Written by Dr. Marie-Eve Bouchard, Assistant Professor of French Studies
The Conseil jeunesse francophone de la Colombie-Britannique is a youth organization created to represent the interests of the French-speaking youth in British Columbia. In 2019, the CJFCB put together the Linguistic Security Committee – a committee by and for youth to address the topic of linguistic insecurity.
Linguistic insecurity is the feeling that a language variety one uses is somehow inferior, ugly or bad. It can be reinforced in school by teachers who consistently monitor and correct the language variety used by their students. Therefore, the mission of the LSC is to raise awareness and increase linguistic security within the French-speaking community of British Columbia.
To support their mission, they have been working in collaboration with FHIS Assistant Professor and linguist, Marie-Eve Bouchard. One important outcome of this collaboration is an educational start-up guide for teachers interested in fostering linguistic security in their classroom. The guide was officially launched on September 26, 2024.
It was created first and foremost as a support tool for teachers of the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique. Many of these teachers come from contexts where French is spoken as a majority language (France and Quebec, for instance). However, French in British Columbia is in a minority (and highly multilingual) context. Therefore, the teaching staff is not fully equipped to understand the challenges that these youth face.
“This guide combines academic knowledge with practical know-how. It highlights the experience of students and teachers, while drawing on existing research in linguistics.”
This educational guide invites teachers to explore the issues specific to the reality of the French-speaking minority community in British Columbia, and how this reality impacts their classroom and the language practices of their students, many of whom experience linguistic insecurity. It is divided into four sections:
- Initiate. It introduces teachers to the sociolinguistic context of French speakers in British Columbia.
- Support. It accompanies teachers step by step as they discover how their students use French and other languages in their everyday lives as well as the challenges they face.
- Explore. This resource is also designed to enable teachers to reflect on their own teaching practices and explore different ways of implementing activities that support the development of linguistic security in their classroom.
- Build. This guide offers a number of activities to connect with students and provide an inclusive space where students can feel safe to speak their own variety of French.
If you want to know more, Prof. Bouchard and Clémentine Creach presented the educational guide on radio (Radio-Canada) on October 1st, 2024.
This project was made possible thanks to a Partnership Engage Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Acfas’s grant from the research cooperation program in the Canadian Francophonie, both obtained by Prof. Marie-Eve Bouchard.
