Bilingual Education

stremblay · Post by **stremblay** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 6:09 pm

In Quebec, bilingual education becomes a possibility only when you go to study to college or university. Indeed, unless you have at least one parent of English origins, you are not allowed to choose your type of education in primary and high school. I don't think that we should forbid bilingual education to young people who would incredibly benefit from it. In Quebec, we are surrounded by English speaking people and being able to communicate fluently in English is becoming more and more important at work and in some other places. Therefore, receiving bilingual education should be a possibility for everyone no matter their age in my opinion.

claudie.ars · Post by **claudie.ars** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:49 am

I unfortunately do not agree with you. I think that it is really important to be able to communicate in our 2 legal languages. Not only because of the rest of Canada but also because English is a language that allows for communication with people from all over the world. However, I also think that if one really needs more input from this second language, he/she can have it from private schools or teachers. If children do not learn more English in public schools, it is mostly because they do not really want to.
The reason why I think this way is that I went to a conference on " Le français au Québec" and the speaker said that even with all the efforts made, the amount of French speakers is melting faster and faster. If we give this choice to everybody, soon all newcomers won't need to speak French at all and it will soon be the end for the French language in Quebec.

sam17 · Post by **sam17** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:55 pm

Being billingual nowadays is the strict minimum that an individual can hope to achieve if they want to be successful. Therefore, I believe having billingual education should be considered by everyone. We should not be forced to use French here in Quebec. English is the universal language and we must be able to use it to communicate with people around the world. If all schools were billingual (meaning students would do half the school year in French exclusively and the other half in Englsh) people would learn way faster and it would be highly beneficial. In conclusion, being billingual is important and we should consider billingual schools all over Quebec. Maybe some people would not be too pleased with the idea but they will be highly thankful once they notice that they became billingual because of it.

karineESLstudent · Post by **karineESLstudent** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:56 pm

In my opinion, English schools should be open to everyone, no matter if your parents speak English or not. Since speaking English is becoming a must, mostly in tourism and business affairs, we should give every chances to the new generation to perform their English skills. And I'm thinking that it would be important to increase the number of English lessons in schools and maybe diminuish the number of lessons of arts. It could be that English teachers teaches arts in English...that would be a good way to combine both and learn more English.

And concerning the immigrants who have to learn French since they chose to live in Quebec, then we could obliged them to take a certain number of French class. Schools could offer French classes for immigrants and when, for examle in elementary school, it is the French period, the immigrants in the classroom could go to another room and have a period of French for immigrants. After, when it's time to move to music class, for example, immigrants could simply go back to their normal group.

Emhan3 · Post by **Emhan3** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:02 pm

I also believe that bilingual education is important since we live in a country and world that requires us and the future generations to speak at least two languages. More specifically, as [i]caludie.ars [/i] says, considering the fact that we live in a country where English and French are the two official languages, we should definitely do our best to make sure that students know both languages. Therefore, they will be able to communicate wherever they go in Canada and with whoever they meet. In addition, bilingual education will give students the opportunity to learn about both cultures (French and English cultures) since language could be considered as the first mean of expression of one’s culture. Consequently, false judgement and prejudices will fall apart and students will be more culturally aware of the cultures they live in (their first and second language’s culture) as well as they will become more open-minded toward different cultures.

Roque · Post by **Roque** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:12 pm

The problem here is complex. We all know how deeply rooted in culture is language. In Quebec, there’s a certain ideological assumption according to which cultural assimilation would result from bilingual education and that, in the end, French itself would we be at stakes. The problem is real and the consequences are known, but it’s more the extent of these consequences that are arguable. Pessimist nationalistic previsions foresee the complete extinction of French in Quebec within a few decades if bilingual education becomes readily available. Over optimistic predictions only see positive impacts on education but tend to neglect obvious changes our society would undergo. The truth is somewhere in between. All native French speakers instinctively know that somehow, French would be affected by such a radical shift in our education programs. On the other hand, do we really want to isolate ourselves that much from the rest of the world as English is now a standard cross-cultural language?

rebra · Post by **rebra** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:12 pm

Rebra:
Hello, I agree with both viewpoints. English is in fact the international language of communication thus it is important for everyone to acquire it. Every body should be given the chance to learn it. However I do feel that it is unfair that only children form Anglophone parents are allowed to attend English schools. From my experience I can say that it is very upsetting, because I am from New Brunswick, hence I am completely bilingual, and because my parents were not declared Anglophones, I was not able to attend an English school. As regard to keeping the French language ‘alive’, children attending English schools are given intense French immersion. This means that children learn as much French as they would in a French school with English immersion. I encourage Anglophone parents to send their children to English schools even if they want them to learn French because once their kids will have gone to school in English, they will still speak fluent French and they will later be allowed to send their own children to English schools. As for French children, there are a lot of schools that have great English immersion. The only disadvantage is that students attending these programs are the ones with the better grades.

jeffreyrodrigue · Post by **jeffreyrodrigue** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:15 pm

I completely agree with Samuel, I think nowadays it's so important to be bilingual or at the least being able to communicate a bit in English for us Quebecers. I am for bilingual schools and English schools only, because even in an English-speaking only school students will speak the language their more comfortable speaking and most often than not it’s French. I know I would’ve liked very much to go into a bilingual school; it would’ve helped me even more in my progress towards becoming an English teacher. I would’ve learned a lot more about the culture and thus would be a lot more adequately equipped to teach cultural awareness to my future students.

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