Multiple Minorities or Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Plurilingual Learners? Re-envisioning Allophone Immigrant Children and Their Inclusion in French-Language Schools in Ontario

Abstract

Four out of five immigrants to Canada speak a language other than English or French as a first language. Immigration is increasingly transforming francophone minority communities. Allophone children acquire minority status on multiple levels within French-language schools, where they can become both a linguistic minority and a cultural minority within an official francophone minority in Canada. This article examines how culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) allophones have been constructed historically through official language and multiculturalism policies in Canada and how this political framing limits language rights and schooling for allophone immigrant children. By examining recent language policies, this article argues that the ways in which policy makers, educators, and researchers conceptualize CLD children shape their integration into Canada. This article draws upon a case study of teachers’ practices with allophone learners in one French-language school to highlight the potential for transformative third-space practices to support CLD children in French-language schools.

Giving Voice to Our Core French Students: Implications for Attrition and the Discourse on the Benefits of Learning FSL in Ontario

“…For these participants, teachers not speaking French or providing English translations to help them understand the French they were exposed often led to them "tuning out [any] French", since they knew the English translation was coming. Finding ways other than translation to connect to students' existing language repertoires aligns with recent research documenting plurilingual practices being implemented in Canada (e.g., Krasny & Sachar, 2017;Lotherington, 2013) and in the FSL context in particular (e.g., Prasad, 2012Prasad, , 2016Taylor, 2016). Ballinger, Lyster, Sterzuk, and Genesee (2017) further emphasize that plurilingual pedagogy in Canadian FSL contexts must move beyond an increased use of English (the majority language) and instead focus on crosslinguistic, biliteracy and language awareness activities that maintain distinct spaces for French (the minority language) to remain the predominant language used by students in the classroom.…”

Children as Co-ethnographers of their Plurilingual Literacy Practices: An Exploratory Case Study

“…I supported students to become co-researchers by purposefully drawing upon creative visual techniques and tools to facilitate their data collection and generation. I have conceptualized this type of collaborative art-informed inquiry as alter(n)ative inquiry: alternative in the sense of drawing on non-traditional but legitimate approaches to research; and, alter-ative in the sense that participant-research collaborators are -changed‖ or transformed through the inquiry in that they take on new roles and identities of power (Prasad, 2009;2012a;2012b). Through their participation in the research activities in this case study, students came to see themselves and each other as unique plurilinguals with valuable insights to contribute to real-world issues pertaining to linguistic diversity, equity and inclusion in school and society.…”

Identité et multimodalité : le cas d’un élève plurilingue dans une école en milieu francophone minoritaire

“…Selon , Vancouver, la métropole de la Colombie-Britannique, figure parmi « les premières métropoles canadiennes pour sa diversité linguistique et culturelle » (p. 11). Cette diversité est présente dans les écoles anglophones et les écoles d'immersion française, mais ce phénomène vient aussi modifier la composition des écoles en milieu francophone minoritaire de la province (pour plus de détails, dans l'ensemble du Canada, voir les travaux de Bouchamma, 2008;Dalley, 2009;Gérin-Lajoie et Jacquet, 2008;Heller, 1984Heller, , 1996Litalien, Moore et Sabatier, 2012;Prasad, 2012). Dalley (2009) suggère que les écoles et communautés francophones en milieu urbain -principalement en Ontario, en Alberta et en Colombie-Britannique -bénéficient de l'arrivée d'immigrants.…”