Xavier Xia
The Quebec government provides free French courses to recent immigrants or study/work permit holders as part of its Francization program. These courses aim to improve the students’ proficiency in French and their ability to integrate into the Quebec society (Amireault, 2011).
I have been taking one of these courses at the Chinese Family Service Centre of Greater Montreal since January. My classmates, age 16 to 55, come from many places in the world. They have different L1(s), education background, and have been living in Quebec for varying lengths of time. They also have different motivations for learning French: some plan to immigrate to Quebec permanently, while others might decide to move to another province or another country entirely. However, despite the diversity of the class, my teacher insists a “French-only” policy.
As we know, learning a new language is akin to learning a new identity. The “French-only” policy, which forbids students from using other languages, is very predominant. Even though French is the only target language in this context, this policy is highly problematic because it creates a learning environment that solely encourages students to build their Quebecois identity, often at the expense of their original identities.
Instead, I think the Francization program should take a plurilingual approach (Marshall & Moore, 2013), like encouraging students to use their L1(s) in class. In addition to facilitating French learning, a plurilingual approach would also make the course more inclusive and reflect the multicultural and multilingual reality of the province we live in. For instance, my class comprises students from China, Hong Kong, Iran, Australia, Chile, and Mexico. I would like to see my teacher encourage the students to help each other in their L1(s) instead of interrupting them, saying “Parlez en francais!”. Not only is it an excellent way for us to learn French and build Quebecois identity, but it also reinforces our original identities by speaking our L1(s) in the classroom. Nevertheless, I suppose teachers who were taught to use monolingual methods and had been teaching in this way could find difficulty adapting or even resist this new educational methodology. Furthermore, students who have learned other additional languages in a monolingual environment could also question the benefit of plurilingualism.
Question:
Do you agree that plurilingualism can promote inclusivity in Francization courses?
What other challenges face the adoption of plurilingualism in Francization courses?
References:
Amireault, V. (2011). Identity construct of adult immigrants learning French in Montreal. Canadian and International Education/Education canadienne et internationale, 40(2), 61–74.
Marshall, S., & Moore, D. (2013). 2B or not 2B plurilingual: Navigating languages literacies, and plurilingual competence in postsecondary education in Canada. TESOL Quarterly, 47, 472–499. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.111
