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Multilingualism in Canada


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Contents




Introduction


Language is deeply related to one's cultural identity and often causes conflicts among people who speak different languages, especially when they have no common tools for communication other than language, or when they are forced to use another languages. Multilingualism is a controversial issue, especially in Canada, such a linguistically diverse country. Although Canada adapted multiculturalism∞, an official policy which encourages the cultural diversity of the country, the diversity of languages has not been necessarily promoted in Canada because of its bilingualism∞. In this research, by examining Canada’s linguistic situations and its language policy, and by asking students their experiences related to language and opinions about the language policy, I would like to focus on how important multilingualism, the policy for promoting multilingual situations, is for this culturally diverse country.
This topic is very important to think about because everyone should be aware that there is a possibility to make Canada a country where people can participate more in the society regardless of their backgrounds. Reflecting and criticizing the language policy of Canada is also important for myself because it enables me to have more clear and deeper understanding of Canada and its problems.
Since there is few research and opinions that explain and criticize the current linguistic situation of Canada and its language policy, my research will contribute a lot to the existing research on the politics of Canada by giving a new perspective and point of view.


Literature Review



imageAlthough the federal government of Canada shifted its policy from biculturalism to multiculturalism in 1971, bilingualism has continued to be its official language policy since 1969. In Canada, all services provided by the federal government are available in both English and French, and funding is appropriated for bilingual education. However, in place of bilingualism, multilingualism is becoming an important social issue rather than an individual linguistic achievement. Thus, in Canada, as well as the rest of the world, more and more researchers are dealing with multilingualism’s possibilities. Four controversial questions currently interest researchers:
1. What is the current linguistic situation in Canada?
2. What does multilingualism mean in political terms?
3. Is multilingualism functional?
4. Are there any examples of multilingual policy?
In this review of the literature on multilingualism in Canada, I would like to focus on these four questions.


Bilingualism is often regarded as a political strategy for maintaining two nations within one country. Cardinal (2005) wrote that the purpose of bilingualism is to unite the country by giving official recognition to both English and French. As a consequence, there is pressure on linguistic minorities to assimilate into either language. Analyzing official language data differently than how the federal government does, she concludes that assimilation into the dominant languages is an obvious phenomenon. In one of the earliest and most comprehensive books on multilingualism, Edwards (1994) also claims that the status of English and French is more guaranteed than other languages as a result of the federal government’s intentional emphasis on the two languages.
In fact, some statistics suggest that minority languages are dominated by English and French. According to statistics in 2001, even though the percentage of people who speak neither English nor French as their mother tongue has reached 17.6% in Canada, only 10.2% speak their languages at home. This means people’s home language sometimes shifts from their mother language to a dominant language (Statistics Canada, 2002). There are also statistics∞ that show how the continuity of indigenous languages is in danger. Although more than 800,000 people had identified themselves as indigenous in 1996, no less than 70% either speak an indigenous language as the mother tongue or use one at home. Therefore, Norris (1998) emphasizes that the decreased use of indigenous languages at home threatens generation to generation language transmission and leads up to languages’ disappearance.


While multilingualism can be defined as a social situation or an individual’s ability to use several languages, its political meaning has a wide range. Singh (2001) defines it as the government’s decision to use a limited number of languages as common languages, providing that all members of the country have the opportunity to maintain their mother tongues. On the other hand, there is a more rigid definition that considers multilingualism to be the official policy on keeping the balance of linguistic communities and on meeting their needs and interests for communication and identification. Keeping with this definition, policy must not allow any languages to gain a privileged status, but should provide equal official recognition to all languages that are used within a country (Shabani, 2004).
When researchers describe multilingualism, policy is often correlated with language education. There is less study about multilingual education than bilingual education, especially in North America. However, research in Africa, where many tribal languages exist, and in Europe, where common language policy has been elaborated, can offer some guidance. One of the articles∞, which discussed ideal language education, states that children will need to learn more than two languages, and there should be multiple choices of languages, if multilingual policy operates in a country (Shibata & Okabe, 2001). Including the part of this idea, Nakashima and Takagaki (2005) state that the government, through multilingualism, should recognize minority languages as valuable human resources. Thus, the official curriculum should include heritage language teaching. The word, heritage language, has few different definitions, but in their (Nakashima & Takagaki) book, it refers to minority languages, especially indigenous ones.


Some researchers assert that multilingualism in a political context is not practical, even though they view multilingualism as a fact of life. Accepting the reality of linguistic diversity, Webb (2005) argues that multilingualism would be hard to be efficiently realized in a country where the relationship between languages is not equal. Although Webb states his opinion by examining linguistic situations in South Africa, the inequalities between languages are similar to the situation in Canada. Other researchers mention that policy would not function well under multilingualism, because it costs too much to be effective, since there can be no limit to the number of official languages (Mamadouh, 2002).
There are, however, powerful opinions that support multilingualism as a positive policy for society. As bilingualism functions as a policy for creating national unity, multilingualism can be an asset which promotes the unity and progress of a country, granted that language education is well prepared for children (Ogle, 2001). Also, Nelde (2000) urges that a policy that includes several languages must be realized, as it is crucial in promoting mutual understanding among groups of people and in avoiding linguistic conflicts. Many researchers consider multilingualism as a system of establishing and keeping peace among linguistic communities.


imageThere are quite a few examples of introducing multilingualism and relevant reports. Singh (2001) takes up the case of India, which has much cultural and linguistic diversity. The government of India has developed a language policy, named the Three Language Formula. This policy obliges people to learn at least three languages: Hindi, English, and their regional language. Singh asserts that almost everyone needs to be multilingual in India, and that makes national communication easier and enables linguistic communities to exist peacefully. Similarly, Shibata and Okabe (2001) take New Zealand as a good example. They supports the New Zealand government when it announced that there was value in a multilingual education for children as well as for the country, and thus the New Zealand Curriculum Framework was adapted in 1993. The aims of its language policy are to revive Maori language and to provide public services in English and several other languages.
In Canada, researchers have examined provincial attempts to introduce multilingual policy and public responses to them. Edwards (1994) looks at the case of Ontario and Quebec. In Ontario, the Heritage Language Program became a part of curriculum subjects. The goal of this program is to enable students to gain proficiency in their heritage languages, and therefore, more than 100 hours per year are taken to teach heritage languages. However, many people opposed teaching heritage languages during the school day. One of their objections to the program was that minorities could maintain their languages at home without language education, so it would be a waste of time and money. Another opinion was that English should be taught rather than heritage languages. Meanwhile, in Quebec, French-speaking Canadians protested Arabic language lessons in a French public school. The reason for rejecting this heritage language instruction was also because they could not bear money to be spent on the Arabic community. Edwards criticized such opinions saying that “the debate on heritage languages goes far beyond the benefits or otherwise of language teaching” (p. 5).

  • Conclusion


    • Most researchers who discuss multilingualism agree, but are partly suspicious about the broadly accepted idea that the more a country accepts immigrants from all over the world, the more its linguistic diversity will be enhanced. Even though there are some movements which try to introduce multilingualism as an official language policy, as in Africa, Europe, and a few other countries, there are few examples, which adapted more than two languages as official languages in the world. Moreover, concrete proposals that may influence the Canadian federal government are still only seen within the studies of multilingualism. Therefore, the introduction of multilingualism as an official language policy still seems to be a fanciful idea for Canada. However, because the term multilingualism has linguistic, social, and political aspects, over the past two decades many approaches toward multilingualism have been made. Such interdisciplinary research thus will make multilingualism a more realistic and attractive language policy in the near future.


    Methodology


    The research project will be carried out within 12 weeks at UBC. In order to develop a deeper understanding about multilingualism and make the research reliable and informative, the topic will be developed by documentary research, surveys, and interviews.
    The surveys will be mainly about the attitude toward bilingualism and multilingualism. Because the attitude must vary according to the environments in which people grew up, the subjects of the survey will be both 20 exchange students, including Rits students and KU students, and 20 UBC students, including students who were born in Canada and who immigrated to Canada when they were children. The questionnaire will ask about not only what they think of the official bilingualism and the possibility of the official multilingualism, but also if they have the will to become bilingual or multilingual. The latter question might not be directly related to my research, but it can be interesting to know the difference between Canadian students and students from different countries in the attitude toward individual bilingualism and multilingualism, and it might give useful information to the research.
    Also, 10 exchange students and 10 UBC students will be interviewed. The purpose of the interview is mainly to know their experiences in Canada, which are related to language. For example, some students may talk about their experiences of learning English and becoming bilingual. Others may talk about language instruction which they took before, or difficulties which they are having or had before due to the difference of languages. However, if new and important information is found from the surveys after collecting its results, the content of the interview will be changed.
    To define which information is important and accurate and to examine the topic from different perspectives, data collection will be done by open, axial and selective coding and data triangulation. Especially during the interview, in order to take notes and summarize it efficiently, concepts and ideas will be written down, and later, concept mapping will be used. Then, Qualitative and quantitative methods will be combined in the analysis of data in order to make a range of research wide enough to be credible.
    The research results will be presented on a Wiki page at the end of the project.

    Time line
    Week 1-2: More documentary research will be accomplished; more resources from non-government organization will be added.
    Week 3-4: Questionnaires will be prepared.
    Week 5-6: Survey will be conducted; significant results will be presented by graphs and tables.
    Week 7-8: Results will be examined and tabulated.
    Week 9-10: Interview will be conducted; the results will be discussed in the research paper as supporting examples and evidences.
    Week 11-12: Research paper will be finished writing and be poested on a Wiki page.


    References


    These books and resources are the references for the citations that I used in my literature review. If you are really interested in multilingualism, I suggest that you first read Multilingualism written by John Edwards because, in my opinion, this book is the one of the most informative and thoughtful books about multilingualism.



    Bibliography


    If you want to get further information about Canada’s official language policy or multilingualism, I recommend you to read these books and resources. These are also useful when you research about Canada’s multiculturalism.


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