Reply to John Landon's Position Paper

Abstract

John Landon has drawn attention to the assimilationist bias of teacher education which prevails in many countries despite the lip-service paid to multiculturalism. He has suggested a restructuring of the content of general teacher training programs so that all teachers are able to recognize the needs and maximize the learning potential of bilingual children. He has made a number of practical and sensible recommendations specifically regarding the training of teachers of heritage and Native languages and he suggests that, within a multilingual society, students and teachers alike would benefit from greater language awareness, from more knowledge about language, language learning and language use. Landon's paper raises some interesting points for reflection and I would like to elaborate upon a few of them. Canada is no exception to the phenomenon of assimilationist bias. If anything, the situation here is intensified by the fact that two languages have official status. Reports of efforts to weaken one, presumably to the advantage of the other, are not infrequent. As recently as June 9, 1987 the Federal Government was urged by a Commons-Senate committee to pressure the provinces to meet their constitutional obligations to provide education in both official languages. The committee added that "the financial assistance given to the provinces in support of official languages in education is not always used towards the aims for which it was intended." Through the office of the Secretary of State, the federal government makes some funds available to the provinces to support official languages programs. However, education comes under provincial jurisdiction and the federal government cannot enforce language policy in any direct way. It can do little more than deplore abuses and suggest recommendations. In the Province of Quebec where ESL instruction from grade 4 on has been officially part of the curriculum since July, 1982, a recent (Jan.April, 1987) Department of Education poll of 200 School Boards indicated that over 70% of the primary level students do not receive the recommended minimum ESL instruction of two hours per week. In one area, only sixty-seven minutes of ESL a week were being taught. A number of reasons have been advanced to explain the discrepancy -lack of facilities, scheduling problems, inadequate staff and, in some cases, a refusal on the part of the teachers to teach the allotted time. The end result is the same. When funds provided for second language instruction are