Abstract
French immersion programs in Saskatchewan have traditionally served to further the goals of additive bilingualism between Canada’s two official languages, French and English. Whereas these programs have historically consisted of predominantly Anglophone populations, recent trends in immigration have contributed to the increasingly diverse linguistic backgrounds of students throughout the province. The motivation, family support, and high academic achievement of allophone students learning French as an additional language have been documented extensively in Canada (Dagenais & Jacquet, 2000; Mady, 2013, 2014, 2015). Nevertheless, allophone students often do not benefit from the same access to second language education programs as their Anglophone and Francophone peers; indeed, such learners are sometimes excluded from French immersion programs on the basis of their lack of English language proficiency (Roy, 2015). Through Likert-scale surveys and semi-structured interviews, this mixed-methods research explored the perceived suitability of French immersion for allophone students by examining the perspectives of parents and educators in several schools in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This study will share the triangulated findings of the research, discuss the suitability of French immersion programs for allophone students, and provide recommendations for the future of such programs in Saskatchewan.
Highlights
L’immersion française renvoie à une approche pédagogique qui a pour but la préparation des élèves à travailler et à vivre en français tout en leur permettant de développer des compétences dans les deux langues officielles du Canada
Notwithstanding the different starting ages noted above, French immersion programs share a goal of educating learners of diverse linguistic backgrounds, and prior exposure to the French language is neither necessary for enrolment, nor required for success in such programs
Among the eight parents who stated that their children were in their first year of immersion, five of the students were in Kindergarten, one was in Grade 1, and two were in Grade 6, most likely in their first year of the late French immersion program
Summary
L’immersion française renvoie à une approche pédagogique qui a pour but la préparation des élèves à travailler et à vivre en français tout en leur permettant de développer des compétences dans les deux langues officielles du Canada. The recent history of Canada’s linguistic identity has been characterized by a discourse of dualism between the country’s two official languages, English and French (Haque, 2012). Developments in immigration have transformed the linguistic demographics of the country; 20.6% of Canadian students today speak a first language that is neither English nor French (Statistics Canada, 2014). Such students are hereafter referred to as allophones. In light of the rapidly changing student populations and the extent to which educational policy has often overlooked allophone learners in language planning, the question of whether French immersion is an appropriate program for such students becomes critical. French is a clear minority language and officiallanguage bilingualism rates remain low throughout the province
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