As I was saying, I am President of the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers and I am employed by the Pembina Trails School Division in Winnipeg.
I in turn would like to say hello to Mr. Shea, my former colleague and neighbour of the CAIT in Ottawa.
You didn't lose a beat, Jim. It's good to see you in such fine form.
As the authority on French immersion in Canada, the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers is a professional organization that brings together immersion educators from all parts of the country.
The Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers supports and enriches immersion pedagogy by offering educators professional development, research, and networking opportunities.
The CAIT stimulates research and innovation, and is set apart by its many accomplishments and its willingness to push the envelope to help grow French immersion.
I would like to start by mentioning some facts about French immersion.
We have come a long way in 40 years. In the area of second-language learning, about 350,000 English-speaking Canadian youth are registered in French immersion. Never before have so many Canadians been able to speak both English and French. Today, 5.4 million Canadians can speak both official languages, compared with 2.8 million in 1971. That is virtually twice as many.
Learning a second language is even good for your health. Recent studies have shown that bilingual people are better protected from cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer's.
French as a second language programs in Canada are growing: immersion registration has increased by 10% in recent years. In fact, immersion programs are on the rise nearly everywhere across the country despite the often negative demographics of school populations.
Immersion is and will remain the best program to learn French as a second language. Students achieve a high level of competency in French and do so without affecting their mother tongue or their knowledge of other subjects. It is therefore essential to maintain and expand access to immersion programs because demand is increasing in many areas of the country.
Despite immersion's popularity, much remains to be done to ensure that everyone has equal access. Immersion has proven its worth, and Canada is renowned worldwide for its immersion programs.
However, each province and territory delivers its immersion programs differently. Some institutions limit the number of enrolments, while others charge extra fees to cover transportation costs. Accessibility is not guaranteed for all Canadians.
The CAIT firmly believes that all students should have access to a French immersion program, regardless of where they live.
In some provinces such as British Columbia, for example, immersion is like a lottery: only the lucky ones get in. We object to this state of affairs. Every parent who chooses immersion for their children should have access to it, and they should not be charged additional fees.
Immersion should be accessible to students in both urban and rural areas. Generally speaking, immersion programs are fairly accessible in urban areas. However, many rural areas are underserved. For example, in a school board in Ontario, the immersion program offers 100% of classes in French in an urban area and only 50% of classes in French in a rural area.
We need a common vision for all the provinces and territories. It would be advisable to support adding more immersion classes in rural areas and in places with high demand.
Many school boards do not provide transportation for students enrolled in the immersion program. Transportation should be provided at no cost for both urban and rural students.
In the next Roadmap for Linguistic Duality, targets should be set to increase accessibility to immersion programs for all Canadians. The provinces and territories should set rules governing the creation of new immersion classes offered by school boards, according to the principles of equal access. For example, Manitoba has established policies governing immersion programs and access to them. It is a good example in that regard.
Immersion should also be accessible to newcomers. Immigrants are often excluded from immersion programs. They are not encouraged to enrol, and in some cases they are even discouraged, despite the impressive results allophone students obtain when they are admitted. Currently, there are no federal, provincial or territorial policies in place to ensure that allophone students and their parents are aware of immersion programs so they can apply.
Allophones have a strong interest in learning both official languages since they see it as a valuable asset in the labour market. Many studies have shown that the children of immigrants do very well in immersion programs, and often achieve better results than anglophones born and raised in Canada.
According to a study by Canadian Parents for French, 80% of allophone parents did not receive any information about French immersion programs in the education system. Despite the efforts of various educators to discourage them from applying for immersion programs, support for linguistic duality and French as a second language remains high among allophones. In fact, 60% said they believed that learning both of Canada's official languages would be an asset for their children, and 40% enrolled their children in French immersion programs.
In the next road map for linguistic duality we should be thinking of establishing goals and strategies to boost learning of French as a second or third language for allophones or newcomer Canadians.
Immersion should also be accessible for students with learning disabilities. Our first instinct is often to keep students with learning disabilities out of immersion programs. Many people think that immersion is for gifted students. However, research has shown that anglophone students with learning difficulties are no more at risk in a French immersion classroom than they are in an English classroom. These students achieve even better results in French than students enrolled in a regular French program.
In many institutions, there is a lack of specialized immersion services for students with learning difficulties. It is important to provide support for children, parents and immersion teachers by giving them the tools they need to help children with learning disabilities succeed and benefit from all the advantages of bilingualism.
The points of entry into immersion programs vary from one institution to another. There are essentially three entry points: early immersion, which is for students in kindergarten and grade 1; middle immersion, in grades 4 and 5; and late immersion, usually in grades 7 or 8.
The type of immersion program and the level of intensity of the program help determine the level of language proficiency. Early immersion programs generally produce better results than the other programs. However, in Canada, there are no standard entry points. In New Brunswick, for example, early immersion is no longer offered despite the number of studies showing that French immersion programs have no negative effect on English-language skills and that, on the contrary, they improve students' skills in French. All researchers have reported that learning a second language improves students' first-language skills.
In my opinion, the entry point that should be favoured in giving Canadians the broadest choice is kindergarten or grade 1. Having students start immersion in kindergarten and providing students who have difficulty with support measures ensure the greatest diversity within the immersion program.
However, this does not mean that access should be limited to early immersion. We also need to encourage jurisdictions to offer a variety of entry points so that everyone has access to French immersion and so that we have sufficient numbers to offer the full range of courses at the secondary level.
Each parent should be informed about immersion programs and entry points, as well as the level of language proficiency associated with each option.
Secondary and postsecondary programs are also a concern. In some cases, students leave immersion programs in high school to prepare themselves for postsecondary studies in their first language, which is often English, citing the lack of courses in certain subjects, timetable conflicts or simply a generally weariness.
Continuation of French-as-a-second-language studies at university is therefore important to the success of immersion at the high school level.
In 2009, the Commissioner of Official Languages published a study titled Two Languages, a World of Opportunities on second-language learning at Canadian universities. The study found that few institutions offer immersion programs or related support services that allow students to take courses in their discipline taught in their second language. Mr. Fraser also noted the limited cooperation and low number of partnerships between French- and English-language universities in Canada. Moreover, second-language policies and language-proficiency requirements are lacking. The study identified several ways forward, including promoting content-based learning, providing opportunities to use the language in social settings and maximizing the use of resources, such as professors, small classes, learning assistance, tutors and new technologies, to name only a few.
The Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers firmly believes that universities have an important role to play in the training of young bilinguals to help the public service recruit some 5,000 bilingual employees per year that will be needed over the next few years.
Immersion teachers are proud to contribute to Canada's linguistic duality. Always looking to improve the quality of education, they are concerned about the shortage of bilingual teachers. Schools sometimes hire teachers who do not have adequate language skills or do not know the methods for teaching living languages.
Educational resources have improved in the last few years, but they are still rarely adapted to immersion and are often simply translations. There is a need for immersion-specific resources.
