</a> did find positive effects of increased fluency in their native languages, but here comes the most important – and politically most difficult – point. In a later analysis (chapter 30 of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/p/book/9781138690431">this book</a>), he and his colleagues showed that simply promoting language on its own – even language <em>and</em> indigenous culture – was not influential on a fundamental measure of well-being, suicide rates:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“While culture [and language are] important, it is the integration of social, family, education and training, job creation and other elements that bring cohesion to a community. Indigenous youth suicide must be addressed as a community by forming community cohesion.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Simply adding your ancestral language as a new school subject isn’t very helpful if your school is falling down, you’re not eating well, your people are <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/oip-cjs/oip-cjs-en.pdf">disproportionately incarcerated</a>, or you don’t have adequate political representation. To think anything much can be solved just by performing CPR on a minority language is to ignore how complicated human society is, and how many different simultaneous needs we have.</p>
<h2>Details matter</h2>
<p>If it’s possible to intervene but not really help, is it also possible to intervene and cause harm? Let’s look at a couple of examples.</p>
<p>In Wales, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language#Status">legal recognition of the Welsh language</a> has been momentous, countering centuries of denigration and decline. There have been significant benefits, but closer inspection reveals drawbacks as well.</p>
<p>Welsh is currently taught in schools across Wales, and that’s good news for families, be they Welsh- or English-speaking. Some schools use Welsh a bit, some a lot, and an <a href="https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Education-and-Skills/Schools-and-Teachers/Schools-Census/Pupil-Level-Annual-School-Census/Schools/schools-by-localauthorityregion-welshmediumtype">increasing number use only Welsh</a>. According to the 2021 census, only around <a href="https://www.gov.wales/welsh-language-wales-census-2021-html">20% of Wales’s population</a> (538,300) is fluent in Welsh and the government’s plan is to <a href="https://www.gov.wales/cymraeg-2050-welsh-language-strategy">reverse that decline</a> and reach 1 million speakers by 2050.</p>
<p>It’s an ambitious goal, and requires children from non-Welsh-speaking families to attend Welsh-medium schools. Sometimes parents actively choose this – indeed, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-63784681">it’s often prized</a> – while in other cases it’s the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/20/storm-welsh-only-schools-minority-language">only option</a>. Either way, there are upsides and downsides.</p>
<p>On the one hand, students who leave school with Welsh proficiency go on to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1680990.stm">earn more on average</a> than their monolingual peers, at least within Wales. There is also cultural enrichment that comes with any additional language, and some studies have suggested bilinguals generally enjoy cognitive advantages in life, though the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000301">evidence is mixed</a>. But on the other hand, those who didn’t speak Welsh before entering a Welsh-medium school <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2012.706248">often struggle</a> and their grades can suffer. Overall, Welsh-medium schools report <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/27969/1/161206-pisa-2015-en.pdf">lower grades</a> than English-medium schools (page 120 of that linked report has some sobering detail), and this despite <a href="https://senedd.wales/writtenquestionsdocuments/answerstothewrittenassemblyquestionsforansweron13may2013(pdf,95kb)-13052013-246535/waq20130513-cymraeg.doc">receiving equal or higher funding</a>. </p>
<p>As is to be expected, Wales’s ambitious plan to substantially increase the use of Welsh brings with it many challenges. These include a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-65639738">shortage of teachers fluent in Welsh</a>, reported <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2012.676622">tensions between Welsh- and English-medium students</a>, and difficulties accommodating <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2023.2186835">children with additional learning needs</a>. Understanding and facing up to these and other challenges could enable a more accommodating and ameliorative approach.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Canada and French flags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C2560%2C1686&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While French remains a majority language in Quebec, the percentage of native speakers has fallen slightly despite numerous laws to protect and promote it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2016-08_Canada_Quebec_Flags.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another example is in Canada, where French is a minority language that has been <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/statistics-canada-to-release-2021-census-data-on-languages-today">declining for decades</a>. In Québec, French remains dominant, with just under 75% of residents having it as their native language, but the percentage has <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-proportion-of-french-speakers-in-canada-declines-everywhere-except/">fallen slightly over the past five years</a> despite muscular policies to promote its use.</p>
<p>Most recently, in 2022 the Québec Legislature passed <a href="https://www.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_client/lois_et_reglements/LoisAnnuelles/en/2022/2022C14A.PDF">Bill 96</a>, which among other changes, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9739267/quebec-french-bill-96-changes/">requires civil servants</a> to exclusively use French for official speech and writing, with certain exceptions. While the government has said that the bill will not affect access to health care and social services in English, medical professionals and students have expressed serious concerns about the <a href="https://healthydebate.ca/2022/07/topic/bill-96-quebec-health-care/">law’s potential impacts</a>. This is an example of the prioritisation of language even in matters as essential as health care, yet it’s unclear if the law will actually improve Québec residents’ lives, or even help preserve French in Québec.</p>
<h2>Uncomfortable questions</h2>
<p>These are uncomfortable questions to ask given the scale of minority language loss worldwide, alongside an acrid legacy of colonialism and repression. However, it’s in no one’s interests to cause new problems while trying to right past wrongs.</p>
<p>So, next time you see a media report about efforts to preserve a minority language, think whether they’ll be part of a broader range of support. Next, consider potential unintended negative consequences, and how those balance against the positive ones.</p>
<p>Promoting endangered languages can be a positive force, but we shouldn’t assume that’s universally true. In the end – and this is especially difficult for a linguist to say – perhaps we should focus less on languages in themselves, and pay more attention to the lives of the people who speak them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Sayers ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Media accounts on endangered languages abound, but they don’t always explore how to materially help native speakers. Peer-reviewed research shows that such efforts don’t always have positive effects.Dave Sayers, Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics, University of JyväskyläLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063652023-05-28T11:33:28Z2023-05-28T11:33:28ZOttawa is doing little to eliminate discrimination against French-speaking African students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528345/original/file-20230525-29-jvfks9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1908%2C1261&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser at a press conference in Ottawa on April 19, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Canadian Press/Spencer Colby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The fact that Immigration Canada discriminates against Black students from French-speaking Africa is something researchers and <a href="https://theconversation.com/immigration-canada-discrimine-les-etudiants-dafrique-francophone-voici-ce-que-quebec-devrait-faire-pour-y-mettre-fin-193045">observers of Québec and Canadian politics</a> have been documenting and denouncing for years. </p>
<p>Once again this month, we learned from a study by the <a href="https://institutduquebec.ca">Institut du Québec (IDQ)</a> that the <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/the-federal-government-is-turning-away-too-many-international-students-in-quebec-report-1.6403931">federal government is refusing half of the applications for study permits to foreign students who were selected by Québec</a> and accepted by a Québec university. This figure increases to 72 per cent for African students.</p>
<p><a href="https://montreal.citynews.ca/2023/05/18/federal-government-refuses-more-foreign-students-quebec/">Denunciation of this discrimination</a>, and of the federal government’s inaction on it, goes far beyond the circle of immigration experts. Leaders of French-language higher education institutions, political actors and civil society are now speaking out as well. </p>
<p>As researchers in the fields of political sociology and the sociological and ethnological study of nationalisms and interethnic relations, we are interested in social transformations in Québec and Canada, as well as social representations of immigration. </p>
<p>On a global scale, this discrimination sends a very bad message to Canada’s partners in the <a href="https://www.francophonie.org"><em>Organisation internationale de la francophonie</em></a>. At the Canadian level, it has an impact on the vitality of institutions in <a href="https://onfr.tfo.org/etablissements-francophones-refus-etudiants-africains-canada-ircc-trudeau-fraser/">francophone communities outside Québec</a>. </p>
<p>At the Québec level, it has an impact on the vitality of programs in <a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/676302/immigration-les-regions-plus-touchees-par-les-refus-d-etudiants-etrangers">regional colleges and universities</a>. At the Montréal level, it also has an impact on the vitality of French language higher education institutions and, in particular, on the capacity of the Université du Québec to fulfill its social mission. </p>
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<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/immigration-canada-discrimine-les-etudiants-dafrique-francophone-voici-ce-que-quebec-devrait-faire-pour-y-mettre-fin-193045">Immigration Canada discrimine les étudiants d’Afrique francophone. Voici ce que Québec devrait faire pour y mettre fin</a>
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<h2>Québec has done its homework</h2>
<p>This situation was well known when the Liberal Party of Canada became a minority government in 2019. It was also known when the same government won again in 2021, still as a minority government. The data just published by the IDQ are indisputable: the situation continued in 2022. </p>
<p>Although there have been modest <a href="https://www.applyboard.com/applyinsights-article/canadian-provincial-study-permit-trends-francophone-african-countries-drive-growth-in-quebec">improvements in some places</a>, this has not reversed a stubborn and persistent underlying trend. The data show that despite warnings, denunciations and investigations by many journalists, Immigration Canada is still dragging its feet. </p>
<p>The Québec government has not always been immune to criticism in this area. The immigration reform piloted in 2020 by Simon Jolin-Barrette <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/legault-can-no-longer-look-the-other-way-with-jolin-barrette-opposition-says">drew criticism for a variety of reasons</a>. One of these was a change to the Québec Experience Program that slowed, if not hindered access to citizenship for foreign students studying in Québec. </p>
<p>Québec’s new immigration minister, Christine Fréchette, has been much more <a href="https://www.immigration.ca/quebec-set-to-relax-criteria-for-peq-quebec-experience-class-immigration-program/">far-sighted, informed and pragmatic</a>. Her promise to reorient the Québec government’s immigration policy is in tune with the higher education community. These circles have long recognized the importance of offering a fast track to citizenship for students who have gotten work experience through their studies, internships and the networks they developed in Québec. </p>
<h2>Immigration Canada’s inaction is incomprehensible</h2>
<p>This shift by Québec’s Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration is in line with the informed opinions of Quebec’s higher education institutions. It also brings hope to Montréal’s French-language higher education community, which has been complaining for several years that it is not competing on a level playing field with English-language institutions of higher learning. </p>
<p>The latter operate in a completely different market than French-language universities. Since the removal of the ceiling on fees for foreign students, English-language higher education institutions have been earning significantly more revenue than French-language institutions. <a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/idees/787251/education-il-faut-sauver-la-mission-de-l-uqam">Many actors in the education sector have denounced</a> how this systemic inequality reduces the attractiveness of French-language institutions, and in particular, the ability of the Université du Québec network to fulfill its mission of academic and social integration. </p>
<p>Faced with this major change in direction by the Québec government, the inaction of Immigration Canada is all the more incomprehensible. </p>
<p>After Sean Fraser blamed his department’s discriminatory practices on <a href="https://theconversation.com/canada-should-be-transparent-in-how-it-uses-ai-to-screen-immigrants-157841">algorithmic errors</a>, <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2023/02/20/immigration-minister-defends-departments-multi-million-dollar-contracts-with-mckinsey-but-immigration-lawyers-slam-the-resulting-product-as-crappy/378899/">subcontracted the work of its officials to the McKinsey firm</a>, acknowledged a problem of <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/canadas-immigration-minister-says-he-wants-to-look-into-issue-of-potential-discrimination-and-bias-within-department">systemic discrimination within its own organization</a> and promised to address this problem, the 2022 figures from his department show the same misfires and the same discriminatory practices as in previous years. </p>
<p>In an embarrassing moment, the <a href="https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/2023-05-18/permis-d-etudes-pour-etudiants-etrangers/le-federal-veut-faire-mieux-mais-se-felicite-des-progres.php">Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister was asked to defend his record</a>. The slight increase in acceptances that she mentioned does not meet the legitimate expectations of students whose applications have been accepted by a Québec institution. </p>
<h2>Minister Fraser no longer has the legitimacy required</h2>
<p>Ottawa must draw conclusions from this new data. If the Trudeau government were not championing the fight against systemic racism in every forum, it might be possible to overlook this lack of credibility on the part of its minister. But at this point, federal Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Fraser no longer has the legitimacy to retain this file.</p>
<p>The failure of the Liberal Party to act on such an important issue for Québec and Canada’s francophone communities is regrettable. It casts a shadow over the important success of the <a href="https://www.clo-ocol.gc.ca/en/language-rights/modernized-act">update of the Official Languages Act</a>, the passage of which was rightly celebrated by both federal and Québec governments. </p>
<p>If we want to celebrate the new version of the Official Languages Act, we must be consistent and provide access to French-language higher education institutions to all students who want to contribute to the vibrancy of Canada’s francophone communities. </p>
<p>We should be pleased that the Québec government got this message. It is more than regrettable that it is taking so long for Ottawa to understand it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206365/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Despite denunciations of discrimination against French-speaking students who want to settle in Canada, particularly Africans, the federal government does not seem to want to act.Frédérick Guillaume Dufour, Professeur en sociologie politique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Madeleine Pastinelli, Professeur de sociologie, Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2020782023-05-04T11:54:40Z2023-05-04T11:54:40ZUK students are abandoning language learning, so we’re looking for a more creative approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519052/original/file-20230403-16-youwpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C0%2C7200%2C4796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/learning-languages-online-audiobooks-concept-books-339642275">Maxx-Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a storm brewing for modern language education in the UK. The uptake in higher education has <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1764/BAR35-04-Kenny-Barnes.pdf">more than halved</a> in the past 15 years. And in the same period, ten modern language university departments have closed, while a further nine have been significantly downsized. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, language provision in schools is patchy. There are substantial regional differences, and only <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/08/millions-of-pupils-in-england-had-no-language-teaching-in-lockdowns-survey">half</a> of pupils in England learn a language at GCSE level. Together, these issues have created an <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/4437/Languages-learning-in-higher-education-November_2022_vf.pdf">overall problem</a> with access to language learning.</p>
<p>Given these challenges, as language lecturers we believe the way we teach and assess modern languages in our universities needs a <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-one-in-65-new-students-chooses-a-modern-language-degree-we-need-a-rethink-37768">rethink</a>. That’s why we want to explore how more creativity in the subject could help to make language learning more attractive and sustainable in the future. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/english-is-not-enough-british-children-face-major-disadvantage-when-it-comes-to-language-skills-110386">English is not enough – British children face major disadvantage when it comes to language skills</a>
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<p>Despite numbers that suggest an overall sector decline, <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/language-trends-2019.pdf">current trends</a> indicate that it is mostly single honours studies with one language and traditional language choices such as German, French, Italian and Spanish that are affected by dwindling numbers. Combination degrees, especially with non-European languages, appear to be <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/4437/Languages-learning-in-higher-education-November_2022_vf.pdf">relatively stable</a>.</p>
<p>So, departments offering single language degree combinations and more traditional languages could see these trends as an opportunity to reevaluate their approach.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman wearing a pink top stands with arms crossed in front of a chalkboard, which features a range of words in different languages which mean " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519087/original/file-20230403-26-ktzjp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519087/original/file-20230403-26-ktzjp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519087/original/file-20230403-26-ktzjp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519087/original/file-20230403-26-ktzjp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519087/original/file-20230403-26-ktzjp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519087/original/file-20230403-26-ktzjp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519087/original/file-20230403-26-ktzjp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Should making podcasts, art installations and clowning be considered as part of language learning degrees?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/learning-foreign-languages-142539865">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In higher education, traditional language teaching and assessment methods involve continuous assessment in four typical language learning areas: grammar, translation, listening and oral. On top of that, there is presentation and essay work, as well as oral and written exams. </p>
<p>Traditional language testing relies on memorisation of vocabulary or grammar to measure student performance. In contrast, feedback-based assessment in the form of written language tasks or translation can have a positive effect that goes beyond a person’s limited ability to use the language in pre-defined contexts. But it is also very <a href="https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd39858.pdf">subjective and time-consuming</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, artificial intelligence software such as <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt">ChatGPT</a>, which generates detailed written answers to questions, or <a href="https://www.deepl.com/en/translator">Deep L</a>, which can translate texts with high accuracy, make take-home written assignments <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/13/end-of-the-essay-uk-lecturers-assessments-chatgpt-concerns-ai">vulnerable to cheating, plagiarism</a> and superficial learning. </p>
<p>Neither memorisation or feedback-based testing encourages students to apply their language learning to real-life situations. Language is more <a href="https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/creativity-modern-foreign-languages-teaching-and-learning">complex</a> than simple memorisation, translation tasks or essay writing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People wearing headphones sit in booths, each looking at a screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519867/original/file-20230406-24-rx2d0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519867/original/file-20230406-24-rx2d0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519867/original/file-20230406-24-rx2d0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519867/original/file-20230406-24-rx2d0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519867/original/file-20230406-24-rx2d0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519867/original/file-20230406-24-rx2d0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519867/original/file-20230406-24-rx2d0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How a typical language laboratory would have looked decades ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/3989339979/">Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science</a></span>
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<p>An alternative approach that is rarely used in language learning would be to include more creativity in assessment. Creative assessment in modern languages can be any artistically-inspired exercise aimed at measuring a student’s performance. </p>
<p>Examples of artistic research and creative assessment could include blog writing, podcasts, animation and art installations, creating graphic novels, writing poetry, painting, photography and even clowning. </p>
<p>If a student were to write and direct a <a href="https://creativemodernlanguages.uk/2022/11/25/womens-writing-in-latin-america-short-films/">short film based on women’s writing in Latin America</a>, it could provide lecturers with endless opportunities for creative, task-specific and more individualised feedback that is less repetitive. It would also provide a productive opening for more student group work, for critical reflection that goes beyond simple essay questions and could add valuable skills to a student’s CV.</p>
<p>Currently, creative assessments are mostly limited to theatre and art schools or to creative writing departments. We argue that ignoring such an approach in our subject area diminishes the potential <a href="https://www.cscjes.org.uk/articles/cbca5ccb-3272-4274-830c-66b5355d02d8">cultural, subjective and creative value of modern languages</a> because it neglects opportunities for intercultural, social and artistic exploration. </p>
<p>We already know that <a href="https://innovateinstructionignitelearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GajdaKarwowskiBeghetto-metaGPAvscreativity.pdf">being more creative improves learning</a> in general. Plenty of research has been done looking at how creativity improves academic outcomes across age ranges and topics, including <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-need-to-engage-students%E2%80%99-creative-thinking-in-Smare/dd9037fb1cf52e9f766933a91a0380e0c7cae91a">language learning</a>. </p>
<p>We think such <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Engaging-students%E2%80%99-imaginations-in-second-language-Judson-Egan/2ed8f9873be3a74e08bd6d7faa68caeb28fb538f">findings</a> should be applied practically to language learning to encourage students to approach their studies in different, more interesting ways. And this could ultimately inspire more students to study modern languages at university. Given the significant decline language teaching is facing, it’s vital that we look for and test such approaches.</p>
<h2>Creativity</h2>
<p>As a start, we’ve launched the <a href="https://creativemodernlanguages.uk">Creative Modern Languages project</a>. It’s an initiative that provides university researchers, students and teachers with an open-access modern languages hub. We are hoping that it will help to identify the best examples of creativity in language learning and act as a catalyst for more creative types of teaching, assessment and research.</p>
<p>There are some caveats, however. We acknowledge that implementing such changes may be met with fears and restrictions. Some colleagues say they are worried about time constraints and the administrative burden that may come with introducing creative assessment. They have also expressed concerns about not <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10400419.2017.1360061">feeling creative enough</a>, a lack of funding and increased workload. </p>
<p>But it is clear to us that implementing more creative forms of research and assessment in modern languages is necessary for attracting students in the future and countering the potential negative effects of AI technology. </p>
<p>What we are hoping to do is to encourage an ongoing discussion about more creative types of research and assessment in modern languages. Ultimately, it could help to introduce more students to the joys of other languages, people and cultures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Mangold received funding from the British Academy for the research mentioned in this article (Talent Development Award 2021). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Pogoda received funding from the British Academy for the research mentioned in this article (Talent Development Award 2021).</span></em></p>The number of students studying languages in UK universities has plummeted in recent years but some creative thinking may help to reverse that trend.Alex Mangold, Lecturer in German, Aberystwyth UniversitySarah Pogoda, Senior Lecturer in German, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2008882023-04-11T20:32:11Z2023-04-11T20:32:11ZAdding charter schools to Ontario would exacerbate student inequities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519396/original/file-20230404-14-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C53%2C3972%2C2324&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School closures related to labour disputes and the pandemic prompted some commentators to call for charter schools. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents and other advocates who are dissatisfied with the current state of public schooling often call for the expansion of school choice. </p>
<p>In Ontario, this erupted following school closures <a href="https://financialpost.com/opinion/cupe-strike-school-choice-ontario-education">as a result of labour disputes</a> and COVID-19. Some commentators <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/heres-what-school-choice-in-ontario-could-look-like-for-parents">and think tanks have suggested</a> charter schooling is a viable option for students in Ontario. <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charter-schools#:%7E:text=Alberta%20is%20the%20only%20province,and%20permit%20more%20parental%20choice.">Alberta is the only province in Canada to have charter schools</a> and has had them for nearly 30 years. </p>
<p><a href="https://openlibrary-repo.ecampusontario.ca/jspui/handle/123456789/673">Charter schools</a> are a specific type of alternative education that is publicly funded in a manner specified in the school’s charter. Their governance is handled by charter board members, as opposed to the local school board — a significant distinction from other alternative schools. </p>
<p>Typically, the charter board consists of parents, instructors and community members, whereas other public schools are governed by officials elected by public vote. Charter schools are in charge of all their own hires and admissions, and report directly to the government.</p>
<p>School choice already abounds in Ontario. No compelling evidence exists that adding choice in the form of charter schools will bolster student achievement. Adding charter schools would likely contribute both to segregating students by race and socio-economic status, and <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/calgary-charter-schools-await-ucp-funding#">creating elite schools that cherry pick their students</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign for a charter academy school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Does Ontario really need more school choice in the form of charter schools? A sign for a charter academy school in Winterville, N.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Justin Lundy/WITN-TV via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Existing choice in Ontario</h2>
<p>School choice can take many forms, and in Canada it has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423921000901">typically been developed within the public system</a>.<br>
In Ontario, school choice within the public system includes the <a href="https://www.ocsta.on.ca/catholic-schools-in-ontario/">publicly funded Catholic system</a>, <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/french-second-language-programs">French immersion</a>, the <a href="https://www.ontarioschools.org/TalentedandGifted.aspx">gifted program</a> and an array of <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/alternativeschools/#%22%22">alternative schools</a>. There are also <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/private-schools-0">over 1,300 private</a> school options available to parents in the province. </p>
<p>However, unlike <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/program-management/independent-schools/funding">British Columbia</a> and <a href="https://ecolespriveesquebec.ca/en/private-school/faq/">Québec</a>, there exists no subsidy system for private schooling in Ontario. In British Columbia, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-private-schools-491-million-public-funding-1.6589571">the provincial government subsidizes the cost of private schooling</a>, covering between 35 per cent and 50 per cent of tuition. </p>
<p>Similarly in Québec, <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-brace-for-more-inequality-in-education-under-bill-96">the provincial government generously funds privates schools</a>. In Ontario and other provinces, parents who choose private schools foot the entire bill. </p>
<h2>For the wealthy?</h2>
<p>Introducing private competition with the public system <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819874756">reveals only very small improvements in school achievement</a> when data across the United States are analyzed. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19367244211003471">No comparable data</a> are available to analyze in Canada.</p>
<p>Critics argue school choice does <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/heres-what-school-choice-in-ontario-could-look-like-for-parents">not only have to be for the wealthy</a> and <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/agar-supporting-education-vouchers-is-putting-children-first">voucher systems</a> or <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice">charter schools</a> could provide an avenue for low- to middle-income families to choose the type of education their children receive.</p>
<p>However, instead of being the great equalizer, there is considerable evidence that school choice actually exacerbates existing inequities, especially race and <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-policies-are-associated-with-increased-separation-of-students-by-social-class-149902">socio-economic</a> inequities. </p>
<p>Boards like the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have alternative schools or specialty programs that offer a great deal of choice. Many of these speciality programs <a href="https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v7i2.421">have also been found to exacerbate existing inequities</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen walking in front of a school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Data from Ontario show that significant inequality exists when there are coveted spots within the public system for schools of choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Demographic homogeneity</h2>
<p>For example, a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2716">study on</a> specialty arts programs in the TDSB found that students were disproportionately white, wealthier and more likely to have parents who had gone to university. </p>
<p>The study found that the demographic homogeneity of the school environments contributes to continued structural inequities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/french-immersion-and-other-regional-learning-programs-smart-choice-for-your-kids-or-do-they-fuel-inequity-195184">French immersion and other regional learning programs: Smart choice for your kids, or do they fuel inequity?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Data from Ontario show that significant inequality exists when there are coveted spots within the existing public system for schools of choice. The TDSB <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-tdsb-specialized-school-programs/">created a lottery system</a> to address this — but recent reports said the board discovered there was an <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/racialized-disabled-and-lgbtq-students-excluded-from-tdsb-elementary-lottery-1.6344461">oversight when administering the lottery and prioritized students were excluded from it</a>.</p>
<p>How would adding charter schools level the playing field? </p>
<h2>Data from the U.S.</h2>
<p>In comparably diverse American cities with public, private and charter schools, more evidence to the contrary exists. Examining <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED613612.pdf">data from New York City</a> on private and public school enrolment shows high levels of school racial segregation. </p>
<p>In NYC, approximately 14 per cent of students attend private schools, while 77 per cent attend public district schools and nine per cent attend charter schools.</p>
<p>Although charter schools make up nine per cent of the student population in NYC, 54 per cent of charter school students are Black, 39 per cent are Hispanic and five per cent are white. In contrast, white students make up 69 per cent of private school population, while Black students make up 11 per cent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-cyber-charter-schools-are-and-why-their-growth-should-worry-us-68471">What cyber charter schools are and why their growth should worry us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The research on whether charter schools improve student achievement is extremely mixed. An <a href="https://public-schools.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/PrivatizingPublicChoice-ThePastPresentandFutureofCharteSchoolsinAlberta.pdf">overview</a> of the American data suggests that students in public and charter schools perform at similar levels. </p>
<p>The same report also showed that there is considerable evidence that charter schools exacerbate existing racial, ethnic and socio-economic segregation in the U.S. There is not much evidence that the expansion of the charter system in the U.S. spurred innovation and competition in the public sector and improved education across the board.</p>
<h2>High test scores needed?</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A hand seen writing a test on a classroom desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some charter schools have been found to prevent students with disabilities from enrolling as a strategy to keep test scores high.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since charter schools are at a risk of closure when they do not perform adequately, there is a lot of pressure to achieve and maintain high test scores. </p>
<p>Charter schools have <a href="https://raceandschools.barnard.edu/charterschools/disabilities/">been found</a> to prevent students with disabilities from enrolling as a strategy to keep test scores high. </p>
<p>The lack of accountability and transparency from charter schools in the U.S. has led some organizations focussed around racial justice to support a <a href="https://naacp.org/resources/calling-moratorium-charter-school-expansion-and-strengthening-oversight-governance-and">moratorium</a> on charter schools.</p>
<h2>Achievement in Alberta</h2>
<p>Alberta, like Ontario, also enjoys considerable <a href="https://www.albertaschoolcouncils.ca/education-in-alberta/education-options">choice within the public system</a>, including through charter schools. CBC reported in March that around <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-s-education-budget-features-new-schools-and-replacements-first-charter-school-hub-1.6765068">20,000 students are on wait lists for charter schools</a> in the province, following the province’s removal of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7000587/alberta-government-ucp-charter-schools-home-schooling-education-may/">a cap on them in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>There are, however, no public reports that provide any evidence that students in Alberta’s charter schools are doing better than their peers elsewhere in the public system. </p>
<p>Adding additional mechanisms to exacerbate inequality in the name of “choice” in Ontario will do nothing for overall student achievement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Robson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rochelle Wijesingha is affiliated with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Association. She is the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator.</span></em></p>School choice already abounds in Ontario. Adding charter schooling in the name of ‘choice’ won’t help student achievement.Karen Robson, Ontario Research Chair in Academic Achievement and At-Risk Youth, McMaster UniversityRochelle Wijesingha, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2015232023-03-19T11:51:45Z2023-03-19T11:51:45ZWinnipeg proposes new Indigenous street names, but what’s behind claims they’re too hard to pronounce?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515910/original/file-20230316-26-5une0y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C781%2C353&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The City of Winnipeg has proposed roads named after Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin be renamed with Indigenous names.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Google Street view)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The City of Winnipeg’s Indigenous Relations Division <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/bishop-grandin-name-change-proposal-1.6733464">recently submitted suggestions for new names</a> to replace a street and trail currently named after Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin. </p>
<p>The division has suggested that Bishop Grandin Boulevard be renamed Abinojii Mikanah, the Bishop Grandin Trail be renamed Awasisak Mēskanow and Grandin Street be renamed Taapweewin Way. The first two suggestions are Ojibwe and Cree phrases meaning “Children’s Road,” and are meant to represent residential school survivors and the efforts to find the children who never returned home. Taapweewin is the <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/michif">Michif</a> word for truth. </p>
<p>Grandin was a Catholic priest and leading proponent of residential schools who <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/bishop-grandin-boulevard-name-change-residential-schools-1.6048648">lobbied the federal government to fund their construction</a>.</p>
<p>Reaction to these new names has been mixed, as can be expected with any change. However, <a href="https://www.chrisd.ca/2023/03/06/bishop-grandin-boulevard-renaming-winnipeg-street/">the primary pushback seems to be that the new names are hard to pronounce</a>. </p>
<p>But what does it mean when we say a word is hard to pronounce?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515708/original/file-20230316-28-mawpdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Islands surrounded by water are seen in the foreground. Mountains are in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515708/original/file-20230316-28-mawpdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515708/original/file-20230316-28-mawpdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515708/original/file-20230316-28-mawpdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515708/original/file-20230316-28-mawpdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515708/original/file-20230316-28-mawpdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515708/original/file-20230316-28-mawpdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515708/original/file-20230316-28-mawpdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Replacing colonial-era names with Indigenous ones is not new to Canada. In 2010, British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands were renamed Haida Gwaii after the Haida Nation who live in the archipelago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Borrowing from other languages</h2>
<p>English borrows extensively from other languages, and has since at least 1066, when the <a href="https://scholarworks.harding.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=tenor">Norman Conquest of Britain resulted in massive borrowing of French words into English</a>. </p>
<p>When we borrow words, we necessarily change their pronunciation, either to adjust for sounds we don’t have in English, or to make them conform to English phonotactic rules, i.e. the rules governing the possible sequences of sounds in a language. </p>
<p>Different languages have different rules or <em>phonotactics</em>. For instance, in English we have certain three-consonant clusters like “str” (strike) or “spl” (split). However, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-phonetic-association/article/ukrainian/D20ECF62B57E4162670BD938A4B8EA33">Ukrainian allows different consonant clusters</a> such as дзвін <em>dzvin</em> meaning “bell” or штраф — <em>shtraf</em> meaning “fine.” </p>
<p>None of the proposed new names <a href="https://www.winnipeg.ca/news/2023-03-06-city-winnipeg-forwards-recommendations-renaming-bishop-grandin-boulevard-bishop">Abinojii Mikanah, Awasisak Mēskanow or Taapweewin</a> have complex syllable structure. They can be broken down into easily pronounceable syllables [a-bi-no-jii mi-ka-nah], [a-wi-si-sak mē-ska-now], and [ta-pwee-win], so they are not hard to pronounce for phonotactic reasons. </p>
<p>Sometimes a borrowed word is hard to pronounce because the sounds of one language don’t exist in another. For example, none of the vowel sounds in the French word <em>entrepreneur</em> exist in English and the “r” sound is also different.</p>
<p>English just does its best to adapt the sounds. We borrow the words anyway, and just pronounce them differently. This happened with many Winnipeg street names that come from French such as <em>Notre Dame, Lagimodière</em>, and <em>Des Meurons</em>, which sound nothing like their original French when they are pronounced in English. But in the new proposed street names, there is no need to adapt any sounds. </p>
<p>It could be that a word uses a writing system or symbols that we don’t recognize, and don’t know how to pronounce. Imagine borrowing <a href="https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2046.html">Japanese kanji</a> or <a href="https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/a-question-of-legacy-cree-writing-and-the-origin-of-the-syllabics/">Cree syllabics</a> into English; we simply wouldn’t know what to do with them. </p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/macron">macron</a> on one of the letters in Mēskanow, and there is a double i in Abinojii, so those two can be a bit unfamiliar. But we adapt street names with French accents all the time such as <em>Taché</em>, which is always pronounced with a final vowel, never as “tach.” </p>
<p>It could also be that there are silent letters in the spelling. While English and French are well-known for having silent letters, which generally come from older pronunciations, Cree and Ojibwe are not. So in the proposed names, what you see is what you get. </p>
<p>So what is the problem? What is behind the complaints that Indigenous words are difficult to pronounce?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515710/original/file-20230316-18-8oad53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man near a shoreline wearing an Indigenous feather headdress waves to people in a canoe as they approach. He stands next to a sign that reads: Belcarra Regional Park and shows the new Indigenous name." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515710/original/file-20230316-18-8oad53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515710/original/file-20230316-18-8oad53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515710/original/file-20230316-18-8oad53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515710/original/file-20230316-18-8oad53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515710/original/file-20230316-18-8oad53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515710/original/file-20230316-18-8oad53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515710/original/file-20230316-18-8oad53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2021, Belcarra Regional Park in B.C. was renamed təmtəmíxwtən which local First Nations say translates to ‘biggest place for all the people.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Discomfort with unfamiliar language</h2>
<p>Discomfort with change, and possibly, the question of what is legitimate in the Canadian public sphere, drive these claims of difficult pronunciation. Take, for example, Winnipeg’s Lagimodière Boulevard. It is a long and difficult name for anglophones to pronounce correctly. But nobody proposes we change it because it has been around for so long, and because we accept that French names are legitimate.</p>
<p>There are too many Indigenous place names in Canada to count — Athabasca, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Mégantic, Winnipeg, Ottawa — the list goes on. Indigenous place names have been around longer than Canada, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/origin-name-canada.html">even forming the name of the country itself</a>. So what is different here? </p>
<p>Perhaps it is that in this case Indigenous words are <em>replacing</em> colonial ones. </p>
<p>People are very tied to their language and don’t like change, especially when it challenges a power structure. In Winnipeg, Bishop Grandin, a symbol of colonial power, is being replaced by languages of the historically oppressed: the Cree, the Ojibwe and the Métis. While this is precisely the point behind the change, it may make those uncertain about changing power structures uncomfortable. </p>
<p>If, however, you are simply nervous about learning unfamiliar long words, here are some tips. Break them up into syllables and sound them out. Listen to them being said and repeat them a few times. Given that there are no linguistic difficulties, it shouldn’t take long for them to be rolling off your tongue.</p>
<p>Assuming the new names are approved, they will likely be shortened just like other long names often are: like QEW for Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Way, or Lag for Winnipeg’s Lagimodière Boulevard. </p>
<p>But language matters, and changing a few of our street signs from colonial languages like English and French to Indigenous languages like Cree, Ojibwe and Michif is a small act of <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1524495846286/1557513199083">reconciliation</a> that can have a meaningful impact.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Rosen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Some have claimed the proposed new Indigenous names for Winnipeg streets are too difficult to pronounce. But what does it mean when we say a word is hard to pronounce?Nicole Rosen, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Language Interactions, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1951842023-02-13T20:09:47Z2023-02-13T20:09:47ZFrench immersion and other regional learning programs: Smart choice for your kids, or do they fuel inequity?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509312/original/file-20230209-22-iccs2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C1727%2C970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School choice policies have positioned schools as existing in a free market of schools, but parents and guardians have different amounts of 'educational currency' or privilege when choosing programs. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past half-century, <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice/faqs/how-does-school-choice-work-in-other-countries/">school choice initiatives</a> have been intensifying across the globe. Choice policies <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781442695412/understanding-school-choice-in-canada/">emphasize school competition and increasing families’ opportunities to select among academic programs</a>. </p>
<p>Some research suggests <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.37.4.459">parents who can and do choose alternate programs for their children are pleased to have more options</a>,
yet researchers also caution that proliferating programs of choice <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/pme.2010.18.1.65">exacerbate academic inequity</a> and are associated with <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-policies-are-associated-with-increased-separation-of-students-by-social-class-149902">separating students by social class</a>.</p>
<p>My doctoral research has explored how parents’ circumstances shape their interpretation, access and navigation of what school choice policies have framed as the educational market in Ontario — and how teachers who are also parents (teacher-parents) understand regional programs of choice.</p>
<p>As insiders in education systems, teacher-parents are a uniquely informed subgroup among parents or guardians choosing education for children. Teachers in my study emphasized the advantages of regional programs, in particular French immersion. </p>
<h2>French immersion</h2>
<p>French immersion schooling has emerged in a larger landscape of policies and provisions bolstering forms of education such as <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262535908/school-choice/">private schools, home schooling and charter schools</a>. </p>
<p>In Canada, public education is provincially mandated. In Ontario, this includes 31 English school boards, 29 English Catholic boards, four French boards and eight French Catholic boards. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen standing outside in a line waiting to go into school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">School choice policies emphasize increasing families’ opportunities to select between academic programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As educational researcher Jane Gaskell has noted, while in the United States, “choice has been justified by the idea of using market competition to improve schools.” In Canada, other arguments for choice have had more traction, namely “<a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-expansion-of-school-choice-in-toronto">recognizing that diverse programs are a response to diverse publics</a>.” Boards “add new programs to keep parents engaged in and supportive of the public system.” </p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/cpp.37.4.459">provinces and boards have continued to offer additional options.</a> These include French immersion and extended French, <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/High-School/Going-to-High-School/Secondary-Central-Student-Interest-Programs/International-Baccalaureate">International Baccalaureate</a> programs, arts and sports programs and a wide array of alternative options. </p>
<h2>Academic inequity</h2>
<p>However, some research shows <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/pme.2010.18.1.65">school choice initiatives exacerbate academic inequity by creating elite opportunities</a>. Canadian studies identify how <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/pme.2010.18.1.65">specialized schools and programs are comparable to private schools in a public system</a>.</p>
<p>The research of education sociology researchers Ee-Seul Yoon and Kalervo N. Gulson, focused on Vancouver, found French immersion programs appeal to anglophone middle-class parents, and this ends up excluding <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25758493">immigrant families whose mother tongue is not English</a>. Also at an advantage are parents with more informed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093042000227465">social networks</a>.</p>
<h2>French immersion study</h2>
<p>As a teacher-parent myself, I analyzed the experiences of 23 teacher-parents in Ontario. I contacted several of my colleagues from different public systems in Ontario through email, telephone or in person. I then asked interested parties to forward invitations to potential participants. Each took part in one individual and one group interview. </p>
<p>“Educational currency” is a privilege that is valuable in the school market. This currency is composed of, but not limited to, one’s access to relevant information, influential relationships, social status and academic experience — providing they ameliorate or enhance one’s access to options and/or ability to choose effectively. </p>
<p>Understanding educational currency helps to underscore the inequity in the school choice process. Participants acquire various levels and elements of educational currency through system memberships (belonging to a board, school, program), professional experiences (working within schools and classrooms), social networks and personal experiences as parents and general members of the community. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A classroom with tables." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C58%2C3000%2C1639&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teacher-parents in a study described classrooms of choice as attracting better students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Teacher parents</h2>
<p>Teacher-parents described classrooms of choice as enhanced learning environments that follow an enriched curriculum and attract better students. They identify these students as generally having fewer behavioural and academic needs. </p>
<p>While teacher-parents acknowledge that students are being separated into cohorts labelled strong and weak, many continue to use their educational currency to secure spots for their own children. </p>
<p>Research from Alberta finds that school selection is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/15582150802098795">“essentially a middle-class phenomenon</a>.” Even within the public system, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2016.1209637">there are uneven elements of the enrolment process based on lifestyle</a>.</p>
<p>My research supports these notions, in addition to underscoring the perceived superiority of select programs. </p>
<h2>Social effects</h2>
<p>Several participants went so far as to say the benefits gained by some children through French immersion resulted in the injury of the core classroom — that splitting children who were previously classmates into different programs introduces social rifts. </p>
<p>Arguments for school choice reforms include an attempt to satisfy parental requests, <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-expansion-of-school-choice-in-toronto">enhance the quality of schooling, keep children in public systems, serve diverse communities and increase equity in the public system</a>. </p>
<p>Yet my findings suggest that, as perceived by teacher-parents — educational system insiders — the best options for quality educational programs are also those that are divisive, elite and threaten to exacerbate inequity within the school system. Findings also suggest it is the ability to use privilege to navigate the market that crystalizes the inequity of school choice. </p>
<p>As a public-school teacher and researcher, I am dedicated to the development of fair and inclusive school policy. However, my priority is the well-being and opportunities of my own children. I, too, will continue to use my educational currency to situate my kids in the best available learning environment. </p>
<h2>Policy solutions</h2>
<p>The preliminary results of my study suggest school choice presents a problem our society must address through policy. The complex but ideal solution is distributing educational currency more evenly across those making the choice, and reducing barriers to that choice.</p>
<p>This may look like <a href="https://www.peelschools.org/french">lottery pools, schools offering placements through random selection</a> or <a href="https://www.peelschools.org/news/Grade-8-information-nights,-Dress-Purple-Day-and-other-important-information2022-06-29-19:10:49.091418+00">information nights</a> to familiarize parents with options and ensure there are no costly transportation fees. </p>
<p>To really know how to effectively distribute educational currency in local contexts, community engagement with a diversity of parents, guardians and community networks is critical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195184/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Chami Lindsay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a study, teachers who are parents acknowledged programs of choice separate students into cohorts labelled strong and weak, yet many continue to secure spots for their own children.Julie Chami Lindsay, PhD student, Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955122022-12-01T21:39:12Z2022-12-01T21:39:12ZThere’s no official French version of the 1867 Constitution Act. So is taking the oath to the King in French valid?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497740/original/file-20221128-20-fhf4vv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C7308%2C5179&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon at a press conference on Oct. 17, 2022, at the Québec City National Assembly. He repeated that he did not want to swear an oath to King Charles.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Canadian Press/Karoline Boucher</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the election of the first Parti Québécois legislators in 1970, controversy over Québec MNAs swearing an oath to the sovereign before taking their seats in the National Assembly has stirred emotion and sparked heated debate.</p>
<p>PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/embarrassing-and-humiliating-pq-leader-seeks-support-against-swearing-oath-to-king-1.6112759">recently fuelled the controversy</a> by stating loudly and clearly that he will not swear allegiance to King Charles. His PQ colleagues followed suit as did Québec solidaire MNAs, who have since <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-solidaire-mnas-swear-oath-to-king-charles-iii-pq-still-holding-out">changed their minds</a>.</p>
<p>On Nov. 2, the president of the National Assembly, François Paradis, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/oath-to-king-mandatory-national-assembly-ruling-1.6636947">issued a ruling</a> that unequivocally stated MNAs cannot take their seat in the National Assembly without first swearing an oath to the King. He further ordered the sergeant-at-arms to expel any member who refused to comply.</p>
<p>On Dec. 1, the PQ MNAs were consequently <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/pq-denied-entry-1.6670622">denied entry</a> to the National Assembly’s Blue Room, the chamber where the debates and the votes take place.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the CAQ government of François Legault has <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-eyes-new-bill-to-make-oath-to-king-optional-but-will-it-be-enough-to-change-the-rules-1.6136233">pledged to table a bill</a> in the National Assembly that would allow Québec MNAs to opt out of the obligation to swear an oath to the King. </p>
<p>However, it’s unclear whether Québec’s legislature has the ability to unilaterally amend the relevant provision of the Constitution.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-quebec-politicians-must-swear-an-oath-to-the-king-even-if-they-dont-want-to-192807">Why Québec politicians must swear an oath to the King — even if they don't want to</a>
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<p>As constitutional scholars and language rights experts, we have been motivated by heightened interest in this issue to explore another question that is often ignored: is the parliamentary practice of Québec MNAs and federal MPs swearing an oath to the King in French constitutional?</p>
<h2>Only the English version is official</h2>
<p>The question arises because the obligation to swear an oath to the sovereign originates in Sec. 128 of the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-1.html">1867 Constitution Act</a>, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in English only. The official English version states that every member of a legislative assembly must take the oath by repeating the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I (Member’s name) do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to (His) Majesty (King Charles).”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are unofficial French versions of the 1867 Constitution Act, published on the websites of the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-1.html">Department of Justice Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.sqrc.gouv.qc.ca/relations-canadiennes/institutions-constitution/codifications/loi-constitutionnelle-1867.asp">Québec’s Secretariat for Canadian Relations</a>, where the oath has been translated. But these translations lack the force of law.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497660/original/file-20221128-25-u3xehn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497660/original/file-20221128-25-u3xehn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497660/original/file-20221128-25-u3xehn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497660/original/file-20221128-25-u3xehn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497660/original/file-20221128-25-u3xehn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497660/original/file-20221128-25-u3xehn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497660/original/file-20221128-25-u3xehn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">King Charles and Princess Anne follow the coffin of Queen Elizabeth during her state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19, 2022. Swearing an oath to the new king has become controversial in Québec and Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Canadian Press/AP-Andreea Alexandru</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fact that no official French version of the 1867 Constitution Act exists in 2022 is nothing short of an aberration. This situation is all the more troubling given that Sec. 55 of the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html">1982 Constitution Act</a> requires the federal justice minister to draft a French version of the parts of Canada’s Constitution that, like the 1867 act, were enacted in English only for strictly historical reasons.</p>
<p>Once the French version has been drafted, which was done by 1990, it must be put forward for immediate enactment. However, the French version must be passed according to the constitutional amendment procedure. In the case of the 1867 Constitution Act, enacting the full French version requires the consent of all members of the federation. </p>
<p>Forty years after the patriation of the Constitution, this level of consent has still not been achieved due to a lack of political will.</p>
<h2>The option of taking the oath in French</h2>
<p>Despite the problems described above, both the House of Commons and the National Assembly allow their members to take the oath in French. In Québec, this practice dates back to the <a href="https://www.uottawa.ca/clmc/constitutional-act-1791">1791 Constitutional Act</a>, which specified in its original English version that new members of the legislative assembly of Lower Canada were to take an oath to the sovereign “in the English or French Language” (Sec. 29). </p>
<p>The <em>Journal of the House of Assembly</em> of Dec. 17, 1792, confirms that French-speaking members were allowed to take the oath in French.</p>
<p>Although the option of taking the oath “in the… French Language” is not explicitly enshrined in the <a href="https://www.uottawa.ca/clmc/union-act-1840">1840 Union Act</a> or the 1867 Constitution Act, the practice of allowing members of legislative assemblies to take the oath in French has been maintained publicly on a peaceful and continuous basis without protest.</p>
<p>Is this practice constitutionally justifiable, or should one conclude that the oath taken in French by members of legislative assemblies since the advent of the Canadian federation is invalid because of a technical defect? </p>
<p>Such a conclusion would have dramatic consequences, to say the least, as it would call into question the validity of the votes in which these members participated, and the validity of the laws passed under their leadership.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man speaks at a microphone, with flags in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497659/original/file-20221128-22-up9tm8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497659/original/file-20221128-22-up9tm8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497659/original/file-20221128-22-up9tm8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497659/original/file-20221128-22-up9tm8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497659/original/file-20221128-22-up9tm8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497659/original/file-20221128-22-up9tm8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497659/original/file-20221128-22-up9tm8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet talks about taking advantage of an opposition day to ask whether public servants should be obliged to swear allegiance to the king at a news conference in October 2022 in Ottawa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Taking the oath in French is constitutional</h2>
<p>In our view, the practice of allowing Québec MNAs and federal MPs to take their oaths in French is constitutional. The 1867 Constitution Act must be interpreted in light of Canada’s linguistic duality. </p>
<p>One of the objectives of the union of the British colonies into a federation was to grant the French-speaking minority a legislature in which its members would be in the majority and could legislate, in French, on important matters such as education, culture and private law.</p>
<p>Several provisions of the Constitution aim to protect minority rights. For example, Sec. 133 of the 1867 Constitution Act gives Québec MNAs and federal MPs the right to use either French or English in parliamentary debate. It would make little sense for this same law to require Québec MNAs and federal MPs to swear an oath in English as a prerequisite to using the official language of their choice in legislative proceedings.</p>
<p>It should also be noted that Sec. 128 of the 1867 Constitution Act does not state that the oath must be taken in English. To the extent that any ambiguity exists regarding the language of the oath, it must be resolved in a manner consistent with the constitutional principle of respect for minorities (recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada in its <em><a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1643/index.do">Reference re Secession of Quebec</a></em> judgment) while taking into account the primary purpose of this provision. </p>
<p>What really matters under Sec. 128 is the member’s affirmation of loyalty to the sovereign — who <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.565206/publication.html">personifies the Canadian state</a> — and not the official language in which the oath is taken.</p>
<p>Since 1982, Sec. 16(1) of the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html">Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a> has eliminated any ambiguity at the federal level by providing that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given that English and French have equal legal status in the House of Commons, it follows that federal MPs are able to swear the oath to the King in either language.</p>
<p>For these reasons, we believe that Québec MNAs and federal MPs can validly take their oaths in French, even though only the English version of the 1867 Constitution Act has official status. </p>
<p>Yet the fact remains that the patriation of the Constitution will remain an <a href="https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/constitutional_forum/index.php/constitutional_forum/article/view/29447/21439">unfinished task</a> as long as the members of the federation fail to fulfil their duty to pass French versions of English-only constitutional legislation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195512/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>No official French version of the Constitution Act of 1867 exists in 2022. This aberration calls into question the validity of taking an oath to the King in French.Yan Campagnolo, Professor of Constitutional Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaFrançois Larocque, Professor, Research Chair in Language Rights, Faculty of Law | Professeur, Chaire de recherche Droits et enjeux linguistiques, Faculté de droit. 2021 Fellow, Fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1946832022-11-30T16:35:31Z2022-11-30T16:35:31ZCould the Netherlands crack the secret of language learning using this approach?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497700/original/file-20221128-20-kjjanz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C627&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">file okebk</span> </figcaption></figure><p>From the UK government’s latest <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/reforms-to-encourage-more-students-to-take-up-language-gcses">post-Brexit language-learning reforms</a> to France’s eternal debates over the <a href="https://www.slate.fr/story/179265/reforme-enseignement-langues-vivantes-etrangeres-lycee">supposed linguistic inadequacy of its youth</a>, governments regularly scratch their heads over how to improve how languages are taught.</p>
<p>While the Netherlands carried out a <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/eujal-2020-0020/html">major reform</a> to its modern foreign language education as early as 1968, the current courses are seen by many as no longer preparing students well enough for the modern world. The baccalaureate exams do not test students’ actual skills and knowledge so much as their ability to strategically answer multiple-choice questions.</p>
<p>This is particularly true for modern languages, where the final exam – a reading-comprehension exercise – receives hundreds of complaints from students who find it either <a href="https://nos.nl/artikel/2236117-opnieuw-ophef-over-niveau-vwo-examen-frans-verdrietig-de-zaal-uit">too difficult or too ambiguous</a>.</p>
<p>In the Netherlands, French is compulsory for students from age 11 to 15, yet a declining number continue to study it beyond that age. In such a context, educators in the Netherlands are asking how other methods might better meet the needs of students. Supported by many teacher trainers in the
country and the <a href="http://etc-languagelearning.web.rug.nl/">language learning team</a> at the University of Groningen, a <a href="https://prezi.com/view/DvEQLkR9O8wZP4Ev4qPY/">usage-based approach</a> to French has gained ground.</p>
<h2>The Dutch and French</h2>
<p>As in many European countries, Dutch students are frequently exposed to English, but that’s not the case with French. The language is spoken by 70 million people in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Monaco, Franco-Dutch firms do <a href="https://platformfrans.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Het-economisch-belang-van-het-Frans-2022.pdf">40 million euros in business annually</a>, and organisations such as the <a href="https://institutfrancais.nl/">French Institute</a> and <a href="https://www.cfci.nl/la-chambre/roles-et-missions.html">CCI France Netherlands</a> provide support, yet for students there are few situations outside the classroom that <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/eujal-2020-0020/html">afford the opportunity to practice</a> the language informally.</p>
<p>Researcher Marjolijn Voogel indicates the perceived <a href="https://lt-tijdschriften.nl/ojs/index.php/ltm/article/view/1550">importance of speaking French</a> in the Netherlands is declining. Despite studying French for six years at school, the students’ overall level is not proportional to the work they put in, according to <a href="https://projectfrans.nl/storage/Informatie/Publicaties/Hoe_Frans_terrein_kan_terugwinnen.pdf">Wim Gombert</a>, a researcher in applied linguistics.</p>
<p>These results are similar to those found in France, which also suffers from an environment with limited opportunities for regular use of foreign languages and teaching methods based on <a href="https://lt-tijdschriften.nl/ojs/index.php/ltt/article/view/1631">grammar and translation</a>. And this despite the fact that teachers regularly look to modernise their courses, organise trips and use digital technologies, as Lynne West and Marjolijn Verspoor note.</p>
<p>In response to this situation, one of the initiatives has been the development and implementation of several usage-based inspired methodologies such as the <a href="https://www.aimlanguagelearning.com/">Accelerative Integrated Method (AIM)</a> invented by Wendy Maxwell in Canada. They’re found most often in primary and secondary schools (about 100) but also in <a href="https://projectfrans.nl/aim-voor-de-bovenbouw">secondary schools</a> (about four schools) and finally at the <a href="https://taalwijs.nu/2022/10/24/hoe-kan-taalonderwijs-leerlingen-en-studenten-helpen-om-zelfstandig-te-worden/">University of Groningen</a>.</p>
<h2>Access to the language outside the classroom</h2>
<p>AIM methods are inspired by research on <a href="https://benjamins.com/catalog/lllt.29">dynamic usage theory</a>, which considers languages to be a collection of words shaped first and foremost by socialisation. Language learning happens through repeated exposure via creative activities and real-life tasks, rather than grammar rules and vocabulary lists.</p>
<p>Stories (in primary and middle school), creative and non-fiction texts, or videos (in high school) and films (in university) are central to the approach. In addition, high school and university students use learning software such as <a href="https://www.fluentu.com/">Fluent U</a> or <a href="https://www.slimstampen.nl/">SlimStampen</a>. </p>
<p>Students take quizzes several times a week and the software remembers words that are not acquired. They’re then reintroduced into the following work sessions until they’re firmly embedded. The idea is that students <a href="https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/videos/conference-dylis-daudrey-rousse-malpat-du-18102021-decoupage/">learn vocabulary in context</a> rather than simply memorise it. </p>
<p>In the classroom, the activities are varied and focus on listening and speaking. The aim is first to reduce the anxiety linked to speaking by de-dramatising what are typically seen as errors. Repetition is emphasised until responses are integrated and become automatic. The activities are mostly done in groups so that the learners develop a certain self-confidence. Individual language development happens throughout, and mutual aid is encouraged.</p>
<p>By focusing on the meaning of language and not its form, each learner can use their own linguistic repertoire and learn from the repertoire of others. At the same time, each learner can work individually on linguistic weaknesses. </p>
<h2>The decentred role of the teacher</h2>
<p>This way of working gives a new role to teachers. Instead of being the only transmitters of knowledge, language models and evaluators in the classroom, they provide resources, organise activities that encourage repetition and language automation, and create an environment conducive to practice. Collaboration takes place between learners in the target language, ensuring it is used most of the time. The teacher is also the one who determines learners’ individual or collective needs and offers activities to meet them.</p>
<p>Teachers also play a key role in organising peer feedback, testing language skills and assessing the learners’ state of development – the strengths and the elements that each one needs to work on. The method moves away from counting students’ “errors”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HB4WXDWqeCs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Webinar “Innovative language teaching methods”, with Audrey Rousse-Malpat.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this regard, teachers need to <a href="https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/Language-Learning-and-Teaching-in-a-Multilingual-World/?k=9781788927611">move away from the way they learned the language</a> – and sometimes even from their personal beliefs. Their actions will be all the more relevant if they understand how language develops from a <a href="https://eboutique.didierfle.com/fr/FR/products/cognition-et-personnalite-dans-l-apprentissage-de-langues-2019-livre-numerique">social and psycho-cognitive point of view</a>, and consider how and when to intervene.</p>
<p>Several studies have shown the benefits of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3AmZRkdXSA">usage-based inspired methodologies</a> on learners’ listening, speaking, and writing skills. These methods are underpinned by the idea that the language speaker is a <a href="https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/05/26/kesku-se-een-nieuw-soort-franse-les-a3961620">social agent</a> rather than a grammarian.</p>
<p>What is happening in the Netherlands shows the relevance of the research and education communities working together to experiment with and implement methods that are based on contemporary scientific knowledge about language and languages.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Audrey Rousse-Malpat has received funding from NWO (the national research organisation in the Netherlands). She works as a professor of language and language didactics at the University of Groningen and is a teacher trainer at Project Frans.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grégory Miras ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Language-learning research in the Netherlands has determined that using a foreign language rather than just memorizing its grammar can transform how students progress.Grégory Miras, Professeur des Universités en didactique des langues, Université de LorraineAudrey Rousse-Malpat, Assistant Professor of language learning at the program European Languages and Cultures, University of GroningenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1936832022-11-16T20:59:25Z2022-11-16T20:59:25ZNote to Québec’s premier: French is the language of human rights, not xenophobia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495121/original/file-20221114-26-hnnlp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=109%2C117%2C5375%2C2666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">‘Lamartine rejects the red flag in front of the town hall,’ a painting by Henri Félix Philippoteaux (1815–1884), captures a seminal moment in the second French Revolution in Paris in 1848, when revolutionaries demanded human and civil rights.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Les Musées de la ville de Paris)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/note-to-quebec-s-premier--french-is-the-language-of-human-rights--not-xenophobia" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Faced with the new <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm">census data</a> that 23 per cent of Canadians are immigrants, Québec Premier François Legault recently warned the province remains determined to find a balance between welcoming newcomers and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkQyxr7AczC/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">fighting the decline of the French language</a>. </p>
<p>As a researcher in French literature and political theory, I believe Legault’s thinking is misguided. French isn’t a language of provincialism. Authors like <a href="https://www.famousauthors.org/victor-hugo">Victor Hugo</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Sand">George Sand</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alphonse-de-Lamartine">Alphonse de Lamartine</a> — all of them studied as part of <a href="http://www.education.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/site_web/documents/PFEQ/qepsecfirstcycle.pdf">Québec’s core curriculum</a> — championed universalism, not xenophobia. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An oval portrait of a dark-haired woman with flowers in her hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portrait of George Sand (1804-1876). Her name was the pseudonym of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin de Francueil, a novelist, playwright, French literary critic and journalist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Musées de la ville de Paris)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There have been two French revolutions: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution/Events-of-1789">in 1789</a>, when freedom and national sovereignty occupied popular imagination, and the lesser known uprising <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Revolutions-of-1848">in 1848,</a> when justice and human solidarity rose to the fore. French owes its modern, democratic form to the heroes of that second revolution. </p>
<p>The first triumphs of early 1848 — the ousting of the supposedly bourgeois monarch, Louis-Philippe, and the proclamation of the Second Republic — captivated French-Canadians, both young and old. Politician Louis-Joseph Papineau, leader of <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/patriotes">Lower Canada’s Patriote party</a>, saluted <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3589842">the “truths” being preached</a> across the Atlantic, and <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3456427">100 young people gathered</a> in a Montréal hotel shouting: “Liberty, equality, fraternity!”</p>
<p>In 1848, <a href="https://www.revuedesdeuxmondes.fr/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/6fa84cc0a4a2f233b2ec6dfe72668138.pdf">Sand wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I dream of an ideal fraternity, and I believe I would cease to live the day I do not wish it for humanity.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The inclusive nature of her political ideal signified a shift in discourse on human rights since the first French Revolution in 1789. It soon transcended national borders. Canadians from various ancestries <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3589824?docsearchtext=L%27Aurore,%2031%20mars%201848.">celebrated the events in Paris</a> where one heard “Long live Italy!” and “Long live Ireland!” <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1848lamartine.asp">simultaneously with the French national anthem</a>. </p>
<h2>First ‘red scare’</h2>
<p>But the French and those abroad were divided on just how radical the second revolution ought to be. This was Canada’s first red scare, almost 100 years before the <a href="https://cha-shc.ca/_uploads/5c38afba549c7.pdf">Cold War-era aversion to communism that was prevalent in North America</a>. </p>
<p>The fierce advocates of the French working class — Sand, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexandre-Auguste-Ledru-Rollin">Alexandre Ledru-Rollin</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Blanc">Louis Blanc</a> among them — clashed with moderates like de Lamartine.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo of a man in a suit with grey hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Louis-Joseph Papineau is seen in this 1852 photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(National Archives of Canada)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“M. Papineau is the Ledru-Rollin of Canada,” a Montréal-based newspaper <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4129457">proclaimed in May 1848</a> after praising Lamartine’s promises to the bourgeoisie. </p>
<p>The second French Revolution turned bleak after a three-day insurrection in <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/june-days-rebellion">June 1848</a>, when more than 4,000 French workers died and 15,000 were arrested. While most Canadian newspapers blamed the bloodshed on communist ideology and <a href="https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/pdf/24/1.0068057/1">preached a moderate stance aligned with British conservatism</a>, one journalist reflected how Canadian youth still “cried with all those who suffered.”</p>
<p>What about today’s Québec conservatism? </p>
<p>Legault’s use of the French language as a tool to limit immigration is a historical inversion. </p>
<p>The Montréal youths shouting “Liberty, equality, fraternity!” in 1848 wanted to open doors to the world, not close them. They understood freedom as only one component of human rights: justice and solidarity became necessary complements <a href="http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/142/degrees-of-violence-in-the-french-revolution">following the violence</a> of the 1789 revolution.</p>
<h2>Historically ignorant</h2>
<p>In 1849, writing from exile like Hugo, Blanc reminded the French that his seemingly novel socialist ideas <a href="http://www.mediterranee-antique.fr/Auteurs/Fichiers/ABC/Blanc/R_1848/T2/R_48_2_A18.htm">repeated an old Christian motto</a>: “The first must be the servant of the last.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a dark-haired man with his arms crossed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Louis Blanc, who was a member of the French government during the 1848 French Revolution, is seen in this undated portrait.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Musées de la ville de Paris)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Québec government does not need to be “a servant of the last” if, as it alleges, the French language is no longer first in line. But its use of the language as an excuse for xenophobia is historically ignorant. </p>
<p>Despite my personal love of the French language, I see no value in students having to watch <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/arts/kevin-tierney-quebec-movies-have-a-dubbing-problem">more movies dubbed in French</a> or being required to take <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-96-explained-1.6460764">additional French courses at Québec’s publicly funded colleges</a>. </p>
<p>Legault is failing to understand that French has been the language of human rights for hundreds of years. He’s failing to capitalize on the fact that Canadian youth, outraged by global indifference to ongoing existential crises and showing solidarity to international protest movements, could be drawn to French, not English, for that very reason.</p>
<p>In the history of the anglophone media, it’s difficult to find an equivalent to French novelist Emile Zola’s <a href="https://www.lemanuscritfrancais.com/fr/manuscrit/affaire-dreyfus-emile-zola-laurore-du-13-janvier-1898/">trail-blazing “J’accuse!” op-ed</a> published in <em>L'Aurore</em> that railed against antisemitism, nor a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crac031">revolution where poets became politicians overnight</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reading-french-literature-in-a-time-of-terror-63036">Reading French literature in a time of terror</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>French authors have historically led the world in issuing eloquent and genuine calls for justice. To read Hugo or Sand is to discover new hemispheres in the human heart.</p>
<p>To return the French language to its rightful place as the voice of human rights, the Québec government must promote it as a tool of a human rights-based civic education, not a mandatory language. Welcoming immigrants would subsequently not be an obstacle to the French language or francophone culture — it would be a benefit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rayyan Dabbous does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>French has historically been a language of human rights. That’s why the Québec government should promote it as a tool of a human rights-based civic education, not force it on newcomers.Rayyan Dabbous, PhD Candidate, Center for Comparative Literature, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1910912022-10-06T08:52:44Z2022-10-06T08:52:44ZCan you learn a language in your sleep? We found you may be able to pick up some words<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488006/original/file-20221004-14-rq6q67.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C8%2C6000%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For all sleep-learning's promises, memorising words while awake was still five times more efficient. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-photo/wake-lazy-woman-time-learn-english-2126585828">PaeGAG/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From Aldous Huxley’s <em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brave-New-World">Brave New World</a></em> to <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115157/">Dexter’s Laboratory</a></em> cartoon series, sleep-learning has been a recurring theme in fiction. The idea that we can learn while asleep has fascinated many, but whether it is sheer fantasy or scientifically possible has long remained a mystery. </p>
<p>Now, thanks to neuroimaging, we know that the brain is far from inactive while we sleep and continually <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cophys.2019.12.002">reacts to information from the world around it</a>. But can it really memorise this information and retain it once we are awake?</p>
<p>In fact, we have known for close to a decade that the brain is capable of taking in new information during sleep, as first evidenced in experiments on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3193">tone and odour associations</a>. </p>
<p>Individuals who wished to quit smoking, for instance, have been found to reduce their consumption by 35% when the scent of tobacco is presented to them during sleep in association with <a href="https://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/46/15382">unpleasant scents of rotten fish</a>.</p>
<p>We thus set out to understand whether the brain was capable of more complex learning processes, such as those involved in foreign language acquisition. Together with Sid Kouider at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) - Paris Science et Lettres (PSL), and Maxime Elbaz and Damien Léger of the Paris Hospitals Public Trust (AP-HP) Hôtel-Dieu, we designed a protocol for <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.801666/full">learning the meaning of Japanese words while asleep</a>.</p>
<h2>Learn Japanese while you sleep</h2>
<p>The Japanese language has a relatively simple structure with a limited number of possible syllable units. For example, the word <em>neko</em>, meaning “cat”, comprises two units: <em>ne</em> and <em>ko</em>. It does not contain a complex tone system like other East Asian languages, and presents a somewhat similar phonology to that of French or English. </p>
<p>However, word meaning is often very distant from French or English. As such, Japanese was the ideal language for the experiment, since the subjects’ ears would be able to distinguish its sounds easily, but the words would generally be meaningless to them.</p>
<p>After designing our experiment, we recruited 22 healthy adults who had no prior knowledge of Japanese or other related East Asian languages. As shown in the illustration below, we first presented them with pairs of sounds and images while they were awake, such as a dog with a barking sound. Then, while the subjects were sleeping, we played the sound together with the corresponding term in Japanese. </p>
<p>For example, the barking sound would be played along with the word <em>inu</em>, meaning “dog”. The following morning, we asked the subjects to pick between two images to find the matching word in Japanese. Here, the word <em>inu</em> would be shown along with the image of a dog and the image of an unrelated word that was played while the subject slept, for example, a bell.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488035/original/file-20221004-16-z6y45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488035/original/file-20221004-16-z6y45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488035/original/file-20221004-16-z6y45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488035/original/file-20221004-16-z6y45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488035/original/file-20221004-16-z6y45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488035/original/file-20221004-16-z6y45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488035/original/file-20221004-16-z6y45l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In our study, we played Japanese words along with different sounds while the subjects were sleeping – for example, the sound of a dog barking for the word <em>inu</em>, meaning ‘dog’. The following morning, individuals had to guess which image matched the meaning of the Japanese word.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">**ENS-PSL**</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We observed that the individuals’ ability to match the image to the corresponding Japanese word was based on skill rather than luck. We also asked them if they had chosen at random or answered with a certain degree of confidence. This confidence parameter remained low regardless of whether a correct or incorrect answer was given, thus proving that sleep-learning is implicit, indicating that people are unaware of the information they learn while asleep.</p>
<h2>Slow waves predict sleep learning</h2>
<p>The most interesting findings from this experiment revealed what actually goes on during sleep. Using electrocardiography (ECG), a technique that records electrical activity on the brain’s surface, we were able to predict which words would be remembered when the subjects awoke. </p>
<p>This was because remembered words generated more slow waves than forgotten ones. Brain waves are electrical impulses measuring brain activity and slow waves appear when brains are in deep sleep. Our results, as well as a recent publication showing that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.12.038">slow waves predicted when subjects memorized the relative size of the objects presented in a study</a>, confirm their significant role in sleep-learning.</p>
<p>So, the sleeping brain can learn new words and associate them with a meaning. This learning process can even be observed in brainwaves during sleep. But is this type of learning useful? And is everyone capable of it? We are as yet unaware whether sleep-learning can bear long-term results and whether it depends upon individual differences in memory capacity.</p>
<p>We carried out the same protocol while the subjects were awake with ten times fewer repetitions than the sleep experiment. While awake, subjects were found to learn five times more efficiently than when asleep, while also reporting higher confidence for learned words compared to forgotten words. The slow, implicit learning we perform while asleep differs greatly from the quick, explicit learning of our waking hours. </p>
<p>Although it is possible to learn while we sleep, it would be more appropriate to consider our waking and sleeping states as complementary, with sleep-learning being an optimal way to consolidate information taken in while awake.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Enda Boorman for <a href="http://www.fastforword.fr/en">Fast ForWord</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthieu Koroma ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Research shows sleep-learning can complement, but never replace, learning while awake.Matthieu Koroma, FNRS Postdoctoral Researcher, Université de LiègeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1895852022-09-01T14:34:50Z2022-09-01T14:34:50ZMacron is pushing the French language in ways not seen before<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481577/original/file-20220829-17-uon1ux.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">French President Emmanuel Macron.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA/EFE</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From the start of his first term as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39839349">France’s president in 2017</a>, Emmanuel Macron made the relaunching of French as a world language his prime cultural project. </p>
<p>For some three centuries, the status of French as an international language was seen as a key asset for the French nation. It is spoken across some <a href="https://www.cite-langue-francaise.fr/en/Discover/The-French-adventure/The-French-language-throughout-the-world">106 countries and is an official language for 32 States and governments</a>.</p>
<p>France benefited from its “ownership” of the language in which many of the world’s influential political, commercial, intellectual and artistic discussions were conducted. Even half a century ago under presidents Charles de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou, however, there was already a perception that it was losing ground. Important discussions were increasingly taking place in other languages, especially English, which had begun to establish itself as the world’s dominant lingua franca.</p>
<p>More recently, the defenders of French have accused France’s own elites of surrendering to the embrace of English, or “globish” as some of its international variants are sometimes <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09639489.2022.2077715">disparagingly labelled</a>. </p>
<p>Macron sought to reverse this spirit of surrender in a series of high profile speeches and ventures. His ideas were showcased most prominently in a <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2018/03/20/discours-demmanuel-macron-a-linstitut-de-france-sur-lambition-pour-la-langue-francaise-et-le-plurilinguisme">speech at the Institut de France</a> in Paris, but also fleshed out at presentations in <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/en/emmanuel-macron/2017/11/28/emmanuel-macrons-speech-at-the-university-of-ouagadougou">Ouagadougou</a>, <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2017/10/10/discours-du-president-de-la-republique-en-ouverture-de-la-foire-du-livre-de-francfort">Frankfurt</a>, <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2018/10/12/discours-au-sommet-de-la-francophonie-a-erevan">Yerevan</a> and the <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/en/emmanuel-macron/2017/09/26/president-macron-gives-speech-on-new-initiative-for-europe">Sorbonne</a>. </p>
<p>More tangibly, his grand new 185 million euro architectural project, the <a href="https://www.cite-langue-francaise.fr/en/">Cité internationale de la langue française</a> cultural site, is preparing to open its doors just outside Paris in Villers-Cotterêts. The purpose is to project French afresh to the world as a historically rooted but forward-looking and dynamic global language. </p>
<p>In a recently published <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09639489.2022.2077715">paper</a>, I explored why Macron took on this “reprojection” of French and how his approach differed from those of his predecessors. I looked at the difficulties it ran into and how it related to another of his early political priorities, the recasting of relations between France and Africa. </p>
<h2>New presentations of French</h2>
<p>French used to be seen as one of the two languages (with English) that would give its speakers maximum direct access to the corridors of diplomatic influence, the cutting edge of intellectual innovation, and the negotiations of business opportunity. </p>
<p>But the importance and attractiveness of French can no longer be taken for granted. Over the last three decades or so, English has indisputably become the dominant working language of the world. And other languages such as Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish and Portuguese have risen in prominence along with their respective geopolitical regions.</p>
<p>In my paper I considered what was new about Macron’s approach, how it took account of the new global linguistic environment, and how successful it might prove to be in the long run.</p>
<p>Firstly, Macron looked to position the language in a new transnational space. The language was no longer to be centred on France itself as a nation. He presented it as a “sphere” whose <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2021/05/27/inauguration-du-centre-culturel-francophone-du-rwanda">“epicentre” was in the “heart of Africa”</a>. </p>
<p>The withdrawal of the UK from the European Union meant that, in Macron’s eyes, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/in-2022-make-french-language-great-again-eu-presidency/">the French language had a new place in Europe</a>. He nevertheless contended that its core future lay, above all, across Africa, the language’s key geopolitical region.</p>
<p>Macron made much of the predictions that by 2050, the language could grow from some 300 million speakers worldwide to an <a href="https://monitor.icef.com/2019/10/the-worlds-changing-language-landscape/">estimated 750 million</a>, and that <a href="https://www.vie-publique.fr/rapport/34251-la-francophonie-et-la-francophilie-moteurs-de-croissance-durable">85% of these would be in Africa</a>. (Such predictions depend a lot on educational trends and decisions taken in Africa in the coming decades.) The remaining 15% would largely be in Europe and Francophone Canada.</p>
<p>Secondly, Macron reached for new ways of imagining French as an object of desire for prospective speakers. Traditionally, French was often set apart from other languages as <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1971/05/20/si-le-francais-ne-restait-pas-la-premiere-langue-de-travail-de-l-europe-celle-ci-ne-serait-pas-tout-a-fait-europeenne-declare-m-pompidou-au-soir-de-bruxelles_2475210_1819218.html">pure and precise in expression</a>. </p>
<p>Macron <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2018/03/20/discours-demmanuel-macron-a-linstitut-de-france-sur-lambition-pour-la-langue-francaise-et-le-plurilinguisme">deployed alternative images</a> drawn in particular from Francophone African and Caribbean authors. These presented French as a vivacious and hybrid language, rubbing up creatively against other languages to create new forms of expression. </p>
<p>Thirdly, and more pragmatically, Macron aimed to present the French language as delivering tangible benefits to its ordinary speakers. This was something his predecessors had not had to spell out as they relied on the language’s former aura as a prestige, elite language. </p>
<p>But Macron argued in his Institut de France speech that as a language with international reach it gave its speakers access to a wider range of educational resources, employment opportunities and information sources. And it helped to prevent the world succumbing to the flattening effects of a single global lingua franca.</p>
<p>It even, he suggested, had a special role in <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2018/03/20/discours-demmanuel-macron-a-linstitut-de-france-sur-lambition-pour-la-langue-francaise-et-le-plurilinguisme">protecting the standing of other African languages with which it was in contact</a>, through programmes such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/lenseignement-bilingue-peut-favoriser-lalphabetisation-en-cote-divoire-cest-moins-evident-181035">bilingual immersion schooling</a>. </p>
<p>Audiences such as the students at the landmark <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/en/emmanuel-macron/2017/11/28/emmanuel-macrons-speech-at-the-university-of-ouagadougou">Ouagadougou speech</a> in November 2017 were not all convinced by this. Macron later had to counter their suspicions he was wanting to <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2018/03/20/discours-demmanuel-macron-a-linstitut-de-france-sur-lambition-pour-la-langue-francaise-et-le-plurilinguisme">protect French ‘against’ other African languages</a>.</p>
<h2>Obstacles facing Macron’s efforts</h2>
<p>Such suspicions were not the only obstacles facing Macron’s championing of the French language.</p>
<p>His attempts to recast the France-Africa relationship ran into many problems. He wanted this to be seen henceforth as a relation of mutually beneficial exchange, becoming gradually free of the heavy legacies of colonialism and <a href="https://theconversation.com/france-is-forging-new-relations-with-its-former-colonies-but-old-habits-die-hard-47442">the often murky dealings of the post-independence era</a>.</p>
<p>But there has been toxic <a href="https://theconversation.com/france-has-started-withdrawing-its-troops-from-mali-what-is-it-leaving-behind-170375">military stagnation in the Sahel</a>, the rise of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au-sahel-la-france-poussee-dehors-176067">anti-French popular sentiment</a> more widely in West Africa, the denunciation of <a href="https://time.news/mali-demands-macron-to-end-his-neocolonial-paternalistic-and-condescending-posture/">“condescending” modes of address</a> from the likes of new juntas in Mali and Guinea, and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62659181">spats over historical memory</a> with the Algerian government. </p>
<p>The political promotion of French has also become more fraught. A <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/the-interview/20210405-historians-report-on-1994-rwandan-genocide-france-turned-a-blind-eye">detailed report in 2021 on the 1994 Rwanda genocide</a> attributed partial responsibility to a desire under President François Mitterrand to preserve a strained “Francophone” sphere of influence. </p>
<p>And under Cameroon’s government, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cameroon-how-language-plunged-a-country-into-deadly-conflict-with-no-end-in-sight-179027">violent developments</a> showed that the promotion of French in Africa could not be reduced to a narrative about shared benefits.</p>
<p>Indeed, leading African intellectuals <a href="https://www.editionsladecouverte.fr/revue_du_crieur_n_10-9782348036101">Achille Mbembe and Alain Mabanckou argue that</a> French is indeed a vigorous and thriving African language. But that its development will be hindered if it is ostentatiously attached to the foreign policy interests of the French nation.</p>
<h2>The future of French in Africa</h2>
<p>French will only continue to embed itself durably as an African language if it is clearly perceived as being in their own interests by Africans themselves. This is the only approach that will stop the recent full – or partial – tilting to English in countries like <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/01/24/third-time-11-years-rwanda-changed-language-used-primary-schools/">Rwanda</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/7/12/gabon-togo-join-commonwealth-in-latest-dent-to-french-influence">Gabon</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-62368931">Algeria</a> from becoming an ineluctable process.</p>
<p>Public debates about the opening of the Cité internationale de la langue française should give an early indication as to whether Macron’s emphatic championing of the French language will continue into his second term. And with what modifications.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Ahearne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Africa, French will only continue to embed itself - if speaking it is in the interests of Africans and not attached to French foreign policy interests.Jeremy Ahearne, Professor of Modern Languages and Culture , University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1890962022-08-29T18:05:17Z2022-08-29T18:05:17ZIs it important to post election signs in languages other than French in Québec?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481629/original/file-20220829-24-109am8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C4550%2C2997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault launches his campaign at the Montmorency Falls with candidates, Aug. 28, 2022 in Québec City.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/is-it-important-to-post-election-signs-in-languages-other-than-french-in-quebec" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In electoral campaigns, election signs help candidates market themselves. But does the language of an election sign matter in a multilingual society?</p>
<p>This question is relevant in Québec, especially as the province begins <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-2022-election-campaign-start-1.6564813">its fall election campaign</a>. </p>
<p>While Québec is predominantly French-speaking, the population of potential voters in Québec is linguistically diverse. According <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm">to the 2021 census</a>, 93.7 per cent of Quebecers know French, but 28.2 per cent speak a language other than French at home. And the majority of the population <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/fogs-spg/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Dguid=2021A000224&topic=6">knows more than one language</a> — 14.5 per cent know three or more. This makes Québec the province with the most bilingual and multilingual people in Canada. </p>
<h2>Languages on election signs</h2>
<p>Despite that linguistic diversity, Québec’s political parties post few signs in languages other than French during campaigns. In fact, our research — yet to be published — shows that over the last 100 years, less than 10 per cent of political signs posted in the province were bilingual or in English. </p>
<p>The majority of signs were in French or did not convey a particular message other than the name of the candidate, party or riding. </p>
<p>Our findings also show that the presence of English on election signs has fluctuated over time. For example, 22 per cent of signs had some English on them in the 1950s and ‘60s. This percentage fell to 2 per cent from the 1970s to 2000s, followed by a timid resurgence of English in the 2010s. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480924/original/file-20220824-10117-wneb24.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Languages on election signs by decade in Québec" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480924/original/file-20220824-10117-wneb24.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480924/original/file-20220824-10117-wneb24.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480924/original/file-20220824-10117-wneb24.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480924/original/file-20220824-10117-wneb24.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480924/original/file-20220824-10117-wneb24.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480924/original/file-20220824-10117-wneb24.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480924/original/file-20220824-10117-wneb24.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Which language appears on election signs in Québec has varied for the past 100 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Marc Pomerleau)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In translation studies, we say that translation not only serves as a textual indicator of meaning, but also as a sociopolitical indicator. This is clearly the case when it comes to election signs. </p>
<p>The overall disappearance of English from election signs coincides with the redefinition of the political and social balance of power in Québec <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quiet-revolution">since the 1960s</a>. </p>
<p>One might assume that posters are almost exclusively in French because of the <a href="https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cs/C-11/19991022#se:59">Charter of the French Language</a>, but in no way does it prevent political advertising in other languages. The explanation here lies in the context rather than the law.</p>
<h2>Should political parties post signs in different languages?</h2>
<p>As the vast majority of Quebecers know French, political parties could easily decide to post their election signs in French only. But it is also true that people tend to <a href="https://csa-research.com/Featured-Content/For-Global-Enterprises/Global-Growth/CRWB-Series/CRWB-B2C">prefer content in their mother tongue</a>. </p>
<p>That fact however doesn’t mean a political party would gain votes by posting signs in English or other languages. </p>
<p>To find out how Quebecers perceive election signs in different languages, we conducted a survey on electorate language preferences — the results of which will soon be published in <a href="https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/meta/"><em>Meta</em></a>. Our survey consisted of multiple-choice questions where participants were shown several hypothetical unilingual and bilingual election signs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480926/original/file-20220824-12-911l98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A collage of three election signs with varying degrees of bilingualism." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480926/original/file-20220824-12-911l98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480926/original/file-20220824-12-911l98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480926/original/file-20220824-12-911l98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480926/original/file-20220824-12-911l98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480926/original/file-20220824-12-911l98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480926/original/file-20220824-12-911l98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480926/original/file-20220824-12-911l98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Québec, election signs are predominantly in French.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Musée québécois de culture populaire, Collection Dave Turcotte/Musée virtuel d'histoire politique du Québec, Québec Solidaire)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Perception of French and English signs</h2>
<p>The vast majority of Francophones (82.9 per cent) had positive feelings towards a unilingual French poster. Among non-Francophones, 61 per cent felt the same. </p>
<p>For a sign in English only, a mere 4 per cent of Francophones liked it, compared to 18.7 per cent of non-Francophones. When it came to bilingual (French-English) signs, 39.1 per cent of Francophones and 69.5 per cent of non-Francophones had positive feelings. </p>
<p>This shows that what bothers Québec voters is not so much the presence of English on signs, but the absence of French — English-only signs bothered 91.5 per cent of Francophones and 61 per cent of non-Francophones. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480927/original/file-20220824-9546-6hueb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing how people feel about bilingual election signs in Québec." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480927/original/file-20220824-9546-6hueb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480927/original/file-20220824-9546-6hueb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480927/original/file-20220824-9546-6hueb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480927/original/file-20220824-9546-6hueb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480927/original/file-20220824-9546-6hueb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480927/original/file-20220824-9546-6hueb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480927/original/file-20220824-9546-6hueb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Over 69 per cent of non-Francophones had positive feelings towards bilingual signs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Marc Pomerleau)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Perception of signs in other languages</h2>
<p>When presented with signs with a message in a foreign language, participants generally felt more positively towards those showcasing languages closer to French like Spanish, Italian and Portuguese — especially compared to those using a different script like Arabic, Mandarin and Russian. </p>
<p>The bilingual French-Spanish sign was the most widely accepted. Spanish is also the most widely understood foreign language in the province with a total of over 450,000 speakers. So what seemed to bother participants was their inability to understand a language. </p>
<p>However, a sign in Inuktitut generated very positive feelings across all Quebecers, especially when the sign was bilingual with French. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480932/original/file-20220824-4026-r6jk1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Québec election signs in French from over the years." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480932/original/file-20220824-4026-r6jk1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480932/original/file-20220824-4026-r6jk1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480932/original/file-20220824-4026-r6jk1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480932/original/file-20220824-4026-r6jk1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480932/original/file-20220824-4026-r6jk1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480932/original/file-20220824-4026-r6jk1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480932/original/file-20220824-4026-r6jk1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As the vast majority of Quebecers know French, political parties could easily decide to post their election signs in French only.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec, Collection Richard G. Gervais/Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec, Marc Pomerleau)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Should political parties post signs in multiple languages?</h2>
<p>Although our participants’ perceptions of hypothetical signs don’t necessarily translate into who they will vote for in real situations, they exemplify the linguistic preferences of the Québec electorate. </p>
<p>Francophones prefer by far French-only signs and non-Francophones have similar positive feelings towards French-only signs and bilingual French-English signs, the latter being slightly preferred. </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that Québec politicians who wish to put up provincial election signs in languages other than French should do so with caution. </p>
<p>Bilingual signs and signs in other languages could be used strategically in locations chosen with care, taking into account where said languages are actually spoken. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see what political parties actually do during the 2022 campaign, especially in the context of <a href="http://m.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/projets-loi/projet-loi-96-42-1.html">Bill 96</a> and the newly released census data showing a <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220817/g-a002-eng.htm">decline of French</a>. </p>
<p>Signs in languages other than French could be seen as an outstretched hand in yet another episode of linguistic tensions, but also as an indicator that French is indeed losing ground.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Pomerleau receives funding from Fonds d’aide institutionnel à la recherche, Université TÉLUQ.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Esmaeil Kalantari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Signs in languages other than French could be seen as an outstretched hand in yet another episode of linguistic tensions, but also as an indicator that French is indeed losing ground.Marc Pomerleau, Professeur de linguistique et de traductologie / Professor of linguistics and translation, Université TÉLUQ Esmaeil Kalantari, Auxiliaire de recherche, Université TÉLUQ Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1832802022-05-23T12:25:12Z2022-05-23T12:25:12ZConflicts over language stretch far beyond Russia and Ukraine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464046/original/file-20220518-15-3539qd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C34%2C3782%2C2491&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Canada, the French and English languages generally peacefully coexist.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/toronto-bremner-boulevard-cn-tower-observation-tower-lobby-news-photo/665581862">Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One key element of the war between Russia and Ukraine is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that the two countries share not just history, but also a <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181">common language</a>. Both are attempts to diminish Ukrainian claims of an independent identity from Russia. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ed8LBX0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">In</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EZHyWd4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">our</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=iMvIy-gAAAAJ">research</a> on <a href="https://www.languageconflict.org/">language conflict</a>, we have seen that using language as a tool of politics and power is not at all rare. </p>
<p>There are many instances around the world of people who speak different languages living alongside each other – whether in an awkward peace, like <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/language-conflict-and-language-rights-ethnolinguistic-perspectives-human-conflict">French speakers in English-dominated Canada</a>, or with some low-level conflict, like <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/language-conflict-and-language-rights-ethnolinguistic-perspectives-human-conflict">Kurdish speakers in Turkish-dominated Turkey</a>. </p>
<p>It’s also common for people who live near an international border to speak the language of the neighboring country, such as <a href="https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/12/russian-encroachment-in-the-baltics-the-role-of-russian-media-and-military-2/">Russian-speaking minorities</a> in Latvia and Estonia; a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/polish-ethnic-minority-in-belarus-and-lithuania-politics-institutions-and-identities/12CEBF8DA71190C2B80AB57632A6D269">Polish-speaking minority</a> in Lithuania; the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/language-conflict-and-language-rights-ethnolinguistic-perspectives-human-conflict">Hungarian-speaking minority</a> in Slovakia; the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3567140">Mongolian-speaking minority</a> in China; and the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/language-conflict-and-language-rights-ethnolinguistic-perspectives-human-conflict">Korean-speaking minority</a> in Japan.</p>
<p>However, none of these have devolved into war, at least not in many decades. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464034/original/file-20220518-15-vkv79h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman holds two photographs in front of a wall of posters about missing people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464034/original/file-20220518-15-vkv79h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464034/original/file-20220518-15-vkv79h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464034/original/file-20220518-15-vkv79h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464034/original/file-20220518-15-vkv79h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464034/original/file-20220518-15-vkv79h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464034/original/file-20220518-15-vkv79h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464034/original/file-20220518-15-vkv79h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patmanathan Kokilavani holds a photo of her two children, who are among those who went missing during the Sri Lankan Civil War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/patmanathan-kokilavani-holds-a-photo-of-her-two-children-at-news-photo/1143968672">Allison Joyce/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Intervention doesn’t have to mean invasion</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most direct foreign involvement relating to linguistic differences and similarities is the Sri Lankan Civil War, which lasted from 1983 to 2009 and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/language-conflict-and-language-rights-ethnolinguistic-perspectives-human-conflict">claimed more than 100,000 lives</a>. </p>
<p>The country’s Tamil-speaking separatists engaged in terrorist attacks and suicide bombings against the Sinhala-speaking majority, which had <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/language-conflict-and-language-rights-ethnolinguistic-perspectives-human-conflict">oppressed them for decades</a>. The attacks sparked violent backlash from the Sinhalese and prompted India – home to 63 million Tamil speakers, which is <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1067091/population-sri-lanka-historical/">about three times Sri Lanka’s total population</a> – to send in a peacekeeping force in 1987. </p>
<p>Indian troops occupied northern Sri Lanka <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13533319408413499">in an effort to protect Tamil speakers</a>, but they made no effort to conquer the island. After two years, they withdrew completely, having failed to impose peace.</p>
<h2>Is it that different?</h2>
<p>In other cases, people’s claim that they speak different languages from their neighbors is questionable – such as Serbian and Croatian. In 1850, writers and linguists from Serbia and Croatia signed the Vienna Literary Agreement, declaring their intention to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208753.001.0001">create a unified Serbo-Croatian language</a>. As a result, until the 1991 collapse of Yugoslavia, the people who described themselves as Bosnians, Serbs and Croats <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian-language">called the language they all spoke and understood “Serbo-Croatian.”</a> </p>
<p>After 1991, though, the collapse of the Soviet Union removed the external threat of Soviet intervention that had held Yugoslavia together during the Cold War. Ethnic hostilities held over from World War II, especially between Serbs and Croatians, reemerged. That led both to armed conflict and to each group’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/collapseofyugosl00alas/page/12/mode/2up">calling the language they spoke by that group’s own name</a> – even though it was no different from the Serbo-Croatian they had spoken before.</p>
<p>Other examples of mutually intelligible dialects being counted as languages include the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/IJSL.2007.004">Czech and Slovak</a> spoken in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, <a href="https://artsci.wustl.edu/ampersand/hindi-and-urdu-conversation">Hindi and Urdu</a> of India and Pakistan, and <a href="https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-scandinavian-languages-three-for-the-price-of-one">Norwegian and Danish</a> in Norway and Denmark.</p>
<h2>Is it really the same?</h2>
<p>There are also instances in which it is claimed that two groups speak the same language, but actually don’t. One example of this are the Ryūkyūan languages spoken by natives of the Ryūkyū Islands – the best known of which is Okinawan – and Japanese. The <a href="https://asian.fiu.edu/projects-and-grants/japan-studies-review/journal-archive/volume-xvii-2013/dubinsky-language-conflict.pdf">Ryūkyūan languages split from what would become the mainstream Japanese language</a> over 2,000 years ago, and are not mutually intelligible.</p>
<p>However, when the Japanese annexed the Ryūkyū Islands as a province in 1879, they papered over these differences, claiming that Ryūkyūan was just a Japanese dialect. And by 1907, in its quest to promote national unity and homogeneity, Japan legislated against the Ryūkyūan languages, classifying them as <a href="https://asian.fiu.edu/projects-and-grants/japan-studies-review/journal-archive/volume-xvii-2013/dubinsky-language-conflict.pdf">inferior and improper varieties of true Japanese language</a>, and barred children from speaking their native Ryūkyūan languages in school.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464042/original/file-20220518-16-wsv9yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing the Ryūkyū Islands and the languages spoken there." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464042/original/file-20220518-16-wsv9yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464042/original/file-20220518-16-wsv9yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464042/original/file-20220518-16-wsv9yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464042/original/file-20220518-16-wsv9yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464042/original/file-20220518-16-wsv9yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464042/original/file-20220518-16-wsv9yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464042/original/file-20220518-16-wsv9yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ryūkyū Islands, south of Japan, are home to several Indigenous languages that are distinct from Japanese.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ryukyuan_languages_map.png">Garam via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The real difference</h2>
<p>Ultimately, the determination of whether two groups speak different languages or dialects is partly objective and <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-ukrainian-a-language-or-a-dialect-that-depends-on-whom-you-ask-and-how-the-war-ends-180849">partly determined by politics and power</a>.</p>
<p>A key difference was described to Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich by an attendee at one of his lectures in the mid-1940s: “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/yivo-faces-the-post-war-world/oclc/40722532">A language is a dialect with an army and navy</a>.” The Ryūkyūans did not have a military. The Ukrainians do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stanley Dubinsky owns shares in ConflictAnalytiX LLC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harvey Starr has shares in ConflictAnalytiX LLC</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Gavin is a project consultant/analyst for ConflictAnalytiX LLC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anyssa Murphy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s common for people to live near others who speak a different – but similar – language. But generally, they handle their differences without violence.Stanley Dubinsky, Professor of Linguistics, University of South CarolinaAnyssa Murphy, Ph.D Student in Historical Syntax, University of South CarolinaHarvey Starr, Dag Hammarskjold Professor in International Affairs Emeritus, University of South CarolinaMichael Gavin, Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1823202022-05-05T13:47:15Z2022-05-05T13:47:15ZBill 96 will harm Indigenous people in Québec. We need more equitable language laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461349/original/file-20220504-15-euyt2q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C3487%2C2375&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Québec Premier François Legault defended Bill 96 saying he doesn't want the province to become Louisiana.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/bill-96-will-harm-indigenous-people-in-quebec--we-need-more-equitable-language-laws" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>One of the reasons I moved to Québec in 2015 was because of the <em>mélange</em> of languages in which many Quebecers — <a href="https://languagescompany.com/wp-content/uploads/14_1228-LUCIDE-Montreal-Report-V8_HRONLINE.pdf">especially in Montréal</a> — live and work. Some are able to change languages from sentence to sentence; others will switch in the middle of sentences or speak in an ever-changing <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/vc-rv/index.cfm?Lang=ENG&VIEW=D&GEOCODE=24&TOPIC_ID=4">medley of languages</a>.</p>
<p>The language dance happens most frequently between French and English, but other languages can be involved — such as Indigenous and immigrant languages. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quebecs-bill-40-further-undermines-the-provinces-english-language-school-system-131595">Québec's Bill 40 further undermines the province's English-language school system</a>
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<p>The reality of multilingualism goes very far back in Québec: the perceived founder of French Québec, Samuel de Champlain, even knew “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/49790/champlains-dream-by-david-hackett-fischer/9780307397676">a smattering of [Indigenous] languages, not enough to speak directly on sensitive questions. Most of his communications had to happen through interpreters</a>.” However the mythic view of historical dominance held by some Quebecers is that “<a href="https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2022/01/04/a-propos-du-respect-de-notre-langue"><em>la langue française […] s’est implantée officiellement au Québec avec Samuel de Champlain en 1608</em></a>” or, the French language was officially established in Québec with Samuel de Champlain in 1608.</p>
<p>As the leader of a tiny, vulnerable French outpost, Champlain probably thought more about making alliances with Indigenous nations, which would allow the French colonists to survive, than he did about official languages. </p>
<p>Indigenous nations, and languages, have endured — as have the descendants of the original French settlers (including me), joined by British settlers and a mix of immigrants from all over the world, to create a diverse and complex society.</p>
<p>And all of this contributes to why Bill 96 is so problematic. The <a href="http://m.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/projets-loi/projet-loi-96-42-1.html">proposed bill</a>, “An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec,” will reduce the accessibility to health-care services in English, which will <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/first-nations-leaders-call-bill-96-cultural-genocide">drastically and negatively impact Indigenous people</a>. As a researcher and teacher of Inuit health, I find this deeply troubling.</p>
<h2>Indigenous experience in Québec</h2>
<p>Part of Québec’s complexity is ensuring equity for all its citizens. For Indigenous people in the province, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01500-8">equitable treatment can seem fleeting</a>. </p>
<p>In the health-care system, systemic discrimination against Indigenous people has been formally recognized. In 2019, the Québec-mandated Viens Commission concluded that “<a href="https://www.cerp.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_clients/Rapport/Final_report.pdf">it is clear that prejudice toward Indigenous Peoples remains widespread in the interaction between caregivers and patients</a>,” and recommended “cultural safeguard principles” be incorporated into health services and programs for Indigenous people. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters walk wearing ribbon skirts, holding signs that read 'Justice pour Joyce'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461325/original/file-20220504-27-me06yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461325/original/file-20220504-27-me06yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461325/original/file-20220504-27-me06yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461325/original/file-20220504-27-me06yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461325/original/file-20220504-27-me06yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461325/original/file-20220504-27-me06yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461325/original/file-20220504-27-me06yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of people take part in a rally in support of Joyce Echaquan in Trois-Rivières, Que., in June, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In October 2021, coroner Géhane Kamel’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/joyce-echaquan-systemic-racism-quebec-government-1.6196038">top recommendation</a> in her report on the death of Joyce Echaquan was that the province needs to recognize that systemic racism exists and take concrete action to eliminate it. </p>
<p>To receive health care in a language that you speak is obviously a dimension of cultural safety. So it’s all the more disappointing that a recently released plan to reform the Québec health-care system <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-quebec-health-care-plan-fails-to-respond-to-indigenous-concerns">ignores systemic discrimination and cultural safety for patients</a>.</p>
<h2>The problem with Bill 96</h2>
<p>In an analysis of Bill 96, Montréal lawyer and advocate Eric Maldoff <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-its-essential-to-exempt-health-and-social-services-from-bill-96">says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Even when the staff and institutions have the option to use another language, Bill 96 strongly directs them to avoid exercising it and specifies that a language other than French should not be used systematically, such as by establishing translation services. There is an option to use a language other than French in case of health, public safety and natural justice. However, it seems aimed at dealing with a health emergency of an individual.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nunavik Inuit in northern Québec have been identifying challenges within the health-care system for years. A report prepared by <a href="https://nrbhss.ca/sites/default/files/health_surveys/The_IQI_Model_of_Health_and_Well-Being_report_en.pdf">the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services</a> says: “Many [Inuit] do not understand medical terms and translation is sometimes inefficient, as many terms do not have an equivalent in Inuktitut. Consequently, many people struggle to understand their health problems and to follow medical advice.” </p>
<p>Ninety-eight per cent of Nunavik Inuit <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-656-x/89-656-x2016016-eng.htm">speak Inuktitut as their first language</a>. This should be celebrated, not hindered during the <a href="https://en.unesco.org/idil2022-2032">Decade of Indigenous Languages</a>, which Canada supports. Although many Indigenous people in Québec — including most Inuit — may have recognized rights to services in English, many, including myself, think Bill 96 will create greater impediments to accessible health care for Inuit and First Nations people. The bill will worsen health and health care, instead of improving it.</p>
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<h2>Multilingualism shouldn’t be a threat</h2>
<p>Bill 96 will also create new <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-quebecs-language-requirements-put-first-nations-students-at-a-disadvantage">challenges in education for Inuit and First Nations people</a> who use English. </p>
<p>Indigenous students will now have to complete an additional three French-language courses <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-rolls-back-proposal-forcing-english-cegep-students-into-three-french-language-classes-1.5877572">to receive a CÉGEP diploma</a> (typically required for university admission). In practice, most Inuit, and about half of First Nations students have been predominantly educated in English and will struggle with an additional French requirements.</p>
<p>Québec Premier François Legault recently <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/new-political-parties-would-turn-quebec-into-a-new-louisiana-legault">defended the draft Bill 96 by saying</a>: “If Québec is bilingual, unfortunately the attraction in North America to English will be so strong it will be a matter of time before we don’t speak French in Québec and we become Louisiana.”</p>
<p>Turning into Louisiana is a commonly deployed bogeyman in Québec, to imply that without restrictive measures on the use of other languages, French is endangered.</p>
<p>For most Québec residents, there is broad consensus that French should be protected. But many of us believe that multilingualism — including Indigenous languages — need not threaten French.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a story originally published on May 5, 2022. It clarifies that many Indigenous people in Québec have recognized rights to services in English.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Budgell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For most Québec residents, there is broad consensus that French should be protected. But many of us believe that multilingualism need not threaten French.Richard Budgell, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine; Ph.D. student, History and Classical Studies, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1790272022-03-17T14:14:16Z2022-03-17T14:14:16ZCameroon: how language plunged a country into deadly conflict with no end in sight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452205/original/file-20220315-27-16i0oss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cameroonian demonstrators in Belgium demand President Biya step down and release all political prisoners.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since <a href="https://www.nrc.no/news/2019/june/cameroon-tops-list-of-most-neglected-crises/">October 2017</a>, Cameroon has been engulfed by a deadly conflict. The conflict is rooted in the colonisation of Cameroon by both the French and British governments – and the two languages that came with it, French and English. </p>
<p>Today, the conflict is between Cameroon’s military and separatist forces from the two anglophone North-West and South-West regions. </p>
<p>Between 1919 and 1961, these two regions were under British colonial administration and were known as British Southern Cameroons. Following a UN plebiscite, or vote, on 11 February 1961, inhabitants voted to “<a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/afdi_0066-3085_1961_num_7_1_1100">reunite</a>” with French Cameroun on 1 October 1961.</p>
<p>But all didn’t go well after the unification of the two regions. The two English-speaking regions, which make up <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/250-cameroons-anglophone-crisis-crossroads">about 20%</a> of the population, have repeatedly complained of discrimination and exclusion. A year-long protest in Cameroon’s anglophone regions in 2016 <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/separatism-in-cameroon-5-years-of-violent-civil-war/a-59369417">descended into</a> a civil war in 2017. </p>
<p>Almost five years later, the conflict continues to rage on. By <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/cameroon#">recent estimates</a>, the conflict has already led to the death of over 4,000 civilians and more than 712,000 internally displaced persons from the Anglophone regions. More than <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/cmr_hno_2020-revised_print.pdf">1.3 million people</a> are in need of humanitarian assistance.</p>
<p>President Paul Biya, Cameroon’s leader since 1982, is fixated on pursuing a failed path of war against the separatist groups, whom he calls “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Nationalism-Cameroun-Origins-Rebellion/dp/019822706X">terrorists</a>”.</p>
<p>Sadly, there is no clear and credible agenda for negotiations as yet – which makes peace and reconciliation elusive. What is clear is that anglophone grievances run deep and have remained unaddressed for a long time. </p>
<p>As a political anthropologist who has <a href="https://media.africaportal.org/documents/Policy-Insights-117-orock.pdf">studied</a> the situation of Cameroonian anglophones at length, I see the way that elite and marginalised groups are defined by language as a driver of this conflict.</p>
<h2>Anglophone grievances</h2>
<p>The immediate origins of the crisis can be traced to the government’s violent repression of protests by lawyer and teacher unions in 2016. </p>
<p>In October 2016, anglophone teachers’ and lawyers’ unions launched <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/cameroon-anglophone-conflict-five-years-on/a-59363797">peaceful protests</a> against the “neglect” and “marginalisation” of the two English-speaking regions. Large groups of people took part in the year-long protests. They <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/5/cameroon-teachers-lawyers-strike-in-battle-for-english">focused</a> on the appointment of francophone teachers, prosecutors and judges in anglophone areas. The union leadership denounced these appointments as part of the government’s gradual but steady process of “<a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/250-cameroons-anglophone-crisis-crossroads">francophonisation</a>” of the state.</p>
<p>In the francophone regions, such as Douala and Yaoundé, which host large communities of anglophones, French is often the only language that can be used to access vital public services. Disaffected anglophones are resentful of the chasm between the official claim that Cameroon is a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Democratization-Modernization-Multilingual-Cameroon-Asuagbor/dp/0773422218">bilingual state</a> and the reality of anglophones’ de facto <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28649856_Negotiating_an_Anglophone_Identity_A_Study_of_the_Politics_of_Recognition_and_Representation_in_Cameroon">second-class citizenship</a>. This is evidenced in the barriers they face due to language. </p>
<p>Anglophone Cameroonians have long complained about the almost total domination of public life by the francophone Cameroonians. The elites in this group are believed to have used their power to <a href="https://cameroonpostline.com/why-anglophones-continuously-feel-marginalised">marginalise</a> anglophone regions when allocating resources for economic development. </p>
<p>This historical marginalisation led to calls for a separatist movement.</p>
<h2>Republic of Ambazonia</h2>
<p>The separatists describe themselves as a movement for the “restoration” of the “<a href="https://ambagov.org/">Republic of Ambazonia</a>”. The name Ambazonia – derived from Ambas Bay, in the Gulf of Guinea – was <a href="https://ambazonia.org/en/?option=com_content&view=article&id=153&Itemid=8">coined</a> in the mid-1980s by an anglophone dissident lawyer, Fon Gorji Dinka. </p>
<p>A main reason for anglophone calls for separation is their resentment of the authoritarian rule by the country’s mostly francophone leadership. And, when anglophone Cameroonians protested, they were met with force. This happened first under <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45193813">Ahmadou Ahidjo’s administration</a> (1960–1982) and then under <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1910195/cameroon-s-biya-faces-protests-as-anglophone-carries-on/">Paul Biya</a> (from 1982 onwards). </p>
<p>Since 1990, protests in the anglophone regions have often been met with swift and deadly violence. The same happened in the 2016-2017 protests. Unarmed protesters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/cameroon-police-students-idUSL121148920071112">were shot and killed</a> by soldiers. Those detained also <a href="https://african.business/2022/01/apo-newsfeed/cameroon-more-than-a-hundred-detainees-from-anglophone-regions-and-opposition-party-languishing-in-jail-for-speaking-out/">face abuse</a>.</p>
<p>Another important grievance of anglophone separatists is what they claim to be the <a href="https://www.cameroonconcordnews.com/southern-cameroons-when-independence-is-worse-than-colonization/">“coloniality”</a> of their union with the French Cameroon state. </p>
<p>Anglophone nationalists <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4107332">question</a> the UN-imposed plebiscite of 11 February 1961. They argue that by compelling British Cameroonians to choose between Nigeria and French Cameroon as the route to their independence, the UN’s implementation of its own provisions for decolonisation in Article 76 (b) – regarding the attainment of independence for former trust territories – was flawed. The choices offered by the UN to decide between French Cameroun and Nigeria ignored the people’s desire and wishes for self-rule, which contravenes the very fundamental provisions of the UN’s decolonisation framework. </p>
<p>As a consequence, anglophone Cameroonians claim that the francophone majority views and treats the two anglophone regions as a colonial appendage. And that the region, and people who live there, are not an equal part of Cameroon.</p>
<h2>Hard road to peace</h2>
<p>The road to peace will be a hard one. </p>
<p>To achieve peace while maintaining unity in the country, some autonomists <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/cameroon/anglophone-dilemma-cameroon">advocate</a> a “return” to the initial 1961 agreement of a two-state federation. These federalists were in the majority among anglophones before the start of the 2016 conflict. However, after almost five years of violent fighting some of the federalists have become <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/25/cameroon-civilians-massacred-separatist-area">more alienated by the abuses</a> of the regime’s forces in the war zones. </p>
<p>Radical separatists – such as Chris Anu of the Ambazonian Interim Government and Ayaba Cho Lucas and Ivo Tapang of the Ambazonia Governing Council – are <a href="https://www.davispoliticalreview.com/article/cameroon-anglophones-independence">demanding</a> outright and total independence. They believe it’s the only way for anglophone Cameroonians to free themselves from francophone domination and to avoid future crises.</p>
<p>This split between federalists and separatists <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/272-crise-anglophone-au-cameroun-comment-arriver-aux-pourparlers">complicates</a> possible dialogue and peaceful negotiations. </p>
<p>This isn’t helped by the fact that Biya and his government <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2021/3/29/cameroons-elusive-peace-rivals-rifts-and-secret-talks">have spurned</a> discussions with Ambazonian separatists or federalists on changes that would imply a loss of power for the central government.</p>
<p>In addition, the violent suppression of the anglophone protests in 2016–2017 has had two important consequences. It has made the mainstream or establishment anglophone elite fearful of speaking out. And it has further radicalised anglophone youth and rallied support from anglophone Cameroonians in the diaspora. </p>
<p>I believe the only solution to the crisis is autonomy for the two Anglophone regions. The exact form of this autonomy would need a long and carefully negotiated settlement between the different forces at play. And, whatever the settlement, it would have to be subjected to the popular will of the people in these two regions of former Southern Cameroons. </p>
<p>But getting this autonomy won’t be easy given the considerable reluctance from Francophone elites in Yaounde to concede a change to the form of the state. Moreover, the deepening authoritarian posture of the regime in place instils fear of violent crackdowns among dissident voices within the country and political institutions, like the parliament, have little or no capacity to drive measures towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict. </p>
<p>For steps towards autonomy to be taken there would need to be pressure from outside. This includes pressure from the anglophone Cameroonian diaspora, international media, human rights organisations, and major Western powers <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/RC-8-2019-0245_EN.html">such as</a> the United States and the European Union.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179027/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rogers Orock received funding for this research from Bradlow Fellowship at the African Governance and Development Programme, the South African Institute of International Affairs </span></em></p>Anglophone grievances run deep and have remained unaddressed for a long time.Rogers Orock, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1792242022-03-17T14:09:21Z2022-03-17T14:09:21ZAfrica and the French language are growing together in global importance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452506/original/file-20220316-7961-452eqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">France's President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Africa is home to the largest number of French speakers in the world – <a href="https://www.languagenext.com/blog/french-speaking-countries-world/#1-how-many-people-in-africa-speak-french">120 million</a> people in 24 francophone countries. As the world marks the United Nations French language day on 20 March, The Conversation’s West Africa regional editor, Adejuwon Soyinka, asked academic and author Kathleen Stein-Smith about the impact of the French language on Africa and the continent’s impact on the language.</em></p>
<p><strong>How widespread is French in African countries?</strong> </p>
<p>French is a global language, spoken by <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358806825_French_Language_and_Francophone_Culture_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa_--Interdisciplinary_Reflections_on_Multilingualism_and_French_Language_Education">300 million people</a> around the world. Africa, a region of strategic global importance, is <a href="https://www.languagenext.com/blog/french-speaking-countries-world/">home to the largest</a> number of French speakers. </p>
<p>French is the <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1428637/french-is-worlds-fifth-spoken-language-thanks-to-africans/#:%7E:text=French%20remains%20the%20sole%20official,second%20official%20language%20in%2010.">sole</a> official language in 11 African countries and the second official language in an additional 10 countries in Africa.</p>
<p>Africa plays a key role in both the present and future of French, a fact which has been recognised by the <a href="https://www.francophonie.org/">Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie</a>. The organisation, which observed its 50th anniversary in 2020, has its <a href="https://www.moyak.com/papers/history-francophonie.html">roots</a> in Africa. Its current president, <a href="https://normandiepourlapaix.fr/en/personnes-structures/mushikiwabo">Louise Mushikiwabo</a>, is from Africa. </p>
<p><strong>Why do former French colonies in Africa continue to encourage the use of the language?</strong></p>
<p>The language offers access to information, education, media, and culture around the world. It increases the ease of doing business with external Francophone partners. French language skill also facilitates career and professional opportunities both locally and globally.</p>
<p>The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie publishes a report on the status of the French language in the world, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR7c58l_GJk&t=188s">La Langue francaise dans le monde</a>, every four years. The most recent report mentions that French is the <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1428637/french-is-worlds-fifth-spoken-language-thanks-to-africans/">fifth most widely spoken language</a> in the world. </p>
<p>It has <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358806825_French_Language_and_Francophone_Culture_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa_--Interdisciplinary_Reflections_on_Multilingualism_and_French_Language_Education">300 million speakers</a> and this number has increased by 10% in the most recent four-year period studied. </p>
<p><strong>What impact has the use of French language had on the African countries where it is spoken?</strong></p>
<p>In 2018, the French government launched a <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/francophony-and-the-french-language/france-s-commitment-to-the-french-language/international-strategy-for-the-french-language-and-multilingualism/">worldwide campaign</a> for French, based on communication, culture and creation. French president Emmanuel Macron specifically highlighted the importance of French in Africa in the worldwide campaign launch, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/20/emmanuel-macron-campaign-french-speaking">stating that</a> French could be “the number-one language in Africa … and maybe even the world.” </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/07/france-new-world-leader-in-soft-power/">“soft power”</a> of France and of the French language rests in the power of its ideas and the influence of French culture and values throughout the world.</p>
<p>Africa is of strategic importance, both globally and within the French-speaking world. French offers an opportunity to connect directly with other cultures, with education and information, with career opportunities, and with media and the arts.</p>
<p>The role of French in Africa includes business, notably organising the annual business forum <a href="https://events-export.businessfrance.fr/ambition-africa-en/">Ambition Africa</a> and the networking through the <a href="https://www.ccifrance-international.org/">Chambre de Commerce International</a>. </p>
<p><strong>What impact have the languages and cultures of African francophone countries had on the French language?</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.france24.com/fr/%C3%A9missions/invit%C3%A9-du-jour/20210319-francophonie-l-afrique-est-l-avenir-de-la-langue-fran%C3%A7aise">future of French</a> is as a global language in an increasingly interconnected world. Africa has a substantial and growing influence within the French-speaking world.</p>
<p><strong>Does the French spoken in Africa feature in French language teaching elsewhere in the world?</strong></p>
<p>The current role and increasing influence of Africa within the Francophone world call for an examination of French language education.</p>
<p>French is the <a href="https://lingotalk.medium.com/top-5-most-learned-languages-in-the-world-8ac85bf96713">second most studied</a> language in world. But despite the longstanding and growing importance of Africa in the Francophone world, many French language learners do not have the opportunity to learn about Francophone culture in Africa.</p>
<p>This presents a challenge for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, many French language learners do not have the <a href="http://www.ijhssnet.com/journal/index/4794">opportunity</a> to come to understand the diversity and vibrancy of the language and the culture that could <a href="http://www.ijhssnet.com/journal/index/4794">increase interest</a> in French and motivation for study of French. </p>
<p>On the other hand, in an interconnected world characterised by mobility, families everywhere face the challenge of transmitting their family language and culture to their children and future generations. </p>
<p>Francophone families residing in other parts of the world may find that the language and culture of Francophone Africa may not always be included in French language education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Stein-Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Africa, home to the largest number of French speakers, plays a key role in the present and future of the French language.Kathleen Stein-Smith, Adjunct Faculty, Fairleigh Dickinson University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746272022-01-10T19:56:11Z2022-01-10T19:56:11Z‘Piss off’? ‘Annoy’? Why Macron’s use of the French swear word ‘emmerder’ is so hard to translate<p>When French president Emmanuel Macron vowed to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/world/europe/macron-france-unvaccinated.html">“emmerder”</a> the unvaccinated in France, he did not just throw down the gauntlet on his Covid policies, he also sparked a fervent linguistic debate.</p>
<p>The word <em>emmerder</em> is a verb derived from the noun <em>merde</em>, which in English literally translates to “shit”. But properly translating <em>emmerder</em> is far from straightforward, leaving the international media <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/macron-emmerder-non-vaccines-la-presse-etrangere-peine-a-traduire_fr_61d554d1e4b0bcd21959223f">struggling to find the best equivalent</a>. Did Macron want to <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/annoy-piss-off-hassle-comment-macron-a-emmerde-la-presse-etrangere-20220106">“fuck”</a> the unvaccinated? To <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/macron-declares-his-covid-strategy-is-to-piss-off-the-unvaccinated">“piss them off”</a>? To <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/459085/covid-19-president-macron-warns-he-will-hassle-france-s-unvaccinated">“hassle”</a> them? To <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/05/macron-french-president-wants-to-annoy-the-unvaccinated-.html">“annoy”</a> them?</p>
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<p>Official translation aids were of little use in this instance: <a href="https://www.clarin.eu/resource-families/parallel-corpora">parallel corpora</a>, which can be a useful tool to see how a word or an expression is usually rendered in another language, are mostly made up of semi-official texts, where such a word would never appear. Even the <a href="https://www.sketchengine.eu/europarl-parallel-corpus/">corpus of translations from the European Parliament’s proceedings</a> displays only one example of the verb, and it is translated as “annoy”, which is more often used as a translation of the much more polite <em>irriter</em>.</p>
<p>Part of the difficulty comes from the derogatory nature of the remark. “Hassle” or “annoy” erase the more colourful dimension of this profanity, perhaps in line with different editorial standards of some English-language media.</p>
<p>But losing the derogatory dimension of the verb means losing part of its meaning: translating meaning is not only a matter of factual accuracy, it is also a matter of speaker intention. To capture the <a href="https://ling.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/horn/Gutzmann,%20D%20(2012)%20Expressives%20and%20beyond.pdf">expressive meaning</a> of <em>emmerder</em>, we need to look not just at the word itself, but at the comprehensive speech act of Macron’s entire statement.</p>
<p>So what does it really mean to use the sentence, “I would very much like to <em>emmerder</em> the unvaccinated”?</p>
<h2>Taking “shit” verbs seriously</h2>
<p><em>Emmerder</em> literally means “to cover someone with shit”, but it has long since lost its original meaning. The meaning that has received most attention since Macron’s statement is an expressive variety of <em>irriter</em>, “to annoy”, with an additional note of contempt for the irritated person’s opposition to their predicament.</p>
<p>But there are other uses, which are best understood if the French language’s vast trove of “shit” verbs is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>The basic derogatory verb for pooing in French is <em>chier</em>. There is also a transitive version of this verb, which can be used to frame the person or the thing being covered with faeces as a direct object: <em>conchier</em>. <em>Conchier</em> also has another meaning: “to have extreme contempt or hatred for someone or something”.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pas-de-souci-the-french-war-on-saying-no-worries-168878">Pas de souci! The French war on saying ‘no worries’</a>
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<p>Today, people usually use a prepositional construction, “chier sur quelque chose” or “chier dessus” (both meaning “to shit on”). There is also what grammarians call a <a href="https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/causatives-have-get.html">causative</a> for <em>chier</em>: “to have someone shit, to make someone shit” is to <em>faire chier</em>. This is an approximate equivalent to <em>emmerder</em>: to annoy, to bother, to piss off.</p>
<p>Both <em>faire chier</em> and <em>emmerder</em> also have a pronominal version, too: <em>se faire chier</em> or <em>s’emmerder</em>, both meaning “to be bored”. Note that their more formal equivalent is also a pronominal verb, <em>s’ennuyer</em>, whose non-pronominal variant, <em>ennuyer</em>, means nothing else than… “to annoy”.</p>
<p>So, there is a system here: whether polite or profane, the reflexive of “to annoy” means “to get bored”. Correspondingly, <em>chiant</em> and <em>emmerdant</em> have become synonyms, meaning annoying, tedious and boring.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A figurine of the poo emoji" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440052/original/file-20220110-25-gqy7pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440052/original/file-20220110-25-gqy7pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440052/original/file-20220110-25-gqy7pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440052/original/file-20220110-25-gqy7pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440052/original/file-20220110-25-gqy7pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440052/original/file-20220110-25-gqy7pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440052/original/file-20220110-25-gqy7pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In France, to shit and to say ‘shit’ are two different things.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/fr/photos/caca-merde-amusement-figure-rire-4108423/">Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Considering all these different meanings and formulations, “being a pain in the ass for someone” may actually seem a convenient proposal for Macron’s use of <em>emmerder</em>. But most speakers of both languages would probably argue that something is lost here.</p>
<p>I want to claim that what is lost has much to do with the major difference between <em>emmerder</em> and the <em>chier</em>-family: the fact that the former can no longer be used to refer to any concrete situation involving faeces.</p>
<h2>First-person swearing</h2>
<p>The key to understand this is the special relationship between <em>emmerder</em> and the first-person subject (<em>je</em> in French, <em>I</em> in English). I argue that this specific factor is what caused Macron’s statement to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ode-ig5UdkU">upset many people</a>, as he used the first person: “Les non-vaccinés, j’ai très envie de les emmerder.”</p>
<p>“J’emmerde les non-vaccinés” would actually mean something between “I don’t give a shit about these people” and “they can kiss my ass”. Similarly, <a href="https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2022/01/06/merde-emmerder-les-emmerde/">“Je t’emmerde”</a> means “Get off, to hell with you”.</p>
<p>One of the ways to perform this kind of rebuke in French would be to simply utter the slur “Merde!”, not as an interjection expressing surprise, disapproval or rage, but as a demonstration of opposition to the person speaking to you. “Je vous dis merde!” (“I say ‘shit’ to you!”) also carries that meaning.</p>
<p>Remember that unlike the verbs from the kinship of <em>chier</em>, <em>emmerder</em> can no longer be used to designate anything to do with actual faeces. It is thus highly plausible that nowadays, the <em>merde</em> in <em>emmerder</em> does not refer to excrement, but to the slur itself: <em>emmerder</em> does not mean “cover someone with shit”, but “to say ‘shit’ to someone”.</p>
<p>This is what <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/lfr_0023-8368_1979_num_42_1_6156">many linguists</a> would call a delocutive or <a href="https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=rlr-001:1976:40::525">delocutionary verb</a> (like “to welcome” in English).</p>
<p>In the first person, “saying ‘shit!’ to someone” does not mean “addressing the word ‘shit’ at someone”. It means, somewhat redundantly, “doing what you do when you say ‘shit’ to someone”, namely: annoying them, or pissing them off. As philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein would say, the actual meaning of that phrase can be found in the goal of the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/#MeanUse">“language game”</a> of uttering it at all.</p>
<p>In a nutshell: <em>emmerder</em> has lost its original meaning; it now always means “to annoy” with the additional component of profanity associated with the utterance of <em>merde</em>. In the first person, it is synonymous with “say merde”; and “saying merde” is a conventionalised speech act whose meaning is to annoy the addressee.</p>
<p>So, why not assume that <em>emmerder</em> always means “doing what you do when you say ‘merde!’ or ‘je t’emmerde!’ to someone”, even when you do it by other means than by uttering that word?</p>
<p>The implication would be that there has been meaning change of “saying merde” and <em>emmerder</em>, from the utterance of a word to the act which can be fulfilled, among other means, by uttering that word.</p>
<h2>Performative profanity</h2>
<p>This kind of change is not unique, it is characteristic for <a href="https://meinong.stanford.edu/entries/speech-acts/">“performatives”</a>. Performative verbs are verbs of speech used in the first person in frozen constructions and contexts, by someone who has the ability to fulfil this action by speaking it. For example, the president of a commission who opens hearings merely by saying something like, “I declare open the second day of hearings”.</p>
<p>Anything said by the president of France is definitively invested with this performative capacity. Consider Macron’s <a href="https://www.franceinter.fr/politique/les-non-vaccines-j-ai-tres-envie-de-les-emmerder-les-propos-d-emmanuel-macron-detonent-dans-l-opposition">full statement</a>: “I very much want to <em>emmerder</em> the non-vaccinated, so we’re going to go on like that right until the end.”</p>
<p>The second half is a clear demonstration of the effectiveness of the president’s first-person speech in the real world.</p>
<p>But of course, the president did not say “j’emmerde les non-vaccinés” (“I <em>emmerde</em> the unvaccinated”), but “j’ai très envie de les emmerder” (“I very much want to <em>emmerde</em> the unvaccinated”).</p>
<p>So what about this “avoir envie de” or “want to”? The presence of this auxiliary is enough to make the performative interpretation less strong, but it doesn’t erase it, especially in the context of a holder of legislative power speaking in the first person.</p>
<p>The ambiguity of the utterance and the difficulty in translating it arise from this in-between-state: Macron has not accomplished the performative act; he has just commented on his willingness to do so and on the fact that the desired result will come true.</p>
<h2>Emmerder: a comprehensive view</h2>
<p>If this view is correct, the problem with the translations proposed for “emmerder” is due to the fact that they focus on the effect of the designated action on the subjects (in this case, the unvaccinated) instead of insisting on the very specific agency carried by this verb, especially in the context of the first person and when the speaker enjoys a peculiar performative linguistic power.</p>
<p>Defending this unified view of the meaning of <em>emmerder</em> as “to annoy someone like you do it when you say ‘merde!’ or ‘je t’emmerde!’ to them”, we can assume that each context feature enriches or specifies the basic meaning of the verb. Each of the proposed translations thus captures a facet of meaning.</p>
<p>In this case, we are faced with a very special speaker and with a grammatical construction discreetly referring to the performative component of <em>emmerder</em>. Here, focusing on the word itself instead of considering the whole utterance leads us to miss an important feature of Macron’s statement: he not only wants to have the unvaccinated eat shit, he also wants to tell them to do so and go to hell, in his capacity as head of state.</p>
<p>Everything here is linked to the choice of a deliberately transgressive word by a very powerful person – the breaking of ordinary language rules by a head of state is already a signal that a demonstration of strength is underway.</p>
<p>What makes this statement remarkable from the point of view of language is that, as a speech act, it forms a highly consistent whole. All of the loose meaning features associated with the use of <em>emmerder</em> are tightly linked with and support one another: hassling, swearing and the capacity to enforce are shown to be one and the same thing. Some would call this power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174627/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre-Yves Modicom has received funding from the Université Bordeaux-Montaigne. Thanks are due to S. for her useful comments during and before the writing of this article.</span></em></p>You can only properly translate French scatological swear words if you consider who is using them. In this case, the most powerful person in France.Pierre-Yves Modicom, Maître de conférences en études germaniques, Université Bordeaux MontaigneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1721342021-12-13T16:38:53Z2021-12-13T16:38:53ZCorporate leadership: Why the tone at the top has moral consequences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435684/original/file-20211204-21-1any7ky.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6614%2C5144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">French-language advocates protest Air Canada's chief executive Michael Rousseau's inability to speak French in front of the airline's head office during a demonstration in Montréal. The sign reads: "Rousseau Get Out."</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz </span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/corporate-leadership--why-the-tone-at-the-top-has-moral-consequences" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In November, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/air-canada-ceo-french-1.6236356">Air Canada</a> made headlines when its CEO gave a talk at the Chamber of Commerce in Montréal and admitted he doesn’t speak French.</p>
<p>Michael Rousseau has lived for more than a decade in Montréal, where Air Canada is headquartered. He has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-reacts-air-canada-ceo-french-1.6236690?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar">since apologized and committed</a> to learning French. However, the fallout from his talk continues. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man with grey hair smiles." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435686/original/file-20211204-27-1qkad9d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435686/original/file-20211204-27-1qkad9d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435686/original/file-20211204-27-1qkad9d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435686/original/file-20211204-27-1qkad9d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435686/original/file-20211204-27-1qkad9d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435686/original/file-20211204-27-1qkad9d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435686/original/file-20211204-27-1qkad9d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau has found himself in hot water for his inability to speak French.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Air Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, the CEO of SNC-Lavalin <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/snc-lavalin-ceo-postpone-speech-french-quebec-1.6246286">postponed a speech</a> he was scheduled to give in Montréal, committing to first brushing up on his French.</p>
<p>The media attention focused on Air Canada and SNC-Lavalin illustrates the importance of CEO conduct. Indeed, what CEOs say and how they say it are essential — it sets the tone at the top of the firm and can have far-reaching repercussions.</p>
<h2>Tone at the top — what it is, what it does</h2>
<p>Tone at the top refers, broadly, to what a company’s leadership talks about, how they talk, what they do and how they do it. Tone at the top is internal when leaders talk to employees and act inside the organization. It’s external when leaders address broader audiences, like Rousseau’s speech in Montréal, and their actions take place outside the organization. </p>
<p>Tone at the top can be delivered different ways: it can be in-person or remote (delivered via newspapers, news releases, reports, social media, videos).</p>
<p>Tone at the top reveals the <a href="https://rdcu.be/cBSGZ">moral reasoning</a> of organizational leaders, revealing what they believe is right or wrong and what matters or does not matter. When CEOs give talks in a francophone region yet only speak in English, doing so reveals their beliefs about whether language matters — and what language they believe is most important.</p>
<p>The moral reasoning revealed by tone at the top has consequences. CEOs have authority because of their position at the top of the corporate hierarchy. What they say and do <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-2035-1">trickles down the hierarchy</a> to all employees, legitimizing particular behaviours along the way. A CEO who speaks English in a francophone setting signals that it is acceptable to do so and not to speak French. </p>
<h2>Tone at the top — the bad and the good</h2>
<p>Tone at the top therefore has moral weight. It can promote a particular culture within an organization, encouraging employees to behave in more or less <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2020.1804876">moral ways</a>. </p>
<p>Tone at the top can contribute to a culture permissive of harassment. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, for example, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/20/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-resigns">resigned in 2017</a> after an internal probe documented widespread sexual harassment under his watch. </p>
<p>Corporate culture can create a climate where harassment, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240406900105">sexual harassment</a>, flourishes if leaders <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2016-0169">are passive</a>, avoid making decisions and fail to intervene when faced with inappropriate behaviour until serious problems arise. “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-11-2019-0198">Laissez-faire</a>” tone signals that inappropriate behaviour is tolerated, legitimate and will not be punished or corrected. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2009.01.002">Perpetrators are encouraged</a>, victims silenced; bystanders know about the behaviour but don’t stop it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman sits at a laptop with her head in her hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435687/original/file-20211204-27-adau1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435687/original/file-20211204-27-adau1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435687/original/file-20211204-27-adau1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435687/original/file-20211204-27-adau1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435687/original/file-20211204-27-adau1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435687/original/file-20211204-27-adau1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435687/original/file-20211204-27-adau1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If behaviour like workplace harassment isn’t addressed, it festers within an organzation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Piqsels)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Further exacerbating this problem is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-11-2019-0198">hostile leadership</a> characterized by aggressive behaviour that creates a climate of fear <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-09-2018-0162">and silence</a>. Problematic behaviours promoted by tone at the top are manifold and include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2012.07.005">insider trading</a>, <a href="https://rdcu.be/cBSKz">misreporting</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2019.06.002">earnings management</a>. </p>
<p>On the other hand, tone at the top can promote a healthy culture when leaders model moral behaviour. </p>
<p><a href="https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/989073/">The women leaders</a> in corporate Canada who I’ve interviewed often emphasize the importance of care and empathy in leadership. </p>
<p>One leader spoke about what people value, pointing out that they are “not going to get behind something that’s illegal or whatever. So the trust and integrity peace pivots into successes.” She explained that trust requires “integrative thinking,” which “comes from listening and being open.” </p>
<h2>Tone at the top — what to do about it</h2>
<p>Ideally, leaders are attentive to their communities, behave responsibly and model good behaviour. They are aware of how their words and deeds carry particular moral weight. </p>
<p>Getting there starts early. Leaders are a product of their societal cultures. Education is vital to ensure we’re all aware of what we say and do, how this resonates with others and what impact our words and behaviour have on them.</p>
<p>Closer to executive offices, boards of directors are responsible for monitoring corporate leaders; <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125617712257">they need to act proactively</a> before a crisis occurs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman talks to a group of employees at a boardroom table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436448/original/file-20211208-23-1rglos9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436448/original/file-20211208-23-1rglos9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436448/original/file-20211208-23-1rglos9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436448/original/file-20211208-23-1rglos9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436448/original/file-20211208-23-1rglos9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436448/original/file-20211208-23-1rglos9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436448/original/file-20211208-23-1rglos9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women leaders say caring and empathy is a critical component to moral leadership.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Doing so involves defining what they see as proper behaviour and what crosses a boundary by asking questions about expectations, priorities and how leaders act and talk. They need to lay out what happens when boundaries are crossed. </p>
<p>Board members need to leverage this information during the recruitment process to identify leaders who are a good match for the firm and, after that, to accompany and evaluate leaders comprehensively and regularly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claudine Mangen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>What CEOs say and how they say it are essential. Their words can set the tone at the top of the firm and have far-reaching repercussions.Claudine Mangen, RBC Professor in Responsible Organizations and Associate Professor, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1733042021-12-08T14:52:23Z2021-12-08T14:52:23ZNo need to ‘iel’: why France is so angry about a gender-neutral pronoun<p>Spirited public debate over language is a <a href="https://www.revuepolitique.fr/une-relation-ambigue-a-propos-du-rapport-des-francais-a-leur-langue">very French passion</a>.</p>
<p>So it’s no surprise that when the online edition of Le Robert, the famous French dictionary, chose to include the gender-neutral pronoun <a href="https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/iel">“iel”</a> – a combination of the French pronouns “il” (he) and “elle” (she) that corresponds to the singular “they” in English – a furious controversy erupted.</p>
<p>MP François Jolivet accused the dictionary of succumbing to “wokism” by including the pronoun and its defintion, while the minister for education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, tweeted: “Inclusive writing is not the future of the French language”.</p>
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<p>When asked for her opinion on the issue, the president’s wife, Brigitte Macron, incorrectly <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/societe/ajout-de-iel-dans-le-robert-pour-brigitte-macron-il-y-a-deux-pronoms-il-et-elle-18-11-2021-TQS3W5QBFZAL3INCXPCUVF4LJA.php?ts=1637582349967">remarked</a> that there are only two pronouns in the French language. (As well as the uncontroversial “on” meaning “one” or the casual “we”, <em>La Grande Grammaire du Français</em> <a href="https://www.actes-sud.fr/catalogue/litterature/la-grande-grammaire-du-francais">mentions many more</a>.)</p>
<p>Yet contrary to the assertions of <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/l-ideologie-woke-a-l-assaut-du-dictionnaire-le-robert-20211115">the most emotional commentators</a>, the editors of Le Robert do not constitute a “militant armada” determined to abuse the French language, but simply a team of lexicographers who, with patience and method, observe <a href="https://books.openedition.org/pum/139?lang=fr">changes to the lexicon</a> and then decide whether to include new words in their editions.</p>
<h2>The dictionary does not impose</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/dis-moi-robert/raconte-moi-robert/mot-jour/pourquoi-le-robert-a-t-il-integre-le-mot-iel-dans-son-dictionnaire-en-ligne.html">clarification</a> issued after the “iel” decision went viral, the director-general of Le Robert, Charles Bimbenet, wrote:</p>
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<p>Le Robert’s mission is to observe the evolution of a diverse French language in motion and to report on it. Defining the words that describe our world helps us understand it better.</p>
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<p>The reality is more simple than the critics of Le Robert make out: first of all, if the occurrences of “iel” remain rare, they are sufficiently regular to merit this entry – like a multitude of other technical or regional terms that are used in specific contexts, without creating a stir.</p>
<p>Two other new recent additions are <a href="https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/klouker_/188420">“klouker”</a> (to stuff oneself), a borrowing from Breton, and the more scientific <a href="https://www.lerobert.com/mots-nouveaux-petit-robert.html">“perfluoré”</a> (when a carbon chain is totally fluorinated).</p>
<p>And as Bimbenet pointed out, the fact that “iel” is in the dictionary does not mean that it is imposed on speakers. Many words are in the dictionary without being used. The purpose of the dictionary is not to force the use of words, but simply to propose an inventory of common, widespread and emerging linguistic practices.</p>
<h2>How words become controversial</h2>
<p>French linguists have made significant efforts in recent years to expand the public understanding of <a href="https://www.lerobert.com/autour-des-mots/francais/parler-comme-jamais-9782321016687.html">how language evolves</a> and to remind us that there is not one but <a href="https://www.francebleu.fr/les-equipes/mederic-gasquet-cyrus">many French languages</a> spoken not just in France but all over the world.</p>
<p>But these initiatives are clearly not always enough to calm the passionate reaction when a simple pronoun makes an entry into a dictionary.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pas-de-souci-the-french-war-on-saying-no-worries-168878">Pas de souci! The French war on saying ‘no worries’</a>
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<p>The problem goes beyond “iel”. Debates about the French language tend to replay old quarrels between societal evolution and normativism – in other words, a clash between old and new, or conservatives and progressives. In recent years, the appearance of the word “kiffer” (to like or enjoy something) has provoked debates because of its slang origins, while “start-up” has been accused of being an English import.</p>
<p>For a linguist like me who specialises in discourse analysis, it is not so much “iel” itself that sparks interest, but the conversations that are built around the pronoun, notably on the side of those who are angered by it.</p>
<p>Words can always be used to satisfy various intentions – in this case political ones. These uses lead to the transformation of words into what literature scholar Marc Angenot called <a href="https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/etudfr/1977-v13-n1-2-etudfr1685/036642ar">ideologemes</a>, a term that explains how certain words can become loaded with ideological meaning to the extent that they can no longer be considered neutral.</p>
<p>Thus, if “iel” becomes an ideologem, it is not so much as a pronoun – it was conceived and proposed to respond to obvious grammatical deficiencies that do not exist in other languages – but as a linguistic practice understood through social and political presuppositions it is given.</p>
<p>In other words, it is the way opponents of “iel” denigrate it that transforms it into an object of ideological controversy, while its creation constitutes a simple contraction designed to fill a grammatical gap.</p>
<h2>Iel is a choice</h2>
<p>No one is forcing people to use “iel” with a gun to their head. But paradoxically, by making the pronoun the focus of attention, its critics are inevitably helping to make it more popular.</p>
<p>Of course, everyone has the right to dislike the pronoun, to find it useless or unattractive – speakers’ judgements about their own language are an inevitable and perfectly normal sociolinguistic fact.</p>
<p>But this judgement should not prevent other speakers from creating and using new words – as has been the case for as long as languages have existed. All words are literally invented at some point.</p>
<p>“Iel” is not a paragon of “le wokisme” – an increasingly common word in France which is not yet in the dictionary itself, and is a direct import of the English “woke” with a suffix allowing it to be Frenchified (the famous “-isme”). It’s interesting to note in this context that the most fierce opponents of this maligned pronoun accuse it of being an anglicism, all the while invoking “wokisme”.</p>
<p>This is proof, if any were needed, that languages evolve by influencing each other, mutually enriching one another for the greater happiness of the speakers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Albin Wagener ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>No one is forcing people to use “iel” with a gun to their head. But paradoxically, by making the pronoun the focus of attention, critics are inevitably making it more popular.Albin Wagener, Chercheur associé l'INALCO (PLIDAM) et au laboratoire PREFICS,, Université Rennes 2Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1688782021-10-05T11:57:04Z2021-10-05T11:57:04ZPas de souci! The French war on saying ‘no worries’<p>The quirks of the French language are an eternal puzzle for many foreign learners. But what students often don’t know is that they are also the matter of heated debates and controversies within France itself.</p>
<p>The evolution of the language and the variety of linguistic practices throughout society in France are commented upon with passion <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise">in the press</a>, and governed by the famous Académie Française – the semi-official authority on the French language whose members, known as “immortals”, issue decrees on how it should be used.</p>
<p>Among the phenomena to which <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/expressions-francaises/2016/10/10/37003-20161010ARTFIG00006-les-expressions-a-bannir-au-bureau-pas-de-souci.php">purists</a> take much exception, probably none is more contentious than the now highly frequent use of <a href="https://www.liberation.fr/culture/2012/08/21/y-a-pas-de-souci_841003/">“pas de souci!”</a>, an expression mirroring the English “no problem!” or “no worries!”</p>
<p>The noun <a href="https://www.wordreference.com/fren/souci"><em>souci</em></a> normally means worry, care or concern, but “pas de souci!” can be used in all sorts of contexts, including as an equivalent of English “all right” or even “you’re welcome”, to signify that the speaker has taken note of the other’s statement or expressed intention.</p>
<p>For instance, if I am sitting in a café and order a coffee, the waiter may answer “pas de souci!” to acknowledge my order. There is of course no concern or no worry at stake here.</p>
<h2>The case against “pas de souci!”</h2>
<p>Some, <a href="https://www.academie-francaise.fr/pas-de-souci">including the Académie Française</a>, say this expression is a mistake; the immortals have ruled that it is a phrase heard “too often”, when the speaker could instead simply say “oui”.</p>
<p>Others say that “pas de souci!” is <a href="https://twitter.com/RaveaudGilles/status/1404349636207419393">rude</a>. In a sketch, stand-up comedian <a href="https://static.blog4ever.com/2017/04/828127/artvideo_828127_7913840_201810145223824.mp4">Blanche Gardin</a> said the phrase was symptom of a “parano-megalomaniac” disposition. For Gardin and others, “pas de souci!” is a self-centred display of excessive vulnerability, or alternatively a misplaced demonstration of one’s own <a href="https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/carnet-de-philo/carnet-de-philo-du-mercredi-12-mai-2021">magnanimity</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424548/original/file-20211004-25-1nbhasc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Académie Française at night" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424548/original/file-20211004-25-1nbhasc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424548/original/file-20211004-25-1nbhasc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424548/original/file-20211004-25-1nbhasc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424548/original/file-20211004-25-1nbhasc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424548/original/file-20211004-25-1nbhasc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424548/original/file-20211004-25-1nbhasc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424548/original/file-20211004-25-1nbhasc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Académie Française has a souci with ‘pas de souci’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/drs1ump/8172486036">drs1ump</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>The claim is the following: by saying “pas de souci!”, or “no worries!”, I am supposedly implying that the other person’s statement might indeed have raised a grave concern or worry, in which case I would have demanded that they withdraw their request.</p>
<p>Some raise a second objection to the use of this expression: its similarity to the English “no worries!” and, above all, “no problem!”. This was the most frequent remark I received after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pas-de-souci-retour-sur-une-expression-mal-aimee-164361">French-language version of this article</a> was published on The Conversation. “Pas de souci!” is suspected of being a loan translation, a disguised borrowing from English, which, at least for some, is a problem (or… a worry?).</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Lire cet article en français:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/pas-de-souci-retour-sur-une-expression-mal-aimee-164361">“Pas de souci”: retour sur une expression mal-aimée</a></em></p>
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<h2>Taking care without worrying</h2>
<p>But we need not fear “pas de souci”. These days, it is false to say that in French, “souci” stands for “worry” or “concern”.</p>
<p>For instance, “dans un souci de quelque chose” means “for something’s sake” or “in the interest of something”. When we say, “On a un souci”, we mean that something stands in our way, but not necessarily something to worry about. “Le souci de soi” means self-attention or self-care.</p>
<p>In other words, the original meaning of “souci” has morphed into something else. Currently, it is used to point our attention toward the future, anticipating plausible impediments for our plans.</p>
<p>Just like for “no problem!” or “no worries!”, there is no real trace of first-person (<em>je</em>) or second-person (<em>tu</em>) in “pas de souci!” There is nothing egocentric or personal here: what is addressed is the general absence of obstacles.</p>
<p>“Pas de souci!” and “no problem!” also serve an important linguistic function. These types of phrases are known as <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Istvan-Kecskes-2/publication/222838917_Situation-bound_utterances_as_pragmatic_acts/links/5a05bea9aca27233aade6308/Situation-bound-utterances-as-pragmatic-acts.pdf">“situation-bound utterances”</a>. This means that these are not phrases we freely construct ourselves: their form and their meaning have become conventionalised in their entirety.</p>
<p>“Pas de souci!” and “no problem!” are part of what linguists call <a href="https://www.gabrielediewald.de/fileadmin/_gd/downloads/Diewald_Pragmaticalization_LING.2011.pdf">“pragmaticalization”</a>, where certain individual phrases become specialised for certain conversational uses. “Tell me about it!” or “So what?” are both good examples of this.</p>
<p>With this in mind, the question becomes: what is the specific conversational use fulfilled when we say “pas de souci”?</p>
<h2>Saving face</h2>
<p>“Pas de souci!” is an example of what the American sociologist Erving Goffman called <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/%7Eeckert/PDF/GoffmanFace1967.pdf">“facework”</a>. The aim of facework is that each speaker can “save face” throughout the conversation: everybody has to take care of their own face, but also has to preserve the face of the addressee.</p>
<p>“Face” here stands for the symbolic territory claimed by each participant, starting with the image of themselves that they wish to convey. Thus, facework is a matter of both competition and cooperation. It relies on the anticipation and elimination of any kind of micro-aggression, disappointment or wound that may arise from a mismatch in the shared space of conversation.</p>
<p>In this sense, “pas de souci!” and “no problem!” are very useful, precisely because they do not contain any personal references. By leaving aside any difference between me and you, and by not stating who may endure a concern of any kind, these expressions make an interaction smoother and show that the speaker is taking care of everybody.</p>
<p>Another French expression in the same vein as “pas de souci!” is “t’inquiète”, or “don’t worry”, where the second person is referred to by the “t’”. This can easily give the expression a paternalistic flavour (“I’m taking care of that for <em>you</em>”), whereas the impersonal “pas de souci”, means that I don’t judge it relevant to distinguish between me and you in the situation.</p>
<h2>The trouble with purism</h2>
<p>We have to dismiss the claim that “pas de souci!” is a mistake, a manifestation of egocentric attitudes or the result of the covert influence of English.</p>
<p>The reference to English in particular is a strawman and has probably much to do with a more general attitude toward language change in France: the opposition to language change at the micro-level – the evolution in the meaning of individual words or phrases – is framed as opposition to language change at the macro-level – the refusal to let “the French language” turn into something different.</p>
<p>It is true that macro-level language change often happens via the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/On-Language-Change-The-Invisible-Hand-in-Language/Keller/p/book/9780415076722">accumulation of smaller changes</a>. But in opposing “pas de souci!” the superficial dismissal of a small evolution in meaning is used to stigmatise individual speakers who use the disparaged expression as unfaithful to the rules of language, but also as rude, egocentric and socially unaware of the others.</p>
<p>What makes “pas de souci!” so interesting is the fact that a detailed analysis shows the exact contrary to be true. In fact, everybody who cares about meaning in everyday speech should also care about facework both as a concept for the analysis of speakers’ behaviour and as a rule for our own practices when we discuss language use.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre-Yves Modicom a reçu des financements de Ministère français de l'Enseignement Supérieur, de la Recherche et de l'Innovation. </span></em></p>It’s one of the most common expressions used in French but also one of the most controversial. A linguist explains why “pas de souci” is no mere English import.Pierre-Yves Modicom, Maître de conférences en études germaniques, Université Bordeaux MontaigneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1640802021-08-02T05:05:34Z2021-08-02T05:05:34ZThinking of taking a language in year 11 and 12? Here’s what you need to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414057/original/file-20210802-54837-1le0qhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/learning-languages-online-audiobooks-concept-books-345187850">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/senior-subjects-series-107516">series</a> providing school students with evidence-based advice for choosing subjects in their senior years.</em></p>
<p>Some students elect to study languages in their senior years because of personal interest, or because they have previously been successful in language learning. Others may choose to do so because of future career plans, or because they wish to further their studies at <a href="https://asialink.unimelb.edu.au/stories/archive/saying-yes-to-languages-study-in-years-11-and-12">university</a>. </p>
<p>Other important influences on students’ decisions are perceived cognitive benefits. Studying languages <a href="https://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/docs/default-source/research-and-policy-pdfs/senior_secondary_languages_education_research_project_final.pdf">can lead to</a> more effective thinking skills and enhanced intercultural understanding.</p>
<p>Research shows <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/australian-curriculum/resources/senior-secondary-languages-education-research-project-final-report">high achieving students</a> in capital cities are most likely to study a language in years 11 and 12. This is particularly the case for students whose parents were born overseas in non-English speaking countries.</p>
<p>Girls are more likely to do languages than boys — research suggests they are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844020308987">just more motivated</a> to do so.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking of studying a language in years 11 and 12, here’s what you should know.</p>
<h2>Few students choose to study a language</h2>
<p>In Australia, 10% of year 12 students studied a language in 2019. This <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia-data-portal/year-12-subject-enrolments">compared with enrolments</a> of 77% and 71% for the most popular learning areas, English and maths. The visual and performing arts were the second-least popular at 25%. In other parts of the world, however, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201230-why-are-we-learning-languages-in-a-closed-world">language learning is on the up</a>. So if you’re looking to broaden your horizons, learning a language is a good way to go. </p>
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<p>We don’t know the exact reasons for the low enrolments. One reason could be that the language a student wants to learn <a href="https://asialink.unimelb.edu.au/stories/archive/saying-yes-to-languages-study-in-years-11-and-12">isn’t always available</a>. For example, the majority of students who study Indonesian at the primary level <a href="http://curriculum.catholic.tas.edu.au/languages/indonesian/context-statement">don’t continue when they enter secondary school</a>, often because it’s no longer available.</p>
<p>Among students who do decide to study a language in years 11 and 12, the most popular choices are <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia-data-portal/year-12-subject-enrolments">Chinese (22%), Japanese (20%) and French (18%)</a>. </p>
<p>Chinese is the second most widely-spoken language in Australian homes <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/media%20release3">after English</a>, which may be one reason for its popularity. But there are many factors that influence the popularity of a language, such as students of French <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/languages/french/context-statement/">being interested</a> in French culture. </p>
<h2>What can you do with languages?</h2>
<p>If you’re planning on going to university, learning a language will give you a leg up in the applications. Some Australian universities actually offer bonus <a href="https://ulpa.edu.au/why-study-languages/">ATAR points to students studying a language</a>. For instance, ANU will <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/study/apply/national-access-scheme">bump your score up by five points</a> if you take a language.</p>
<p>There are many <a href="https://ulpa.edu.au/why-study-languages/#what-sort-of-career-opportunities-are-there-for-language-students?">career pathways available</a> to language graduates. Teaching, interpretation, translation and diplomacy are some of them.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-languages-early-is-key-to-making-australia-more-multilingual-99085">Learning languages early is key to making Australia more multilingual</a>
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<p>A quick search on <a href="https://www.seek.com.au/language-jobs">Seek</a> throws up more than 4,000 jobs requiring language expertise including for lawyers, technical support engineers, sales representatives and market data analysts. Other options include finance, media, public relations, tourism, consulting, marketing, charity work, international business, foreign affairs or government work. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi9vOexpN_xAhXR63MBHUL7BRsQFjADegQIERAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FKevin_Rudd&usg=AOvVaw0TcN3MvjqBQgu6kvAJ1TBX">Kevin Rudd’s</a> knowledge of Mandarin gave him an edge as foreign affairs minister. </p>
<p>Many industries will welcome language graduates because they bring intercultural skills, which are crucial in our globally connected world. Plus, a second language can allow you to travel the world while developing your career. </p>
<h2>What will you learn in the senior years?</h2>
<p>What you will learn depends on which school you go to, what state you live in and which language you choose. </p>
<p>In most senior courses, you’ll not only learn the language but also its associated culture. For instance, in Victoria the <a href="https://www.vsl.vic.edu.au/Resource/Staff/Teachers/VCE/Manuals/VCE%20CCAFL%20Language%20teacher%20manual%202021.pdf">senior language curriculum</a> is organised into three broad themes: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>the individual, which looks at cultural topics such as relationships, educational aspirations, and leisure and sports</p></li>
<li><p>the (language)-speaking communities, where you explore aspects of the history and the culture, arts and entertainment, lifestyles and ways of life</p></li>
<li><p>the changing world, where you engage with social issues, youth issues, environmental concerns and work. </p></li>
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<p>Across these themes you will gain historical insight into the language and its speakers. You will likely explore the art, literature and music that have grown out of these language communities, consider social issues, such as the role of women, and engage with issues such as the culture’s value systems on relationships.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414071/original/file-20210802-17-1b25a42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lantern hanging at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, Japan" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414071/original/file-20210802-17-1b25a42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414071/original/file-20210802-17-1b25a42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414071/original/file-20210802-17-1b25a42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414071/original/file-20210802-17-1b25a42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414071/original/file-20210802-17-1b25a42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414071/original/file-20210802-17-1b25a42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414071/original/file-20210802-17-1b25a42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Through learning your chosen language, you will also learn about the history and culture of its communities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lanterns-fushimi-inari-taisha-shrine-kyoto-403094848">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Most of this learning happens through the actual language, so you’re growing your knowledge and understanding of culture, society and history, while developing your language skills.</p>
<p>How fluent you become by the end of year 12 depends on many factors, including how many years you’ve been studying the language and how much effort you put in. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-your-kid-studying-a-second-language-at-school-how-much-they-learn-will-depend-on-where-you-live-155219">Is your kid studying a second language at school? How much they learn will depend on where you live</a>
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<p>If you’ve been learning a language all the way through high school, <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/handbooks/archive/2017/arts/subject_areas/french_studies.shtml.html">by the end of year 12</a>, you could aim for level B1 in an international certificate known as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (<a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-1-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-global-scale">CEFR</a>). This means you can deal with most situations you encounter while travelling, you can talk about your experiences and ambitions and explain your opinions, and you can understand the main points on things you regularly come across at work, school or elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Is it better to take a language you’ve already been learning?</h2>
<p>If you take the same language in the senior years as you have all through school, you will obviously benefit from already knowing a lot of the language as well as its grammatical structure.</p>
<p>But you could also take the opportunity to learn a different language, which will be easier to grasp now that you’ve already studied one. </p>
<p>Language learning involves developing knowledge about how language works. For instance, if you learn French throughout high school, you will develop a detailed and technical knowledge of the grammar of both English and French. </p>
<p>You could transfer your knowledge of how the French grammatical system works to another language.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414072/original/file-20210802-61985-im6uj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="View of Eiffel Tower from the bottom, looking up" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414072/original/file-20210802-61985-im6uj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414072/original/file-20210802-61985-im6uj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414072/original/file-20210802-61985-im6uj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414072/original/file-20210802-61985-im6uj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414072/original/file-20210802-61985-im6uj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414072/original/file-20210802-61985-im6uj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414072/original/file-20210802-61985-im6uj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Knowing the grammatical structure of one language will make it easier for you to grasp the basics of another language.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/famous-eiffel-tower-paris-france-112383452">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>What do the exams look like?</h2>
<p>The structure of senior language exams differs slightly depending on the state you are in. But generally the exam will require students to read and respond to both written and oral texts. </p>
<p>The written exam may include reading a passage in the language and answering questions to demonstrate comprehension of the text’s ideas or arguments. There will also be questions that involve composing texts in the language, such as an email, a description of an event such as a holiday or a letter to a friend.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-languages-should-children-be-learning-to-get-ahead-74305">What languages should children be learning to get ahead?</a>
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<p>The oral texts are often pre-recorded and played to students several times. After listening to the oral texts, students are often asked to answer questions (in English or the target language). The oral exam may also include a conversation with the examiners and/or a discussion with the examiners on a prepared topic.</p>
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<p><em>Read the other articles in our series on choosing senior subjects, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/senior-subjects-series-107516">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Learning a language has many benefits. It improves your thinking abilities and enhances your understanding of the world. Knowing another language can give you a leg up in university applications too.Mairin Hennebry-Leung, Lecturer in Languages and TESOL, University of TasmaniaAndy Bown, Lecturer in Languages, University of TasmaniaMegan Short, Program Director, Postgraduate Coursework Lecturer, Language & Literacy, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1549162021-02-21T12:05:28Z2021-02-21T12:05:28ZA ‘French malaise’ is eroding bilingualism in Canada’s public service<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383568/original/file-20210210-13-1jghuza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C32%2C4385%2C2835&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">According to a recent survey of public servants by the Commissioner of Official Languages, more than 44 per cent of French-speakers are uncomfortable using French at work. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There will always be a historical distinction between anglophones and francophones in Canada, but this cultural and linguistic diversity should contribute to a society based on equity and inclusion. For this to happen, proficiency in both official languages is important.</p>
<p>According to a recent survey by the <a href="https://www.clo-ocol.gc.ca/en/publications/studies/2021/linguistic-insecurity">Commissioner of Official Languages</a> of 10,828 federal public servants in five administrative regions (Ottawa-Gatineau, New Brunswick and bilingual regions in Quebec and Ontario), more than 44 per cent of francophones feel uncomfortable using French at work, while only 11 per cent of francophones feel the same way about using English at work.</p>
<p>Of those 44 per cent of francophones, more than 37 per cent feel uncomfortable using French at work during meetings. While we might assume this discomfort is the product of linguistic insecurity related to speaking French in a predominantly English environment, it actually has more to do with organizational difficulties that make it difficult to work in French.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, Minister of Official Languages Melanie Joly <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/corporate/publications/general-publications/equality-official-languages.html">tabled a report</a> that would ultimately overhaul the Official Languages Act to “counter and remedy” the decline of French in Canada.</p>
<h2>Fear of being misunderstood</h2>
<p>Just under 90 per cent of francophones cited their anglophone colleagues’ lack of fluency as the main reason they avoided speaking French. Thirty eight per cent stated that French is not often used in their workplace. However, 32 per cent of respondents also expressed a fear of being perceived as “troublemakers” if they spoke French. In addition, 19 per cent of French-speakers surveyed were reluctant to ask for supervision in French. The most cited reasons were that their supervisor is not comfortable enough speaking French, or they fear being perceived as a troublemaker, or they do not want to disturb their supervisor.</p>
<p>In short, francophone public servants feel uncomfortable expressing themselves in French because their anglophone colleagues are not sufficiently fluent in the language. Some of them fear that if they “dare” to ask for supervision in French or take the risk of expressing themselves in their first language during meetings, their colleagues will label them troublemakers.</p>
<p>The survey does not explain why such a large number of French-speakers experience these feelings in a so-called bilingual workplace. Is it because they have been considered troublemakers at some point? Or have they simply internalized the fact that the French language does not have the same status as English in Canada, meaning it is better to avoid “getting into trouble” by working in English?</p>
<h2>Insecurity among anglophones</h2>
<p>This difficult linguistic context raises issues that go beyond the unequal balance of power between Canada’s two official languages.</p>
<p>More than 39 per cent of anglophones surveyed said they do not feel comfortable expressing themselves in French. Around 70 per cent cited a lack of practice speaking French while 61 per cent feared having their accent and mistakes judged and corrected. Forty two per cent also reported feeling embarrassed when their francophone colleagues reply in English after they have tried to express themselves in French.</p>
<p>The reasons cited show that the anglophones surveyed also experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.29173/af29376">linguistic insecurity</a> when using French. Linguistic insecurity affects language practices and “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-3314">influences the choice to speak one language rather than another or one variety (different accent) rather than another, as well as the decision to either speak or to remain silent</a>.”</p>
<p>The embarrassment felt by English speakers when speaking in French in front of their co-workers is caused by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. A person may think their French is not good enough, or fear that others will make offensive remarks about their accent or the quality of their French. While lack of practice in French feeds the linguistic insecurity of English speakers, this linguistic insecurity, in turn, leads them to use more avoidance strategies to keep from practising French.</p>
<h2>A reversed balance of power</h2>
<p>It can be difficult for anglophones to practise their French if francophone colleagues judge, correct or ignore their efforts and carry on the discussion in English. The balance of power between the two language groups seems to be reversed here. The following situation might exist in the public service: a Francophone may hesitate to speak French because they fear being considered a troublemaker, yet they will not hesitate to correct an Anglophone colleague who tries to speak French. So, how should this problem be considered and what can be done to overcome it?</p>
<p>There seems to be a general uneasiness or “malaise” about French among both francophones and anglophone public servants in administrative regions where bilingualism is required. In defence of anglophones who want to improve their competence in French, but who are experiencing linguistic insecurity, “<a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/Le-reveil-Nouveau-Brunswick/segments/entrevue/59167/insecurite-linguistique-france-accent">French is a very prescriptive language, governed by the Académie française, which has established the norms of standard French and dictates that anything deviating from the norm can be considered less legitimate</a>,” Lisa Savoie-Ferron, a graduate student in sociolinguistics at the Univesity of Ottawa told Radio-Canada.</p>
<p>While French-language training and opportunities to practise French must be better harmonized in a work context where English is predominant, francophones also have a part to play in being more inclusive when it comes to French-language learners. In other words, anglophones who want to learn and practise French must be able to do so without running the risk of discrimination. The same must be true for francophones who want to communicate and work in French.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-geoeconomie-2010-4-page-57.htm">Languages reflect the identity of a people. They are an integral part of cultures</a>,” wrote Trang T.H. Phan, who studies globalization and “la francophonie.” Official languages and their respective cultures define Canada. Linguistic diversity in Canada, starting with a better recognition of French, should not implicitly or explicitly view the “francophone difference” as a problem.</p>
<p>The freedom to speak French in the public service must be a recognized and applicable right that is exercised without fear of being considered a French-speaking rebel. Ultimately, the goal must be to promote the use of French in a context where English occupies a very important place in the Canadian public service. The federal government’s decision to update the Official Languages Act is an important and positive announcement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154916/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian J. Y. Bergeron ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>A recent survey reveals a general uneasiness about using French among both francophone and anglophone public servants in administrative regions where bilingualism is required.Christian J. Y. Bergeron, Professeur en sociologie de l’éducation, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.