When Bilingualism Isn't Enough: Perspectives of New Speakers of French on Multilingualism in Montreal

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

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Bilingualism; Multilingualism; French; Foreign Countries; Second Language Learning; Immigrants; Ideology; Language Minorities; Inclusion; Language Attitudes; Labor Market; Citizen Participation; Language Skills; Second Language Programs; Adults; Native Language; English; Barriers; Employment Potential; Security (Psychology); Official Languages; Reputation

10.1080/01434632.2018.1543693

0143-4632

Montreal, the largest city in the province of Quebec, Canada, is where most newcomers settle down. Many will attend one of the 'francization' (French as a second language) courses offered by the provincial government. Learning French and its adoption as a common language are essential conditions to gain social inclusion through participation in public life and the labour market. However, Montreal is by no means a monolingual city with about a third of the population having a language other than French as their first language. Research shows a clear trend toward French/English bilingual elitism [Lamarre et al. 2015. "La socialisation langagière comme processus dynamique : suivi d'une cohorte de jeunes plurilingues intégrant le marché du travail." Québec, QC: Conseil supérieur de la langue française] and towards plurilingual elitism. This ethnographic study investigates the experience of newcomers who attend the 'francization' programme as new speakers of French [O'Rourke, Pujolar, and Ramallo 2015. "New speakers of minority languages: the challenging opportunity - Foreword." "International Journal of the Sociology of Language" 2015 (231): 1-20. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2014-0029]. It analyses the use of their linguistic resources to access eliteness and social inclusion. In a context where public discourse strongly promotes a monolingual ideology, the plurilingual repertoires of newcomers are not always recognised as a valuable resource. However, newcomers' language practices show that their plurilingual repertoire has symbolic and material value beyond the elite French/English bilingualism, thus challenging the boundaries between elite and non-elite linguistic groups in Montreal.

As Provided

2019

EJ1216328