François Legault said he wanted to “completely stop the decline of French in Quebec, especially in Montreal”. To achieve this, he found the solution: to welcome only French-speaking immigrants. Because, it is well known, the decline of French in Quebec depends largely on immigrants! How can we be blind or have such prejudices?
The decline of French in Quebec, and in Montreal in a more accelerated way, is not new and is not due to the arrival of non-French-speaking immigrants, but to the lack of vigilance of the public authorities with regard to the application of Bill 101, to the cultural imperialism of the United States of America, to the bilingualism of cultural and commercial institutions and… to the relative bankruptcy of the teaching of French throughout the Quebec school system, including the francization of immigrants, sector where (this is a true case) we claimed to teach French to 38 people of different languages and cultures by Zoom a year ago…
From now on, wherever you go in Montreal, you can see institutional bilingualism: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Symphony Orchestra, cinemas, etc. There are countless commercial signs where English dominates, such as that of Optical Center, at the corner of Laurier and Saint-Urbain streets, or in English only. You call your dentist, your hairdresser whose English-speaking clientele does not exceed 5%, and bilingualism is required. You open Radio-Canada radio, and how many language errors can you detect in an hour, and what is the percentage of songs in English on the air?
Beware if you do not understand or speak English well, as you may not be able to be served at the convenience store or gas station. Your friends and colleagues are using English words that weren’t heard five to ten years ago. We receive newsletters. Nothing is more cool than to speak English or to sprinkle his language with English words. After all, it’s a challenge !
Worse still, how many young Francophones leave secondary school, diploma in hand after 11 years of schooling, while being functionally illiterate: difficulty understanding relatively simple texts, inability to write a coherent text in decent French. As for oral expression, I sometimes have trouble understanding young people in my neighborhood, Rosemont. Need we remind you that the Ministry of Education (MEQ) promotes immersion in English from the end of primary school, a crucial moment in learning French?
Fake French exams
For thirty years, with supporting figures, I have denounced the French exam of 5e secondary because the correction scale allows students, who have spent months cramming over the form and structure of the text required for the exam, to pass it with flying colors. For the correction of lexicon and punctuation, we could not be more lax. As for spelling, the national average has rarely exceeded 60% for 30 years. And we could say the same thing for the French uniform test at the end of CEGEP. And what about the hecatomb of the first award of TECFEE (Certification test in written French for teaching)?
Does the Prime Minister know how many hours per week students are supposed to learn oral and written French at school and what this number of hours represents in a Francophone child’s week? Because it is clear that it is only during the hours of French lessons that the pupil is invited to make efforts to develop his language skills in French; in other courses and school activities, it is more than random. In addition, compliance with the standards and rules of written French is only evaluated in written French exams, i.e. three or four times per school year, and not in those of reading comprehension, where you can write any , because it doesn’t count, according to MEQ guidelines.
University colleagues recently told me that they no longer felt entitled to reprimand a student when he made mistakes in oral French in class. But how can one learn a language and practice it properly without constant effort in all contexts and with the support of who masters it?
In short, let the government look in its own backyard to find solutions to the rapid decline of French in institutions, public and private places, and, first and foremost, in the education system. That his new Minister of Education take the necessary measures to ensure that the use of correct French is a priority for all students and school staff throughout the system, which the former Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, who became Minister of the French Language, did not, despite our repeated requests.