I'll start by thanking you for inviting us and affording us the opportunity to present our programs. I'll begin because I'm afraid my text is a little too long.
Acadia University's Department of Languages and Literatures offers programs in French as a second language and courses specifically intended to develop the Acadian community, which is a minority community in Nova Scotia. Most of our students are anglophones who come from immersion programs, early or late, or who come from core French programs. We also take in students whose first language is French, Acadians in particular, who also take courses in French at a higher level.
We offer grammar courses at all levels, elementary, intermediate and advanced. We also offer courses in literature, culture, translation, French second language methodology and socio-linguistics courses. As regards courses that could contribute to the development of the minority communities, I would like to mention in particular our courses on Acadian literature and culture, which are intended for Acadian students and anyone else. These are courses that have attracted a lot of interest.
A second language isn't just learned in the classroom; you have to live in the language you want to learn. We try to organize as many cultural activities as possible, which are open to all members of the community. Whether they be anglophone, francophone or Acadian, anyone can come and take part in our cultural activities.
The two biggest challenges facing the postsecondary institutions are the lack of qualified teaching staff in the primary and secondary schools, and the lack of rigour in the way that grammar, spelling and syntax are taught in both the immersion programs and in the French-language schools. The French taught is too often an approximate French, patterned on English, whether it be in the anglophone schools that have immersion programs or in the francophone schools of our region.
This situation is a particular concern for the Acadian population living in Nova Scotia as a minority in an anglophone majority province. Paradoxically, many anglophone students who come from immersion programs face the same challenges. When these students arrive at the university, their language errors are set and difficult and, in some cases, indeed even impossible to correct.
Like many universities, we have recently introduced new courses specifically designed for these students, who generally speak with ease, but often make a lot of mistakes by patterning their speech on English or using anglicisms. The purpose of these new courses is to target these kinds of mistakes in order to correct them before it is too late.
Another initiative recently put in place by our university is designed to improve the quality of French taught in the schools. This is the creation of a French proficiency certificate for students who already have a teacher's licence, but who are trying to develop their knowledge of French. This certificate has been approved by the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission and is recognized by the Nova Scotia Ministry of Education.
Teachers who register for this certificate take a series of 10 courses in French for 30 hours of credits, and they participate in what we call summer institutes, which last two to three weeks. We have observed that the benefits of our certificate go far beyond any improvement in the quality of French. Most teachers work in isolation in our province. In our schools, there is sometimes only one French teacher per school. Consequently, they have no one to speak French to.
Consequently, we have observed that bringing in the teachers to take French courses during the summer enables them to speak with each other in French, to discuss methodology and to establish networks of contacts they can use afterwards once they return to their schools.
Another initiative I would like to point out is the fact that our university recently became an approved centre for administering the TCF, the Test de connaissance du français. This test, which was developed by France's national ministry of education, is administered by the Centre international d'études pédagogiques, the CIEP. It is a standardized and calibrated French-language test that ranks candidates at one of the six levels of the scale established by the European Council under the European common framework of reference for languages. This test gives our students, and any member of the public who would like to know their level of French, the opportunity to gain international recognition for their accomplishments in French as a second language. We organized our very first TCF session on April 4, and we are very satisfied with the conduct of the test and the results obtained.
To the question as to what the federal government can do to help the postsecondary institutions support and improve second-language learning, I will answer that it would be a good idea to adopt and recognize the scale established by the European Council, once again under the European common framework of reference for languages, which establishes six levels of proficiency ranging from A1, the basic level, to C2, the advanced superior level.
This international recognition, I hope, will encourage our students to continue their education in French and to meet the challenge of aiming for perfection in spelling, grammar and syntax.
The federal government could also assist the postsecondary institutions in supporting second-language learning by putting in place as many measures as possible to promote the mobility of teachers and students. And here we come back to exactly the same idea, the idea of youth mobility across Canada and even internationally.
In that context, our university has established four exchanges with universities in France, with Nancy, Poitiers, Rouen and Tours. Through these exchanges, our students have the opportunity to study and work in France, and French students have the opportunity to come and study and work in Canada. Taking part in an exchange program is definitely the best way to acquire sound mastery of the French language and culture, and this is, in many cases, a decisive experience for our students. It can really determine where they want to go in life.
Currently, however, transferring credits between provinces and between countries is difficult, and we have few resources to encourage our students to take part in exchanges. Too often these are students who come from well-to-do families who have the resources to take part in exchanges.
In Europe, the Erasmus program, established by the European Commission some 20 years ago, does much to facilitate the transfer of credits and youth mobility. Young people have the opportunity to study at another institution without having to pay additional costs, and credits are identified and readily transferable. Financial assistance is provided under the Erasmus program: the Erasmus community scholarship and the mobility scholarship, which are incentives for students to take part in these exchanges.
There is no such thing in Canada, as far as I know, for students who would like to study in another country. The Explore program, which offers five-week immersion courses in spring and summer, is an excellent initiative. Many of our students take these programs, but a five-week stay is not really enough. If you want to learn a language and master it, you have to spend more time.
If the Canadian government could introduce a system of scholarships to assist our students in going on long-term exchanges, either here or abroad, that would really help young Canadians in a significant way, and would assist and promote international relations in general.
Thank you. I'll be ready to answer your questions later.