Official Languages Committee on March 29th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Weston.

I'd like to thank our guests for their testimonies.

We are going to take a break to give our witnesses time to leave and to allow the second group of witnesses to arrive.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Welcome to the 34^th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

We are welcoming Mr. Leclair, Mrs. Turnbull and Mr. Lemoine from the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers. We also have Mr. LeDorze and Ms. Bourbonnais from the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers.

Welcome, everyone.

We'll start with the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers.

[Caroline Turnbull, Vice-President, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, dear members of the committee and partners, I wish you a good day.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Caroline Turnbull. I work with the New Brunswick Ministry of Education and Early Childhood Development, francophone sector. I also serve as vice-president of the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers, the CASLT. It is in this capacity that I am here today.

Mr. Michael Salvatori, president of CASLT, registrar and chief executive officer the Ontario College of Teachers, deeply regrets not being able to attend and sends his most cordial greetings.

I'm accompanied by Guy Leclair, executive director of the association, and Mr. Hilaire Lemoine, executive in residence at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute, University of Ottawa. Mr. Lemoine is treasurer of CASLT, and it is in this capacity that he is here today.

The Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers has been in existence for more than 42 years. Its mission is to foster professional excellence in the teaching of second languages in Canada. It is composed of over 3,000 members. Its organizational structure, representative of all Canadian provinces and territories, allows it to be present throughout the country.

Over the years, the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers, CASLT, has endeavoured to meet the needs of its members with regard to professional training, educational resources, sharing of ideas, and exchange of information.

Today, new needs emerge. New technology, multilingualism, multiculturalism, and internationalization are much more prevalent in the classroom, adding new challenges to teachers' tasks. It goes without saying that the services, activities, and resources of CASLT evolve within this Canada-wide context. Besides striving to enhance our teachers' skills and the quality of education, CASLT aims, first and foremost, to reinforce students' second language acquisition and to ensure that our young citizens become bilingual and contribute in an exemplary fashion to Canadian society in the 21st century.

As a national association, and with the help of support programs for official languages offered by the Department of Canadian Heritage, CASLT also leads important national projects, creating synergies and partnerships that support its mandate. These achievements benefit not only our youth but also all stakeholders in education. I would like to present to you two major initiatives currently undertaken by CASLT that illustrate this work.

The first example is the Common European Framework of Reference. As its name indicates, the framework was created in Europe and aims to establish common references for teaching, learning and assessment of second languages. This reference tool offers several advantages. Please refer to appendix 2, which gives an exhaustive list of these. This framework allows us to establish common uniform levels of language competency applicable to primary, secondary and post-secondary schools, as well as to the workplace, throughout Canada and around the world.

It focuses on communication in action, autonomy and self-directed learning throughout one's lifetime. It therefore facilitates interprovincial international mobility, and transition to the workforce. These assets appeal to students and parents who see the framework's relevance and significant added value.

Although CASLT is a national leader with respect to promoting the framework, many people have worked, and continue to work, towards its implementation. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada studied the framework in depth and wrote a guide for its use in the Canadian school context. The Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training adopted the framework and curriculum development for official second language programs within the four Atlantic provinces.

And the Minister of Education in British Columbia developed a language curriculum based on the framework in 2010. Various ministerial departments, school boards, councils of ministers, schools and teachers throughout Canada have adopted, and continue to adopt, the basic elements of the framework. Through the work of CASLT, the idea of the systematic implementation of the framework is growing throughout the country.

A second example is the creation of forums and national steering committees implemented by CASLT in order to foster dialogue among all stakeholders and research institutions, for example with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, with the Institute of Official Languages and Bilingualism, University of Ottawa, or the Second Language Research Institute of Canada, University of New Brunswick.

These interactions may focus on, among other things, the evolution and effectiveness of certain teaching methods or programs, such as basic or intensive French, or the tendencies related to best practices for utilizing technology in second language teaching.

Disseminating results of these discussions can enrich knowledge, not only for teachers and school administrators, but also for researchers, public policy analysts and decision makers, within the Ministry of Education, the federal government, professional teachers associations, etc.

The evolution and advancement of bilingualism as well as the promotion of linguistic duality in Canada are certainly not perfect yet. These are important and long-ranging national projects that progress constantly, albeit with certain delays, but overall, the work that is done is commendable.

For example, only a few years ago we were focused on ensuring the transition of second-language students from primary to secondary school. Today we are working to ensure their transition from secondary school to post-secondary education and to the workforce. This being said, we need to continue our efforts, since this imposing project is not yet completed. Still today there is a lack of second-language teachers, the second-language teaching profession is still undervalued, and needs for professional training, educational resources, and best practice sharing are still acutely felt.

Funds granted through Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality and other programs offered to the provinces and territories by Canadian Heritage have allowed us to maintain and sometimes to broaden second-language programs offered in schools and in teacher training institutions. However, there is still much to accomplish in order to revise and update certain curricula in line with new language-teaching and learning practices. We need to ensure that teachers have the necessary tools and opportunities for continuing education and that administrators are well aware of teachers' needs and of new second-language teaching methods. This is where associations like CASLT can intervene.

While we are very grateful for the financial support received from support programs for official languages offered by Canadian Heritage, we note that despite investments made by the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality, to our knowledge there has been very little new funding granted to associations such as CASLT that work towards promotion, development, effectiveness, and excellence of programs for teaching official second languages in all Canadian schools.

In this day and age, it is essential to be bilingual. We need to offer our young people a second language education that will allow them to be competitive, both nationally and internationally. Public and private sectors increasingly look for this type of skill in young employees. Our schools bear the responsibility of preparing our young people for this new reality.

Education professionals who are entrusted with the responsibility of teaching and guiding our young people, including the learning of official second languages, must have the resources, the necessary training and support that will allow them to offer quality education to our young people, something to which they are entitled as Canadian citizens. In this context, CASLT is committed to continuing its work with second language teachers and education professionals, enabling them to play a key role in this project which is so important to our society.

In closing, we would like to suggest five recommendations we believe are essential to providing quality second language education for all students across the country.

One is a clear federal leadership with respect to bilingual competence in our students at all school levels, particularly at the end of secondary school, by renewing and enhancing agreements with provincial and territorial governments, providing increased support to second-language teaching associations, and by renewing a multi-year strategy such as the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality.

The second is a sustained financial commitment that will allow the implementation of a Canadian framework of reference for second-language teaching and learning based on the Common European Framework of Reference.

The third recommendation is increased funding for research, for the development of innovative language teaching methods and for the development of initial and continuing training programs for second language teachers.

The fourth is a national campaign to promote the second language teaching profession to young bilingual graduates pursuing university studies.

The fifth is financial support for a campaign to disseminate new research on bilingualism, demonstrating its numerous and diverse benefits with respect to intellectual capacities, mental health, international mobility, professional advancement, etc.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mrs. Turnbull.

Now, the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers has the floor.

[Philippe LeDorze, President, Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers]

What do Shelly Glover, Niki Ashton, Justin Trudeau and James Moore have in common? All these members of Parliament have French immersion in common, either as a teacher or a student. We could also include in that list the young Canadian athletes who managed to charm viewers in both languages during the recent Vancouver Winter Olympics.

My name is Philippe LeDorze, and I work in the Pembina Trails school district in Winnipeg as a language coordinator. I am speaking to you this morning as president of the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers, the CAIT. Our board of directors is made up of people from across Canada, all united by their love of education and the French language. Some are francophones whose mother tongue is French and others are francophones whose mother tongue is English. Our association has been around for about 40 years, since the birth of your predecessor, which was borne out of the official language support programs, now Canadian Heritage. We are pleased to take part in your consideration of the roadmap, and we want to contribute through our expertise, that is to say French immersion, which is an exemplary model of learning French as a second language in Canadian schools throughout the country.

And what progress we've made in 40 years! Approximately 350,000 young anglophone Canadians are registered in French immersion. Never before have there been so many Canadians able to express themselves in English and French as today. Almost 18% of Canadians can speak English and French, compared with 13% in 1971. The rate of bilingualism in young people 15 to 24 years of age has gone from 18% in 1971 to 23% in 2006.

Learning a second language even contributes to health. The most recent studies have shown that bilingual individuals are less affected by cognitive illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease. French as a second language programs are growing in Canada, and it's thanks to a 10% increase in French immersion programs in recent years. Immersion is increasing almost everywhere in the country. In some provinces, immersion programs are unfortunately like a lottery: only the lucky will have access to them. We deplore that. Parents who choose French immersion for their children should have the right to it, regardless of where they live.

Immersion is and will remain the most effective program for learning French as a second language. Students attain high skill levels in French as an added value, meaning it doesn't affect their mother tongue or their knowledge in other subjects. So it is desirable to maintain and broaden access to these programs, because demand is growing in many regions.

We want to highlight the importance of the roadmap throughout the country and point out a number of examples of success that can be traced back to the roadmap. The roadmap lays out the values of the Canadian government with respect to languages. It states quite clearly how important English and French are to the country and, at the same time, concretely shows its support for linguistic duality. The education of young Canadians in French immersion guarantees a bilingual future for our country, a future where the added value of French and English also values the other languages spoken in Canada.

All kinds of projects have been made possible by the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality. In no particular order, here is a very small sample that speaks to the presence of French as an official language in the west. One example is the creation of a French-language resource centre in Grande Prairie, Alberta, whereby several school districts cooperate to better meet the needs of the French-language learners, both first-language learners and second-language learners. As well, there is the participation of young Canadians in the creation of cultural content through Immersion Clip, a video contest run by ACP and the University of Ottawa. The themes developed by these young bilingual Canadians over the past few years were Canadian citizenship, perseverance, the meeting of cultures, and, this year, essential democracy.

Another project involves a collective creation by six schools in my school board, namely, an original song titled Notre école. This project was directed by Damien Lussier, a local songwriter from Manitoba.

There is also the Boréal film festival in northern Manitoba. It involves a partnership between the Flin Flon school district and Freeze Frame, which shows video and animation to young people learning the language of Leclerc, Tremblay and Lavoie.

The importance of creating in French strengthens the seriousness about learning French in young people. The roadmap makes this possible.

Through roadmap funding, the CAIT publishes a journal and electronic newsletter for immersion educators. More than 6,000 people receive these publications.

The CAIT organizes training days for teachers in the region and days for new teachers. We met with more than 500 people in 2011.

The CAIT organizes a national convention. In recent years, between 500 and 1,000 immersion teachers from across Canada have attended.

The CAIT organizes competitions for students. Over 150 students submitted a clip or a poem in 2011 as part of our poetry and Immersion Clip competitions. Thanks to partnerships, we are offering scholarships to the winners.

The CAIT provides support to teachers on our website and our blog. Over 1.5 million people visit our website annually.

The CAIT is the advocate for the Diplôme d'études en langue française au Canada. To carry out this role, we have developed information kits, information sessions, DELF symposiums and done research.

The CAIT published an oral competencies framework, which has been downloaded over 150,000 times. We have also produced a book entitled 70 activités motivantes de communication orale, published by Chenelière. This project has been very successful. The CAIT is currently working on a framework for written competencies.

Lastly, not too long ago, we published some research entitled "Pourquoi les nouveaux enseignants d'immersion ou de français langue seconde quittent-ils la profession? Résultats d'une enquête pancanadienne".

Let's talk about challenges and avenues for action. The CAIT believes that the roadmap is really important for education in French. Continuing the roadmap reaffirms the Canadian government's commitment to linguistic duality. The roadmap is a compass that guides us and also helps us to measure the road taken, to know the status of bilingualism in Canadian society.

I would like to use this forum to propose a few courses of action to you. We need to continue to invest in French as a second language education and build on the success of immersion by allowing a larger number of Canadians to become bilingual. It is extremely important to facilitate access to immersion programs for Canadians in urban and rural areas, to allophones and children with learning difficulties. Immersion is for everyone.

We need to enrich what's offered in the French immersion program at the secondary school level to motivate young people to stick with it. Moreover, this would involve investing in the education continuum by equipping post-secondary institutions with programs that promote bilingualism and linguistic duality. The universities have a big role to play in training young bilingual people to help the public service in recruiting the some 5,000 bilingual employees it will need each year in the future.

We need to encourage research and its dissemination, and provide tailor-made training opportunities for French immersion and French as a second language teachers. We need to encourage the provinces and territories to gradually align the curriculum of second language programs with the competency scales of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the CEFR.

We also need to take steps to create a national tool for assessing French language skills, calibrated against the common framework of reference, that covers the various sectors, including the school, university and even professional sectors. The CAIT would be happy to manage this national project with the participation of one or two ministries of education and partners such as the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers. The Canadian expertise is there; we just need to bring it together and coordinate it to create this new Canadian tool.

Lastly, this also involves promoting the creation of bridges between francophiles and francophones.

To conclude, allow me to reiterate the importance of the roadmap. Let's celebrate its many successes and, very soon we hope, we will be able to delight in future successes that we will all be proud of. The Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers remains at your full disposal if you need information on education in French in Canada. Happy trails to the Standing Committee on Official Languages in creating the next step.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Ms. Michaud, you have the floor.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

First, I'd like to thank you for your presentations. Both of you have raised very interesting aspects.

Mrs. Turnbull, you spoke to us about, among other things, the importance of strong leadership from the federal government to promote second language learning. Could you please provide more detail about how you see the government's exact role in this area?

[Caroline Turnbull]

Thank you.

The relationship that we have already established with Canadian Heritage is still very positive. We have been given opportunities to get informed and to share our activities, our research and our raison d'être with people who work at Canadian Heritage, including the Official Languages Secretariat. I think this relationship is important.

The government's leadership with respect to bilingualism enabled our society and our country to be on par with other countries where people are also bilingual, where there are several official languages.

Perhaps Mr. Lemoine would like to add something.

[Hilaire Lemoine, Treasurer, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers]

Yes, thank you.

Ms. Michaud, your question is interesting. As you probably know, second language teaching is not protected by any legislation. It's up to each province and territory to put programs in place based on their budgets, means and the context in which the government operates.

For over 30 years, the federal government has concluded agreements with the provinces and territories for both language teaching and minority language teaching. It is these agreements and mechanisms that have enabled the provinces to be responsible and that have encouraged them to show they are responsible in this area.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

In that regard, perhaps I will…

[Hilaire Lemoine]

Had it not been for the federal government, these programs would still be more scattered and probably disconnected in a number of provinces. I'm talking about second language programs where there really isn't a lot of cohesion from province to province, and the federal…

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

I'm sorry for interrupting, but I don't have a lot of time left. Could you please wrap up quickly?

[Hilaire Lemoine]

Yes, I'm finishing up.

So I was saying that, in my opinion, the federal government's leadership is essential in this area.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Regarding programs, several groups have already mentioned that they had some difficulty in determining whether the money allocated by the federal government was really being spent properly in areas such as education. There may be some work to do in that regard. Currently, we are in the middle of the assessment process. We will be able to figure out whether the process could be improved.

Both groups talked about the importance of implementing a common framework of reference for language teaching. That is a fairly significant element. Could you tell us a bit more about why this is so important for Canada?

[Caroline Turnbull]

Canada has a number of provinces and territories, and each of them is responsible for its own programs and curriculum content.

A Canada-wide problem is that teachers, departments, schools and school districts do not interpret second-language learning in the same way. Should the focus be on vocabulary? Should it be on grammar? Should the focus be on real-life communication? Therefore, we need a common framework in order to redefine what's required for proper communication.

The idea is also for our young Canadians to become self-sufficient in assessing their own second-language skills. With such a framework or standard in place, we could track their development and progress. Implementing such a framework in each province and territory would help us meet the needs defined by the educational authorities.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you.

[Philippe LeDorze]

I would like to add something to that answer. The common framework enables those who teach French as a second language to use the same kind of terminology to describe the skills acquired by young learners.

There is no such framework now. In fact, everyone uses their own language in terms of their learning outcomes, in their curriculum and their province. The framework would help standardize the language used in terms of success.

That would also mean a change in philosophy for curriculum materials. Currently, greater emphasis is placed on what young Canadians are learning and on what their second-language abilities are. That also dictates the teaching method by making it more focused on students and on how well they can speak, read and think in their second language. That is why this approach is important.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

I have another quick question for you.

Earlier, you talked about the importance of access to immersion programs for allophones and high-risk children. Could you quickly expand on that?

[Philippe LeDorze]

In terms of access to immersion for everyone, we must recognize the fact that all young people can actually do well in an immersion program, regardless of their mother tongue or their future student qualifications.

We know that, in order to increase access to immersion, we must make the program available as early as kindergarten or Grade 1. That is actually the case in Manitoba, where I work. This way, we would ensure having as many active offers as possible available to families who choose immersion studies for their children.

Allophones are clearly interested in learning the country's second official language, or rather the other official language—it is not a second language; I apologize. What we need to do now is encourage school boards to make it all happen.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Ms. Michaud.

Mr. Williamson, go ahead.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to thank the witnesses for today's presentations.

Ms. Turnbull, you are from New Brunswick, and so am I. Are you from Fredericton?

[Caroline Turnbull]

Yes.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Are you by any chance from Hanwell, or the downtown area?

[Caroline Turnbull]

I am not from Hanwell. I am from New Maryland.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

I am very familiar with that area. My riding's boundary sits just south of New Maryland.

I have three questions for in the wake of your presentation.

First, you say that there is currently still a shortage of second-language teachers. Why?