In May of 2000 over 170 delegates attended the second "French Immersion in Alberta: Building the Future" conference. This was an opportunity for them to explore the practical strategies needed by decision-makers responsible for their French immersion programs. Following are excepts from the address by Guest Speaker Dr. Claudette Tardif as it appeared in the summer 2000 edition of the CPF Alberta & NWT News.
French immersion and postsecondary institutions: Making the link
The challenge is how to prepare our young people with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to work in the global, knowledge-based society and economy of the 21st century. In my opinion, multilingual skills as well as cultural understandings are essential. … I’ve just returned from a fund development trip in Montreal and there had the opportunity to meet the Presidents and CEOs of eight major firms, firms in the area of telecommunications, technology, natural energy, transportation, and banking. All of these companies have established international links, whether it be in Brazil, Argentina, France, Sweden, Brussels, Taiwan, Hong Kong, to name but a few. And in all cases, they are desperately looking for, of course competent people, but people who are at minimum bilingual, and preferably multilingual.
We’re really seeing an increase in both language-centered jobs and language-related jobs. … A language-centered job is a job where people use their language ability as the primary skill; for example, a teacher, a translator, an editor. We’ve been focused a lot on preparing students for language-centered jobs. We must go beyond.
There is also the whole area of language-related jobs, jobs in which knowledge of language complements other skills, whether you’re in the business field, in government service, in law, the social and physical sciences, the media, the health professions. We’re seeing now an attempt, if you like, to decompartmentalize language learning, where language is not just for the linguist, is not just for the teacher, is not just for the translator — it’s where you’re combining language study with other programs.
Canada’s built a reputation for being a world leader in the field of immersion. It’s been 30 years now that we’ve had experience in immersion across Canada, 25 in Alberta. It’s time to establish a new threshold.
What is that threshold? Immersion programs can lead by example, by helping students become bilingual and aspiring to become multilingual. No other educational program in the country can lay claim to having such an advantage. With the experience and the knowledge that we’ve gained, we can move forward. Why limit it to two languages? … Get the base, get the French and English going at the elementary level, and then bring in the third language at the secondary level. This is the new threshold, and there is no one better than every one of you sitting here today, the leaders of your educational systems, to get that going, because building on two languages, immersion programs can provided a competitive edge, and that’s the language advantage, and that’s what we need so badly in the 21st century.