Evidence of meeting #34 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was education.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Treasurer, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
I think this is the kind of leadership the federal government must show regarding these programs.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Okay.
Mr. Chair, I have a question for the committee. The government side does not seem to disagree that it would be relevant to obtain information on the use of money transferred by the Canadian government to the provinces for education in minority communities.
Should we consider inviting a few representatives of provincial education ministers? It would be worthwhile to consider that possibility. Nevertheless, I will set this question aside for the time being.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
We are talking about two sovereign levels of government in Canada.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
I understand that. They are sovereign, but we can still invite those people. They can refuse or accept. We will see.
At some point, Alberta's government announced that, in three or four years' time, it would require all high school students to learn a second language. It would not necessarily be French, but simply a second language. Naturally, everyone thought that French would be at the forefront. There may have also been Japanese, Spanish, and so on. However, the Government of Alberta then gave up on the idea.
This issue bothers me. Why has no province, so far, insisted on our young people learning a second language?
Vice-President, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
I would like to answer that question.
Vice-President, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
I think that New Brunswick is the only Canadian province to have a mandate, set by the premier, according to which 70% of graduates should be able to speak the second official language.
Liberal
Vice-President, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
Back home, it is an obligation. Assessments are conducted annually in high schools to determine whether 70% of our youth meet the requirement—an intermediate level in oral communication.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
An intermediate level in oral communication is a fairly diluted notion. It is not about knowing a second language.
Vice-President, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
No, but....
President, Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers
In the past, Manitoba's universities had specific expectations in terms of bilingualism.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
The same was true of Ontario, but the University of Ottawa has taken a step back in terms of that.
President, Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers
We have gone backwards with regard to that. In Manitoba, we heartily approved when Alberta made its announcement public. We were then very disappointed when the province backed down.
Back home, in Manitoba, French is mandatory at certain levels, but there are no high school targets. After high school, learning a second language becomes a choice, an option, and young people decide whether they want to keep going or not. If a young person is enrolled in an immersion program, however, they will remain in immersion. Unfortunately, that is not the case for everyone.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Madam Turnbull, you said that things are not perfect yet. When will they be?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
They will be sometime in the future.
I am going to give the floor to Mr. Boughen.
Conservative
Ray Boughen Conservative Palliser, SK
Thanks, Chair.
Let me welcome the panel to our meeting.
I listened quite intently to the presentations. It seems to me that we have the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers, the Canadian Teachers' Federation, the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers, and on top of all of that we have the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality.
Do we have too many agencies trying to do the same thing? Is there an interface among the agencies, or what direction do they all go in?
President, Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers
We work well with all our partners and we support one another.
We have a slightly different focus. The Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers focuses on content in French in teaching; I'll let the other speak for themselves. They also have an interesting immersion, but the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers focuses on immersion programs across the land.
Vice-President, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
Our association certainly focuses on supporting all second-language teachers, teachers of English as a second language and teachers of French as a second language, in addition to some international language teachers as well.
We work very well with our partners at ACPI , who support teachers and programs that are content-based. Students who take immersion programs are doing social studies in French, math in French, science in French, and technology in French, whereas the second-language programs that we basically have from one end of Canada to other might have one or two classes per week, for example.
Treasurer, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
If you allow me, Mr. Chairman, I may add that I think that the day we have in Canada competent and full-fledged teachers of second language, whether they be immersion teachers or French or English second-language teachers, and the day that we have programs in all of the schools that cater to this kind of objective, you'll probably find that there will be less of a need for organizations like the ones you have met this morning.
Conservative
Ray Boughen Conservative Palliser, SK
Moving to formative and summative evaluation, it seems to me that what I hear from talking with teachers is that there's too much accent on “summative” and too little on “formative”, so that students can learn as they go at their own pace in the formative setting and take away the summative part of evaluation.
Would you comment on that?
Vice-President, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers
Yes, absolutely.
One of the main tasks that our association has undertaken for the last five or six years has been to bring forward the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages to Canada and disseminate information about it.
One interesting and important thing associated with the European framework is that there is a learning portfolio and a learning passport. Students and adults can all have a learning passport and portfolio whereby we would be able to self-identify and self-evaluate our progress and our competencies in language.
When programs start in, let's say, elementary school, it's a far cry between the point at which you start and the point at which you would think you are a balanced bilingual. Incrementally, students can track and learn, and that would address the formative assessment, both the assessment as learning and the assessment for learning.
President, Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers
As a strategy for supporting learning, the formative assessment is essential and is certainly a part of good teaching, but there's no doubt that there's a place for summative assessment as well, something that allows you to know what you have achieved.
I think parents have the right to know how their children are doing in school, whether they're studying math or languages. It is important for language learners to get a sense of where they are as well, as seen by objective evaluators. On that case, ACPI is working with the DELF, an international exam that does just that: it gives a level of competency, based on the European framework, of the levels of the pupil. We think that's really critical to celebrate all the learning that our young Canadians are doing.