080980

—Ghnadian Parents for French

Issue No 10 , September, 1980

CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS NEW PROGRAMME

"My government is committed to educate the

children of our province in the official

language of their choice wherever. numbers ; warrant."'- Premier Bill Bennett to the - Montreal Board of Trade, May 12, 1980. ©

During the coming school year, anglophone children in Delta, Kelowna, Prince George, Terrace, Vernon and perhaps other school districts will be receiving 80% of their instruction in French. They are enrolled not in French immersion but in the Programme-Cadre de Francais.

French Immersion

Beginning in Coquitlam in 1968, early French immersion has been offered in a growing number of school districts (.14 in 1979/80). The program has developed over the years until today the standard offering in this province is 100% instruction in French in Kindergarten and grades 1 and 2, with English being introduced as a subject in grade 3. In grades 4 through 7, instruction may be anywhere from 50% to 75% in French, depending on the school district. Coquitlam gives three sub- jects in French in junior secondary, Vancouver four.

Because students are rarely accepted into early immersion after grade 1, a late immersion program beginning in grade 6 was first offer- ed in 1978 in three districts.

Immersion was conceived and developed as a method of teaching French as a second language. Its generally accepted objective is the attainment of a high degree of fluency in French (often called func- tional bilingualism") with no resultant losses in any other aspect of the student"s education.

The decision to offer immersion has always been and still remains completely in the hands of local school boards. The expansion of the program throughout the province has not always gone smoothly, with years of petitioning and direct political action by parents sometimes necess- ary before approval was granted by trustees.

The Programme Cadre

The Programme-Cadre de Francais (, French Language Core Curriculum) was developed by the Ministry of Education in 1977/78 in response to requests for a program of instruction in French for native speakers. All subjects from Kindergarten through grade 7 are taught in French except for English as a second language. Curriculum guides have been written and texts and other learning resources identified which meet all the requirements of the B.C. "core curriculum." Work is underway on the secondary program, with math, science, social studies 4Md French for grades 8 through 12 already available.

As of September, 1979, the Ministry required that wherever 10 or more elementary students @t any grade level requested enrolment the