The Role of Plurilingual Pedagogy in Affirming Immigrants’ Identities in Quebec

Lana F. Zeaiter

McGill University

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Immigrants account for over 80% of the Canadian population growth, of which 13.7% are settled in the province of Quebec (Statistics Canada, 2020). In spite of the government of Quebec’s investments in improving French programs to enhance immigrants’ integration, there are concerns about the efficacy of these programs as many of the immigrant registrants who complete the courses are still unable to use French effectively (Gouvernement du Québec, 2018). The root cause for these discouraging results is yet to be determined as the government of Quebec has not performed a program evaluation in years. However, previous research on various French programs in Quebec suggest that French education is problematic for multilingual or minoritized students and raise deep concerns in relation to immigrants’ sense of belonging to the Canadian and Quebecois community (Mady & Masson, 2018; Mady & Black, 2012). This may be particularly due to the lack of inclusion towards multilingual and minoritized students (Magnan & Lamarre, 2016), lack of sufficient teacher education on how to serve multilingual and multicultural students (Querrien, 2017) and overall lack of policy support for inclusion of immigrants (Mady & Black, 2012; Mady & Turnbull, 2010). Accordingly, the provision of language education that prepares immigrants to integrate in Quebecois society while taking into consideration their diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds is crucial. This presentation aims to highlight plurilingual pedagogy (PP) as an alternative model of language teaching that empowers learners in general, and university immigrant learners in particular, to affirm and preserve their identities in a new context. PP nests on perceiving language learners as social agents who have proficiency in different languages and experiences in different cultures (CEFRCV; CoE, 2020). While a vast body of research highlights the positive impact of PP on student identity (e.g., Galante, 2020; Piccardo, 2019; Takeda, 2021), there is a lack of research on how it can support immigrant populations in Canada in general and Quebec to affirm their identities. Such a research orientation would result in creating a curriculum specifically tailored for university immigrant learners and would inform language policies not only in Quebec, but potentially other provinces in Canada, and other countries with similar immigration influx.

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Gouvernement du Québec. (2018). Report of the Auditor General of Québec to the National Assembly for 2017-2018. https://www.vgq.qc.ca/Fichiers/Publications/rapport-annuel/2017-2018-Automne/en_Rapport2017-2018-Fall.pdf.

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