Parents say ‘oui’ to French language promotion

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This article was published 30/10/2002 (8707 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CANADA still faces many challenges before it will be a truly bilingual nation, but members of a national group promoting French as a second language are focusing this fall on the progress that has been made in the last quarter century.

Canadian Parents for French was founded in 1977 by parents who thought a national organization would help their children, and others, in their efforts to learn French, says Sandy Owczar, president of the Manitoba chapter.

Members and supporters will gather Nov. 21 at the Hotel Fort Garry for a fund-raising banquet and celebration in honour of the organization’s 25th anniversary.

The provincial organization has about 1,000 members and approximately 60 affiliated schools, including both immersion and non-immersion schools, says executive director Rosemary Friesen.

In a province where the French and English languages have long existed side by side, French immersion dates only to the 1970s. Sacre-Coeur School, in the Winnipeg School Division, became the province’s first immersion school in 1973. It was followed in the late 1970s by schools in St. Boniface and St. Vital, such as Ecole Guyot in 1977. By the early 1980s, immersion had caught on in every school division in Winnipeg.

CPF Manitoba meets twice per year with the Minister of Education, as well as with school boards, to promote both French immersion and French as a core subject in non-immersion settings. The organization also focuses on ways to support language learning outside the classroom, says Owczar.

The group puts out posters promoting the benefits of language study, sends French artists to immersion schools throughout the province, and organizes annual French speaking competitions. Through its local chapters, CPF also puts on summer day camps.

“The camps have been so successful that I have no trouble filling up the whole eight weeks,” says Friesen.

Summer camps have proven to be a hit for the organization in communities such as Thompson, Brandon, Flin Flon, The Pas and Beausejour. Last summer, for the first time, the organization had a day camp in Winnipeg as well, says Friesen. French-language day camps are also put on by other organizations in Winnipeg, such as St. Boniface College.

In promoting French immersion, the parents’ organization holds information sessions for parents of preschoolers to give them a chance to ask questions.

Despite the years of growth of French immersion, there are still a number of myths and concerns, says Owczar.

“There are still parents who will say, ‘How can I help my child if I don’t speak the language?'”

Owczar’s response: parents don’t help their kids by doing the homework for them, they help them by getting them to do the work themselves.

Other misconceptions still circulate about French immersion: that it’s an elite program for the brightest kids only; that immersion students in high school will have trouble with university science and math; and that it gets more than its fair share of school board funding. In fact, says Owczar, French immersion is for all kids, research indicates no problems in math and science, and the only extra funding for immersion programs comes from the federal government’s programs for encouraging bilingualism.

Nationally, the organization conducts research into the state of French second language education in Canada and, at its annual meeting in Ottawa this month, released a study focusing on a growing teacher shortage.

The report concluded that shortages of French teachers are likely to worsen and that there are no national strategies to recruit or retain French teachers. French teachers often report unfavourable working conditions, such as moving throughout the day from classroom to classroom or even school to school, and may also be assigned to teach other subjects. As well, many provinces, including Manitoba, have no mandated requirement for French as part of the curriculum.

One of the challenges of advocating for French, though, is that research shows many subjects are important in education, admits Owczar.

Where physical education and music were once seen as fun extras, research is now showing that they too play an important role in a student’s development.

That means there are advocates for many different subjects all calling for time in the school day and funds in the education budget.

For information or tickets for the anniversary banquet, call the CPF office at 222-6537.