That's perfect.
I'll introduce myself. I am Nicole Thibault, executive director of the Canadian Association of Second-Language Teachers since 2003. During my career, I've worked as a French immersion teacher and as vice-principal in a number of schools here in Ottawa.
As regards the postsecondary level, two of our partner organizations, Canadian Parents for French and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, have gathered data on the types of programs and support offered to students interested in pursuing their studies and using their second official language in their college or university programs. They have noted innovative programs that are starting to be developed, and I think we want to encourage the development of other similar programs. In particular, I'm talking about the immersion system offered at the University of Ottawa, which provides a tutoring program for graduates of French immersion programs who are taking courses in the francophone sector with francophones. We've also noted an openness from francophone community colleges to welcoming immersion program graduates.
Further actions to be taken could include exploring the implementation of language entrance requirements or graduation requirements for certain faculty programs; exploring the potential use of technology in the delivery of second language programs to enrich the acquisition and the alternative and added learning opportunities; encouraging exchanges, apprenticeships, co-op programs, and work placements that can be completed in the student's second official language, and then providing an additional linguistic credit for the experience; developing a common research agenda that includes the different social and cultural aspects related to official languages and creating links and networks between researchers and practitioners of both francophone and anglophone sectors; submissions related to language teacher preparation or language teacher education programs within the faculties of education.
There is a shortage of qualified language teachers to deliver quality second language programs, and this has been brought forward across the country. Many school districts have difficulty staffing the FSL positions for speciality areas, such as teaching sciences or math en français. So for immersion, it's very important.
You have to speak French, but you also have to know mathematics.
We also have issues related to rural areas in certain provinces.
CASLT believes that instruction in French as a second language must be presented as a viable career option. New teachers require support through professional development, information sharing and opportunities to enrich their language and cultural skills.
In 2006, CASLT, with two partners—the Canadian Teachers' Federation and the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers—released a report on FSL teachers' perspectives of their learning and working conditions, and two things of interest came out.
Only 32% of the FSL teacher respondents actually held a specialist certificate—in other words, they actually had specific training to teach French as a second language. Our reality is that if you're in B.C. and you happen to speak German, you're the French teacher.
Almost 40% of FSL teacher respondents reported they considered leaving FSL teaching during the last year. Reasons cited included the marginalization of the FSL program—there's no status for the program, you're the person in the back and you're not important—and the lack of community and collegial support. This fall there was also another report released by CAIT, which looked at new language teachers with less than five years' experience and why they were leaving the profession. The findings were the same. What we're seeing is that we need to promote new teacher support mechanisms, such as mentoring programs.
CASLT has undertaken a study related to the development of a language teacher competence profile and portfolio. The reason is to understand better the basic minimum qualifications regarding pedagogical training, language proficiency, cultural competencies, and subject matter competence to provide guidance to the employers, as well as to monitor and guide teachers in the teacher education programs.
Further actions that could happen include exploring language proficiency and enrichment opportunities for those second language teachers, when they're being trained as well as when they're in the field; exploring teacher exchange opportunities; looking at new teacher support mechanisms and understanding the roles of the job as a teacher and as an FSL specialist; exploring the implementation of this language teacher competence profile or portfolio as a tool that school districts can use to evaluate their current practices and the methods with which they support the FSL teachers and their ongoing professional growth and development; and finally, supporting targeted professional development for practising teachers. We need to keep the linguistic skills up for our teachers over the course of their professional years.
CASLT wishes to recognize the financial support of the federal government through contributions from the Department of Canadian Heritage as part of the support program for English and French second-language programs. This assists us in our work with our members and teaching staff in Canada. Based on this expertise, CASLT is in a position to play a leadership role in certain projects and also in the coordination of projects with a number of participants that have complementary objectives, including federal and national partners. In our view, with respect to education at the provincial level, a dialogue must definitely be established among the provinces so that we can agree on the most effective way to provide further support for linguistic duality and official language learning in Canada.
Thank you.