I talked to these students and asked them why they were not speaking French. They said clearly that they were embarrassed, because their French was not very good.
I want to really stress the fact that I think it is more important to practise your French than to just take courses and study how the French language works.
Again, Canadian Parents for French were the ones who changed my program. We really need your support to bring this back.
I do like the comments you made about standards, but I wonder if you believe the standards should also be put at the earlier stages. Because we all recognize that at the base, at the very beginning, there is a problem, because by the time they get to grade 12 it looks like we've already missed the boat.