NDP leadership candidates, from left: Tanille Johnston, Tony McQuail, Avi Lewis, Heather McPherson and Rob Ashton pase after an NDP leadership debate in New Westminster, B.C., on Feb. 19.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
At the federal NDP leadership debate last month, most of the candidates struggled to express themselves during an awkward segment in French. The moderator asked questions in English, confessing that her French wasn’t good. When asked if he would commit to becoming fully bilingual, leadership candidate Tony McQuail admitted he wouldn’t, blithely saying that’s what translators are for.
The moment wasn’t just an indictment of the NDP’s loss of federal relevance – it was an embarrassing reflection on the state of bilingualism in English Canada.
The federal government has put substantial efforts into promoting bilingualism by prioritizing francophone immigrants and supporting francophone communities outside of Quebec. However, more needs to be done to improve the teaching of French as a second language across Canada. It’s hugely important that francophones and anglophones can communicate with each other, particularly with separatist tensions rising again in Quebec.
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French immersion has had some success in boosting bilingualism. The main problem lies with immersion’s poor cousin, the regular French program referred to in many provinces as “core French.” While children can easily absorb languages when they are very young, our schools often miss that window. Ontario, for example, starts French in Grade 4, and most students stop after they get their one mandatory French high school credit in Grade 9.
The level of intensity – typically just over three hours a week in Ontario – isn’t enough for students to properly learn the language. Low quality instruction can also be an issue – according to a study from The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, a lack of qualified teachers has led some schools to settle for instructors whose French is only slightly better than that of their students.
The rate of bilingualism in Canada – people who can have a conversation in English and French – has remained stable at around 18 per cent between 2001 and 2021. But this masks the fact that the rate outside of Quebec dropped to 9.5 per cent from 10.3 per cent. That drop was balanced out by a rise in bilingualism in Quebec, to 46.4 per cent from 40.8 per cent.
While young French immersion students have boosted bilingualism rates outside Quebec, those gains were offset in part by an increase in immigrants from Asia, who may be multilingual but are less likely to speak both English and French. However, many immigrants put their children into French immersion – students often speak Mandarin, Punjabi or Arabic at home.
Sadly, the proportion of students outside Quebec studying French – both in immersion and core French – is lower than it was before the pandemic. Just 44.4 per cent of students were learning the language in the 2023-2024 school year, down from 46 per cent in 2018-19.
It’s also telling that a goal the federal government set for bilingualism in the 2018-2023 Action Plan for Official Languages – to boost the bilingualism rate to 20 per cent by 2036 – wasn’t repeated in the most recent version of the document. A strong federal commitment will be needed to boost French as a second language.
There are some positive initiatives taking place. Federal and provincial governments and universities are boosting the recruitment and training of French teachers. The federal government continues to fund the long-running Explore immersion program, which offers an invaluable opportunity for students to spend time in a francophone community. Getting students out of the classroom so they can use French in real life is the best way to build genuine connections to the language and culture.
The provinces need to do more to boost the quality and quantity of core French. Access to French immersion also needs to be improved – many school boards ration spots through lotteries, instead of expanding programs to meet demand. The messaging to children also needs to change. Educators often emphasize the benefits of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), but more could be done to tell children and their parents about the employment gains and cultural advantages from knowing French.
If children in Europe can graduate with two or three languages, surely with some effort, kids in English Canada can boost their proficiency in French. For the good of the country, and for our children, it’s time for a real investment in teaching French.