Everyone, well almost, agrees. We must protect French in Quebec. But how better to protect a language than to teach it?
In its Bill 96, the government proposes to impose three courses in French (or French) on students in English-speaking CEGEPs. The addition of compulsory courses in French would inevitably improve the programs of these CEGEPs and would democratize the French language. In the end, the students of these establishments would emerge better equipped to contribute to Quebec society.
But it’s not just English-speaking CEGEPs that could benefit from such a measure. Their French counterparts could also benefit from additional second language courses. The education in English of francophone students in Quebec is, as we all know, deficient. In fact, the Ministry of Education is rethinking its second language curriculum in primary and secondary schools because, despite years of English lessons, many students finish high school without mastering the international language.
This is one of the main reasons that lead many French-speaking students to enroll in our English-speaking CEGEPs to pursue their studies. For them, the choice is simple. It is better to go to English-speaking establishments, in order to come out of them perfectly bilingual, than to continue in French-speaking CEGEPs, where second-language courses are insufficient. This is also the choice that many of my classmates have made, despite the technical equivalence of the French and English CEGEP programs.
Enriching second-language education is therefore not only a good idea for English-speaking CEGEPs, but also for their French-speaking counterparts. Such a reform would no doubt convince many Francophones wishing to learn the language of Shakespeare to enroll in a Francophone establishment. This would partially curb the exodus of francophone students to the Dawsons, Vaniers and John Abbotts of this world. These students would continue their education in French while effectively learning English through this enhanced program.
We only have to look at the university level to see the popularity of a program from a French-speaking institution offering a credible multilingual component. HEC Montréal offers such a program, which enables it to compete with the Desautels Faculty of Management (McGill) and the John Molson School of Management (Concordia). By offering a path modeled on the desire of students to be bilingual, or even trilingual, HEC Montréal attracts French-speaking students to a French-speaking establishment. We therefore come to ask ourselves this: with a program in English as a second language worthy of the name, wouldn’t we see a rebalancing of registrations towards French-speaking CEGEPs?
The government has an excellent idea in its hands, the expansion of second-language courses, which could, if applied universally, improve French-language learning in English-speaking CEGEPs, curb the exodus of French-speaking students to the system English, but, above all, to ensure that French is learned and spoken by all of our CEGEP students. Isn’t this a way of achieving our common goal: the protection of French?