More handpicked essays just for you.
Bilingualism as a part of Canadian identity
Language shapes society
Bilingualism as a part of Canadian identity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Bilingualism is the ability to communicate and write in both of Canada’s official languages, English, and French. In addition, 72 percent of Canadians supported English-French bilingualism which is as a part of Canadian culture(Baluja and Bradshaw, June 22, 2012). The reason why, in Canada, bilingualism was adopted owes to its status as a colony. Over time immigrants came to use the dominant language, which was English. With the defeat of France, England and English became the dominant power. As a result, the Royal commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was made in the 1960’s. Most products and advertisements are labeled by the commission roles along with guaranteed access to service(See, 2011). Bilingualism is one of the parts of linguistic history and identity and has an economic advantage for Canadians. While bilingualism has increased over the last 50 years, bilingualism in the last decade slightly decreased(Dion, May, 2013, p.4). In addition, over the past 20 years, young anglophones outside Quebec has decreased to learn of French from 53.5 percent to 44 percent(2013, p.5). Some Canadians claim that the number francophone has steadily decreased. Again, most Canadians …show more content…
have become monolinguals English. Besides, students learning bilingually is expensive as is paying for services. In the Globe and Mail’s view, “The Fraser Institute’s January study showed taxpayers foot an annual bill of $2.4-billion for federal and provincial bilingual services.”(2012). Despite these setbacks, these are three key reasons to support bilingualism. The first reason is that English and French are still the first and second most widely spoken languages, despite multiculturalism and the use over 200 mother tongues in Canada, French and English have and should retain official status.
According to the 2011 Census, 57.8 percent of Canadians are anglophone and 21.7 percent of Canadians are francophone(2013, p.3). For example, Graham Fraser, who is Canada’s Commissioner for Official Languages, said, 450,000 Canadian-Ukrainian immigrated in Western Canada in 1951. The third-generation people use to speaking English and French as their dominant language(Quoted in Baluja and Bradshaw, 2012). Thus, other languages use by immigrants in Canada have usually disappeared by third generation. This is why institutionalized multilingualism is
impractical. The second, many Canadians believe that bilingualism is an important aspect of Canadian identity. The Globe and Mail’s responses survey showed that 57 percent of Canadians agreed bilingualism is necessary for Canadians. In addition, 53 percent of Canadians said they speak both English and French(2012). According to Stephen Dion said, Canada is one of the unique countries whose citizens can speak fluent both official languages(2013, p.8). Therefore, bilingualism in Canada has to be kept to preserve Canadian identity. The last, using English and French as major official languages in Canada should be an edge for Canadians as this ability gives several economic advantages in Canada. Almost all Canadians(84%) believe that both speaking two main lingua franca makes it possible get a good job(2012). Many Francophone Canadian employers find jobs outside Quebec. Even worse, in eastern provinces’ bilingualism is the strongest(2012). Moreover, Canadians who are bilingual work to need both official languages speaking government and companies including overseas companies. Thus speaking both English and French languages in Canada should be promoted since bilingualism can contribute to the Canadian economy. In conclusion, some Canadians argue that French in Canada as an official language is unnecessary because francophones have slightly decreased. However, most Canadians assert that bilingualism is one of the most important Canada identity, a part of history, and a necessary ability for improving Canadian economic power. As a result, Canadian bilingualism should be maintained and encouraged due to Canadian national identity, the history of Canadian languages, and economic benefits.
Au Canada on compte probablement plus de 60 langues autochtones. La plupart des autochtones possède l’anglais ou le français comme langue maternelle et parlent à la fois une langue autochtone, d’autres n’ont qu’une connaissance passive de leur langue ancestrale. On estime qu’au moins 80 % des langues autochtones du Canada seraient actuellement en voie d’extinction. Les efforts menés pour sauver les langues autochtones sont cruciaux pour la protection de l’identité culturelle et la dignité des membres des Premières Nations du Canada ainsi que pour garder de leur héritage.
Although Quebec is in Canada, a majority of Quebecers do not identify with the national identity of Canada. Both societies create a sense of identity as well as nationalism (Hiller, 295). Hiller mentions two approaches to assessing Canadian identity; the unitary approach and the segmentalist approach (Hiller, 277). The unitary approach suggests that society consists of people who regardless of their ethnic back ground, identify as belonging to the national society, while the segmentalist approach concentrates on groups and communities that share racial, linguistic, occupational, or cultural similarities (Hiller, 28). While most Anglophones are more unitary or pan-Canadian, Quebec heavily identifies with the segmentalist approach. This dissimilarity of identity perspective may be problematic for the country, at the same time however, it can also be viewed as a struggle where contradictory parties find a way to compromise and reshape Canadian society together (Hiller, 277). Canada’s former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made it his objective to unite Quebec with the rest of Canada. In 1969 Trudeau’s government implemented Bill C-120, otherwise known as the Official Language act, which made French an...
...to identity with at least one of the countries predominate languages, English or French, dictated the degree in which they could participate in Canadian life. According to the Commission, this participation was real under two conditions: “that both societies, the French-speaking as well as the English-speaking, accept[ed] newcomers much more rapidly than they have done in the past; and that the two societies willingly allow other groups to preserve and enrich, if they so desire, the cultural values they prize[d]” (RCBB Book 1 xxv). It creates an interesting take on the acceptance of those “othered” groups, as change was necessary not only on the part of the minorities but also from Canada’s French and English-speakers. The Commissions work remains focused on language and culture, more so than ethnicity amongst a bilingual, bicultural and “othered” Canadian society.
Source I is a quote from the Paris Peace Talks by British Prime Minister; Lloyd George, where he states a desire for Germany to suffer. This line was said after the end of World War I, where nations met up to discuss the Treaty of Versailles or the treaty to end World War I. In that treaty, it claimed that Germany was responsible for the war and included all the punishments for Germany. Britain and France wanted to make Germany hurt, in return from all the losses it’s caused them, like death of loved ones and damaged property. Squeezing an orange until its pips squeak, means to apply intense pressure on one, until it suffers or in Germany’s case, becomes economically and militarily weak. The Treaty of Versailles harshly punished
Any person, place or event that has held the honour of being commemorated in Canada has been recognized of an extreme importance to the country. It is impossible to research commemoration in Canada without reading about world war one and two; The great wars are arguably the most commemorated events in History let alone Canada. Understanding this they are not the only events that receive attention from Canada, the government recognizes many other occurrences as, well, anything from Sir John A. Macdonald day on the 11th of January to the anniversary of the statute of Westminster on the 11th of December. I do not believe that any one event can be placed above or below another, and that they all hold a value in whatever way that may be. This Essay
• "French Language in Quebec and is it changing?." - Online Party of Canada. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. .
Bilingualism can be defined as the ability to speak and/or write in two languages. In Australia English is the main language although in 1996, statistics show that 15% (2.5 million people) of the Australian population communicate in a language other than English at home and 42% of the population is born overseas (Australian Bureau Statistics, 1996). Most recently there are around 22 million Australians that speak in approximately 400 different languages (Australian Bureau Statistics, 2009). These statistics highlight the fact that there is an increasing rate of people who communicate in more than one language hence language is increasingly changing throughout society (Arthur, 2001). This suggests the need for support and understanding of bilingualism within children, families and the community.
Donegan, Craig. “Debate over bilingualism.” CQ Researcher. 19 January 1996. 6, 49-72. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.
Achieving unity within a country is the most fundamental and central goal of a nation. In order for a county to unite, they must first achieve unification in what values they hold to be important. They also need to be in accordance with one another as to how the country works and how they wish to be governed. These factors help create a region's identity and make it different from areas around it. It is a goal most difficult to accomplish due to the discrepancies between cultures, religions, personal beliefs and many other factors that may exist in that area.
Bilingualism, a very controversial topic to debate in today’s United States. People generally define bilingualism as the ability of using two languages that individuals have. However, this is not the reason why that bilingualism becomes such a debatable issue. In this case, bilingualism is defined as the government’s use of languages other than English for public services in order to support the immigrants’ lives in the United States. People who support bilingualism want the government to continue having this kind policies. They think that bilingualism helps immigrants to assimilate into the American culture and moreover, it will unify everyone who are on this land. Although bilingualism provides some kind of benefits toward immigrants, they cannot solve the problems in the deep root. Bilingualism should not be continued in the U.S. Why? It reduces the immigrants’ incentive to learn English, threatens national unity, and costs so much.
French Canadians play a huge role in Canadian society, for it to separate is unimaginable. Canada is known as a multicultural and acceptance land. Yet, the hypocrisy comes in as the belief of Quebec sovereignty rises. Over the course of history, there was much unrest between the Anglophones and francophones, which leads to an unstable relation between the two ethnic groups today. In the past, the English-speaking community were always much more larger and tended to exercise control over the French-speaking community. This caused the French-speaking citizens to question the authority and protest against all English government political ideas and policies. The unfair treatment felt by French Canadians shaped them into nationalists who needed to stand up for themselves in an English dominated society. In terms of the future of Canada, French and English Canadians can eliminate idea of separatism, as long as they agree to work together and put their pasts behind. Ultimately, the aim of this letter is to make citizens aware of the glass ceiling that exists between the two groups and potentially Quebec and Canada will finally unite.
However, as of 2011, only 18% of the population in Canada labeled themselves as being able to conduct a conversation in both of Canada’s official languages. Even though most speakers are unilingual, the countries province of Quebec has over 42% of it’s inhabitants who identify as bilingual. In between the years of 2001 and 2011, the rate of bilingualism grew slower than it has in the past. The lack of French as a Second Language being taught in schools, and the fact that there are less French people immigrating to Canada is believed to be the cause of the bilingual decline. As expected, language minorities are more apt to be bilingual in Canada due to pressure from both language groups that surround them. It is also an interesting fact that the majority of bilinguals are 10-19 years old. Again, the younger generation feels pressured by speakers of both languages to speak using a particular language in certain situations. Even though both French and English are the official languages of Canada, English is the lingua franca. English is considered to be the more prestigious language, and is used for business and trade throughout the country. This distinction, however, lead to discrimination of the French speaking population in the past, and they even received up to 35% lower wages than their English speaking counterparts (Lepage & Corbeil, 2013). Even though French is not widely spoken in
Bilingual education is a method to teach non English speaking students. Also it may used to teach English speaking student a foreign language. There are various initiatives in the country towards the abolition of bilingual education as a method of instruction in schools as most of the states such as Arizona, California, Massachusetts, and even Colorado campaign against it (Rossell, 2003). However, critical analysis of the propositions indicate that they are culturally biased, politically unsound, pedagogically inaccurate, and in violation of the federal legislative acts because bilingual education entailing the instruction in one’s native language either as a transition to English language or total bilingual fluency is an ideal educational
Firstly we must look at the linguistic dynamic in which French operates in North America and Northern Africa. In North America, Canada is the largest community of francophones outside of France. With a population of 28.1 million, more than 9 million Canadians speak the French language, of which 25 percent are native speakers (L1) and 11 percent are second language speakers (L 2). The geographical distribution of francophones is not even, mostly concentrated in the re...
Bilingualism is an occurrence whereby an individual has the fluency in or use of two languages. As Mackey (1962) states that a wider definition of bilingual is one who uses two or more languages to communicate. It is a product of multicultural residences as an individual learn and acquire a language other than own native language. In the Malaysia’s English as a Second Language (ESL) primary classroom context, the concept of bilingualism among the young learners is the use of two distinct languages specifically Malay and English languages in teaching. One of the solid reason to inculcate bilingualism in the Malaysia education is to instill an integration and equality among multicultural members in the community. There are few factors that could affect bilingualism among the young learners likely age, motivation, environment as well as the role of the first