This text is part of the special Francophonie booklet
The very recent report of the Observatory of the French language (OLF) entitled The French language in the world reveals new figures: 321 million French speakers, on all continents and in all countries, with a majority of Africans (51% of speakers) ahead of Europe (42%).
“It’s 21 million more than three years ago, including 19 on the African continent. The great African dynamic is confirmed,” says Alexandre Wolff, director of the OLF, the demographic arm of the International Organization of La Francophonie.
“A francophone, for us, is a person who can listen to a news bulletin in French. We work on this basis, ”he explains. “That means that in Canada, there are 11 million Francophones, or 28% of the population,” adds Richard Marcoux, professor of sociology at Laval University and director of the Demographic and Statistical Observatory of Space. Francophone, which has been compiling demographic data since 2010.
The two researchers insist on the fact that 163 million French-speaking Africans and 136 million French-speaking people in Europe constitute a diverse aggregation of data. “To fully understand what is happening, you have to consider national dynamics,” says Richard Marcoux.
Francophone life is very different in the 13 African countries where French is spoken by 50% of the population (Côte d’Ivoire, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, among others) if we compare it with the 20 or so who are on the 20 to 50%. “Parents use it more to talk to their children. It does not change the number of speakers, but we are in front of speakers who use it more”, explains Alexandre Wolff. “Other studies show, for example, that Senegalese women, with the same level of education, will judge their own French more negatively than men. »
The dynamic is different in Europe, where the French language is still widely practiced and taught, with 10 million learners of French as a foreign language. “In countries that only have one compulsory second language, we mainly learn English, except in English-speaking countries, where it is French,” explains Alexandre Wolff. But as soon as a country requires a third language, French is everywhere, and particularly strong in Western Europe. »
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The trend that is emerging is that of a slowdown in growth, as if French were approaching a kind of plateau. It continues to progress demographically, but its other driver, that of education, is less strong, so that it continues to grow because the population is growing, but much less as a percentage of it.
Richard Marcoux gives the example of Mali, which he knows well having lived there for five years. Between 1960 and 2020, the Malian population has quadrupled, but the number of French speakers has multiplied by 33. However, he explains, for several years, education systems have plateaued almost everywhere. “In Mali, half of young people aged 6 to 14 do not attend school or do not have a primary diploma. »
In Europe, the portrait is also different, since there is a decline in the number of learners, which has not yet translated into the number of second language speakers, but which will have an impact.
The two researchers explain that the OLF has fairly solid data to enable it to closely study linguistic dynamics. “Surveys by the polling firm Kantar TNS, based on samples of 1,000 respondents in 30 African cities, provide us with information on how speakers perceive their skills,” explains Richard Marcoux.
This new edition of The French language in the world also examines French in cyberspace, where French is fourth — or second according to new indicators. Here, the OLF relies on the studies of Daniel Pimienta, a great specialist in the matter, who has designed his own cyberglobalization index. This index makes it possible to qualify certain raw data. For example, if the use of Hindi is about to overtake French on the Web, that first means that the Internet is progressing in India, not that Hindi is becoming an international language.
For each of its compilations, the OLF also presents a series of more qualitative studies. In 2018, these focused on employability. This year, the major research project concerned the varieties of French. A large team of around fifty researchers therefore explored the question in ten countries: Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Madagascar, Morocco, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad.
“It shows that we often teach a variety of standard French very different from French that teachers will even use to talk to students, explain or give instructions or give them instructions, illustrates Alexandre Wolff. It shows that the language is changing, but also that there may be an issue if the teaching does not take into account the variations present. »