By: C Icart, Staff Writer
I am one of over a million Francophones in Canada who live outside Québec. A common response I get when Anglophones hear this is to tell me they did French immersion as a kid. I’m not quite sure why this happens, since they almost never try to have a conversation with me in French afterwards — probably because almost none of them are fluent in the language.
When people tell me they did French immersion, what I’m hearing is, “My parents wanted me to get the benefits of French immersion.” A good amount of students who don’t finish grade 12 enroll in French immersion. Of those who don’t transfer out, CBC reports, “only 10 per cent finished Grade 12 with an ‘advanced’ or better level of French.” But if the benefits aren’t fluency in French, what are they?
In practice, these programs are often elitist, perpetuate inequalities, and cause what some call a “two-tier school system,” which is a system where one group has more advantages than the other. Another way parents have described it is a “private school within the public system.” According to Caroline Alphonso from The Globe and Mail, this happens because French immersion programs have more students with “parents with a very high socio-economic status, a university-level education, and who were both born in Canada.” This contributes to a vicious cycle since outside Québec, English-French bilingualism can lead to more work opportunities and better pay.
Students from low-income families, immigrant families, and students with lower grades, disabilities, or behavioural problems are often overrepresented in English-program schools. It’s time to acknowledge the truth: this enrollment in French immersion is a form of “streaming.”
Streaming is “the process of dividing students into differentiated groups based on their perceived academic ability and/or prior achievement.” It’s common in schools across Ontario and in French immersion schools. Studies have shown this results in worse academic outcomes for students placed in “lower-level” courses. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy because of the stigma and perceptions teachers and students develop about supposed academic potential.
It’s natural for parents to want to enroll their children in what they perceive as the best school programs. In fact, some parents have gone as far as camping overnight to secure a French immersion spot for their child. However, children with learning disabilities are often encouraged to leave French immersion schools and allophone (one whose first language is neither French or English) students are generally discouraged from enrolling in the first place. These are some of the ways that systemic inequalities manifest themselves in French immersion programs.
As enrollment in French immersion increases across the country, the number of Canadians who are fluently bilingual in English and French is going down outside of Québec. It’s time to recognize that French immersion is separating students in ways that perpetuate inequalities. The idea that these programs actually produce bilingual adults is a myth. Single-track French immersion is not the only way to teach French. In fact, that may hinder some students as they are discouraged from asking questions in English. We need an approach to education that takes all students into account instead of being tailored to a certain type of student while the others are pushed out.
