Canada is a country with two official languages - English and French. The official majority-minority status of each language varies across provinces and territories because language policy falls under federal jurisdiction, while education policy is set by province/territory. Instructional mandates to teach Canada's two official languages vary depending on the primary language of schooling – for example, English language school boards must offer mandatory French as a second official language (FSL) programming to all students. In such contexts, the FSL programming varies from short daily language classes (i.e., Core French) to more immersive programs where both language and content are taught in French (i.e., French Immersion) (CPF, 2019).
This presentation focuses on the preparation of future FSL teachers for English-dominant contexts in Canada, where schools are becoming ever more diverse in terms of students with multilingual backgrounds (Statistics Canada, 2017). In the context of this study (Ontario, Canada), English is considered the majority language in the school community, and French is assigned official minority status. It is commonplace for FSL teacher candidates and teachers to teach in both French and English as part of their teaching assignments (e.g., teaching both French and English sections of an immersion program; teaching Core French part time and the remaining time in English, etc.). Calls have been made for teacher education that prepares future teachers for language diversity in majority language classrooms (Barros et al., 2021; Viesca & Tennant, 2019). Recently in Canada, the role of plurilingual approaches (e.g., Clark, 2011; Arnott, et. al., 2017) and translanguaging (e.g., Lau, et. al., 2017; Lau, 2020) in FSL classrooms has garnered much debate (e.g., Ballinger et al., 2017; Davis, et. al., 2021). However, the extent to which Canadian FSL teacher candidates embrace similar/different plurilingual stances relative to their teaching of Canada's two official languages is yet unknown.
In response, this presentation compares qualitative data documenting FSL teacher candidate beliefs about teaching for diversity during two courses taken as part of their teacher preparation programs: (i) FSL didactic courses; and (ii) courses focused on teaching English learners in mainstream English classrooms. Data was gathered at two Canadian universities via online survey responses (n = 68), semi-structured interviews (n= 20) and reflective assignments (n = 15).
Findings point to a spectrum of openness to adopting a plurilingual pedagogical stance depending on whether one is teaching the official majority or minority language in multilingual classrooms. Specifically, participants indicated feeling more open to adopting a plurilingual stance when teaching in the majority language (English) versus the minority language (French). These findings suggest the need for a more integrative plurilingual stance to support FSL teachers in Canada as they adopt a holistic approach to teaching both official languages in multilingual school settings. Implications for teacher education for diversity in Canada and other multilingual contexts, as well as ongoing empirical, theoretical, and practical considerations of how the complexities of different contexts can be leveraged to support plurilingualism and translanguaging in the language classroom will be discussed.
