:
Mr. Chair, I would like to thank you for the invitation to appear before your committee this morning. It is a privilege for us, as representatives of the Association canadienne d'éducation de langue française, to be able to share our viewpoint with the members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
The Association canadienne d'éducation de langue française (ACELF) has been around for 65 years now and has contributed to developing French-language education to maintain the vitality of francophone communities in Canada. The ACELF is a leader in bringing together stakeholders by encouraging dialogue and reflection on current issues in education, primarily through an annual convention and through the publication of a scientific journal called Éducation et francophonie. In addition, we are sensitive to the needs of education networks, and we are aware of the dual mandate of francophone schools in minority situations. We provide them with training activities and educational materials that are always on the cutting edge in areas involving francophone identity and the sense of belonging to a contemporary and inclusive francophonie.
If you take a look at our association, you will see a Canada-wide network of members from all walks of life. We bring together stakeholders from all sectors in education, from early childhood to post-secondary education. These stakeholders work in educational institutions, for school boards, for associations, and with teacher and parent groups.
To develop its guidelines, the ACELF also relies on a board of governors, which includes stakeholders elected from four Canadian regions—Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, and western Canada and the territories—and representatives from the 13 ministries of education of our Canadian provinces and territories. Those two features are unique to us in the world of French-language education; we have members across Canada, including Quebec, and representatives from each of the 13 ministries of education.
In terms of funding from the federal government, our association receives substantial financial support from the Department of Canadian Heritage. And we are very grateful for that. First, this financial support enables us to organize a nationwide annual convention that brings together Canada's major players in French-language education. It is actually the largest multi-network meeting in Canada's francophone education community.
This funding also enables us to offer continuing education to early childhood professional staff and to the staff of French-language schools in minority settings. Since implementing the internship program 25 years ago, 1,609 stakeholders have been able to benefit from it.
In addition, this funding allows us to publish a journal specialized in French-language education.
Furthermore, the funding helps us support young francophones aged 11 to 14 to participate in an exchange with young people from another francophone community in Canada. In over 25 years, almost 5,380 students have benefited from this cultural and educational experience.
Lastly, this money allows us to develop educational materials for francophone schools, helping to build the francophone identity of young people and their sense of belonging.
In terms of funding from the roadmap, the ACELF has not benefited from it directly. Actually, the grants we receive do not come directly from the roadmap budget. But, since almost 75% of our funding comes from programs under Canadian Heritage, we think we have some ideas on future priorities that may be of interest to you.
As for a new federal official languages support strategy, the ACELF wishes to affirm its support for the community strategic plan developed under the leadership of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada. The ACELF is a signatory to this leaders' forum and supports its implementation.
But today, we would like to talk about what we know best, which is French-language education. So we would like to take this opportunity to tell you about some of the major issues that need to be considered in order to better support the education sector. I would also like to mention that these issues were formally identified by our network.
The four issues that I am going to present to you already receive attention from our association, given that our three-year action plan for 2011-2014 includes many initiatives along those lines.
The first issue has to do with developing early childhood resources and expanding family services. This challenge pertains not only to education, but also to the entire community and the organizations that provide services to the francophone population. Early childhood clientele must be at the heart of priorities in order to secure the long-term future of francophone communities. The recent study done by researcher Rodrigue Landry provides evidence to that end. The study “Petite enfance et autonomie culturelle” shows beyond any doubt that early childhood is the foundation for the vitality of a minority language. To achieve this, it is important to take action early on to develop a child's francophone identity. As a result, the actions taken by parents, institutions, the community and governments have to build on each other to advance towards the same goal. Appropriate resources and infrastructure must also be accessible.
With its partners from the Table nationale en développement de la petite enfance francophone, the ACELF is already committed to making early childhood and family services a priority for action. In addition to the continued training offered annually to early childhood professional staff, the ACELF and its partners have developed a number of educational tools and have a host of other initiatives in mind for the coming years, including an interactive Internet site for exogamous families to help them develop their children's francophone identity.
The second issue is to expand professional development that deals with the specific nature of teaching in minority settings. Teaching in French in a minority setting requires teachers to have specific skills. As we know, young people who live in francophone minority communities evolve in a physical, social, artistic and even virtual environment that is predominantly anglophone. So these young people don't have enough opportunities to live in French. As a result, teachers must come up with special strategies to overcome this challenge.
Not only does the need for specific skills hold true for teaching school subjects, but it is even more true for developing the francophone identity of these young people, since, may I remind you, French-language schools in minority settings have a dual mandate. In addition to academic learning, schools must support identity building by encouraging young people to have a strong sense of belonging to their language and their francophone culture. In terms of this identity-building mandate, the initial training offered to teachers is still not sufficient. To improve this aspect of teacher training, some faculties of education have some very promising initiatives, but we must also think about continuing education for the approximately 13,500 teachers and 1,000 principals who work in our schools. It is important for them to have opportunities to hone their skills.
Organizations like ours produce specialized educational materials for teaching in a minority setting. Although all the players in the education community recognize the quality of those materials, we don't have the tools we need to make all those resources known and to provide training.
Furthermore, several nationwide training initiatives are being implemented. I have in mind two projects sponsored by the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC). First, the cultural approach to teaching will allow teachers to help young people discover important and meaningful aspects of the collective francophone culture, whatever the subject studied may be. There is also the online training project that was developed by the Fédération canadienne des enseignantes et des enseignants. And there is the Trousse du passeur culturel, for which training is still required.
Those are just a few examples, but they clearly show that the movement to develop the skills of staff working in a minority setting is well under way. At the same time, they show that it is crucial to invest the funds needed to ensure that training for using those resources is available, depending on the various service delivery methods.
The third issue involves developing cross-cultural skills among stakeholders and young people. Canada has always been a land of immigrants and, over the past few years, this phenomenon of enrichment has been growing. The arrival of this diversity has significantly marked most francophone communities and many of our schools. In order to foster an inclusive environment, it is important to develop cross-cultural skills among young people and stakeholders in school networks.
By cross-cultural skills, we mean developing attitudes and skills that encourage the in-depth knowledge of one's culture and the culture of others, with a view to build a pluralistic and renewed collective francophone culture.
The fourth issue has to do with promoting the personal development of young people so that they become more involved in the Canadian francophonie. As a result of a wide range of activities, many young people are already working towards developing their francophone community. In order to encourage all young people to become more involved, it is important to give them the opportunity to have various personal experiences that will help them to become more familiar with the various facets of our contemporary francophonie; understand the issues that affect the future of our francophonie; be able to have personal opinions on the issue and make decisions consistent with their opinions; get involved based on their interests and talents; and take action that will contribute to the well-being of other members in the community.
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Good morning. Thank you very much. The Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF) is pleased to respond to the invitation to present our testimony. Joining me today is Mr. Ronald Boudreau, our Director of Services to Francophones.
At the outset, we wish to stress that we appreciate your open-mindedness in wanting to better understand the challenges surrounding the official languages, although it seems as if the whole exercise has gradually turned into a consultation process in view of a federal strategy. We would be remiss if we did not mention that we would have hoped for a more formal consultation mechanism if indeed the presentations made before the committee were to lead to the next roadmap.
Moreover, the Sommet des communautés francophones et acadiennes (Summit of Francophone and Acadian Communities of Canada) held in June 2007 laid the foundations for strategic planning by minority francophone community partners, including the CTF. The Government of Canada should give special consideration to the strategic community plan that grew out of the summit and involve in a special manner those stakeholders who speak on behalf of their members while encouraging the development of structures that would strengthen the autonomy of minority communities.
The CTF represents approximately 200,000 teachers through its member organizations. Of these, over 10,000 work in minority French-language schools and approximately 8,000 in English-language schools in Quebec. Given this particularity of our membership reflecting both Canadian linguistic minorities, we are confident that we can bring a balanced perspective to a federal official languages support strategy.
Let us first emphasize that the notion of equality between both official language communities will be at the heart of our presentation. The CTF has for a long time defended the rights of its members and advocated for a just and equitable public education system in Canada and throughout the world. However, we are increasingly aware that even though schools provide an unrivalled development tool to ensure the preservation of languages in minority settings, they cannot counter on their own the effects of linguistic assimilation.
We have just published a survey prepared by the researcher Diane Gerin-Lajoie that compares the reality of francophones living in minority settings and that of Quebec anglophones, also a minority group in that province. This study confirms, among other things, that the visibility of the minority language and culture in the public space has an important impact on an individual’s connection to identity. Not surprisingly, identity building has become one of the key elements of the francophone communities' mandate. It is however disturbing to think that the lack of French in the public space can bring young francophones to question the relevance of their mother tongue when the time comes to contemplate their future.
We will therefore focus in this presentation on some of the many challenges related to living in French in a sustained manner in minority settings, while recognizing that the development of the next federal official languages support strategy will also foster the preservation and full development of Quebec's anglophone community. Our presentation will also include a few recommendations in three areas that are particularly dear to our hearts as teacher representatives.
The first area is early childhood and welcoming measures. In 2004, the CTF published a study entitled Teachers and the Challenge of Teaching in Francophone Minority Settings. A high percentage of teachers reported the dominance of English in their communities as one of the main challenges they were facing. This situation is greatly exacerbated by key demographic considerations: the rural depopulation weakens regions where the concentration of francophones is highest; and the growing number of francophones living in urban settings is also having a direct impact on their escalating assimilation.
Two other factors must also be considered: the recruitment of children of rights-holders and the welcoming of newcomers. Teachers in French-language schools fully support the efforts being made by all stakeholders to welcome the largest possible number of children entitled to a French-language education in their schools, but they are deeply concerned over the diversity in family backgrounds, especially when these children speak little or no French upon their enrolment in French-language schools.
Teachers also greatly support the intake of children of immigrant families, but worry about the lack of measures to support these families both at the school and community levels. The linguistic challenges are obvious, but there can be other equally important concerns.
In the summer of 2007, the CTF commissioned a study on the intake of immigrant families into French-language schools. The research demonstrated just how poorly prepared minority communities are for welcoming newcomers, whether into the school system or in the community.
This gives rise to two observations. First of all, the next federal official languages support strategy must provide substantial support for early childhood development, which is the avenue most likely to be able to support recruitment efforts in French-language schools. Furthermore, this component of the strategy must go hand and hand with a set of welcoming measures, both at the school and community levels, so that the children of rights holders, as well as those from immigrant communities, will be able to contribute to the francophonie and to Canadian society as a whole.
We recommend that the federal official languages strategies invest in intake and support initiatives of those generations wishing to renew their ties with French or for immigrant families wanting to enrol their children in French-language schools. We also recommend that it promote the establishment of French-language early childhood centres across the country to prepare children for their active participation in French-language schools and in the francophone community generally.
The second challenge has to do with new technologies. Education in French in Canadian minority settings makes sense only in an economic framework that gives it an equitable place. Parents who choose to send their children to French-language schools do so in part because of their attachment to the language, but also in the hope that the next generation will be provided with more opportunities to live in French in every sphere of human endeavour. The driving force behind young people's decision to continue their education in French-language public and post-secondary schools is the opportunity to work in their language or to benefit from their bilingual skills.
The CTF is concerned about how little attention is being paid to technology in the measures to support official language communities. We released last year the results of a survey involving more than 1,600 French-language school students on technology and building a francophone identity. Given our previous comments on public space and resulting concerns, we are disturbed by the lack of opportunities to communicate in French through technologies since they are the media most widely used by young people throughout the world. We therefore believe that the federal official languages strategy must promote increased French-language content on the web and infrastructures that monitor, update and renew information. We also believe that the government must support innovative initiatives for the use of technology in areas like networking, distance education, language learning and dissemination of cultural content.
The third challenge has to do with research support. For the past 15 years, children have been educated in French in communities where several generations before them would never have dreamed of the possibility. Thus the advent of French-language school governance by the francophone community, sometimes after a hard-fought battle, marks an important turning point in the history of Canadian bilingualism. The empowerment of the francophone community in education has yielded sound results. It is contributing to the progress of bilingualism and to respect for cultural diversity across the country. The Government of Canada needs to learn lessons from this experience and to try to apply it in other areas. This empowerment of the community cannot take place without relevant information on the realities and challenges that are at the heart of the French-language schools’ mandate.
Therefore, we cannot overemphasize the importance of research for the advancement of language communities, particularly in minority settings. The numerous studies conducted by the CTF received solid support in the past from the federal government through the Department of Canadian Heritage. These studies and surveys enabled us to better understand the realities of communities and to intervene more coherently with young people on whom rests the future of Canadian bilingualism.
The federal official languages strategy must support research and dissemination of knowledge so that decisions and investments are based on reliable data that would be likely to yield results.
To conclude, the CTF is one of the national organizations to have followed the lead of the Canadian government with respect to bilingualism and the modernization of its structure. Our federation defines itself as bilingual in its operations and publications, and serves organizations whose membership reflects Canada's linguistic duality.
We are proud to contribute in a significant manner to the development of our country and of the values that make it strong and unique, both at home and abroad. Much remains to be done to give language minorities all the elements they need to live in French on an everyday basis. This is what drives our actions as a Canadian federation, and we can only hope that this will equally be the driving force and ultimate goal of the Canadian government in the development of its next official languages support strategy.
Thank you.
Thank you for being here, gentlemen.
Mr. Taillefer, thank you very much for your presentation. I especially want to thank you for the first two paragraphs of your brief. In the first paragraph, you say you would be remiss if you did not mention that you had hoped that the government would hold a proper consultation. I fully agree with you. A committee like ours is in no way equipped to conduct a professional consultation, since the atmosphere is sometimes very politically charged and we have only two hours a day, twice a week. That does not constitute a professional consultation.
This decision by the government came at midterm. We actually learned about it three months after we began our study and had met with people. So we have questioned witnesses without even knowing that our mandate was to hold a proper consultation for the purposes of studying the roadmap. I think this shows the government's contempt for the committee and our communities. I thank you for highlighting that.
Furthermore, I'd like to thank you for talking about the 2007 Summit of Francophone and Acadian Communities of Canada. I took part in that summit as an observer. It was a real exercise involving the entire community and its constituents. All the organizations, everyone signed the plan in the end. So I think that the government could draw inspiration from that for the renewal of the roadmap, which has already been decided, as announced by Bernard Valcourt in Newfoundland and Labrador. He said that the funding for the next roadmap would be reduced. I don't know why we are being asked to continue to carry out this exercise, but we are going to do it.
You both talked about welcoming newcomers, and I thank you for that. Since we are being asked to hold a consultation, I am going to do so. I am going to send you a report. In the previous Parliament, the committee did a study on immigration that was not completed. It had done some good collaborative work. The committee had tabled the report to Parliament. However, the government called an election before it could respond to the report. The committee of the current Parliament has not yet looked at the report again nor obtained a response from the government regarding its recommendations, which basically touch on the points you are raising. I am going to send it to you. Would you please respond to this report so that the committee can at least benefit from your knowledge and your concerns in this respect? It's true that it's important for the future of education in our communities. So I thank you for raising this point. I'll send you the report once I'm back in my office. I also see that my assistant, who is in the room, is taking notes.
You also spoke about early childhood. Could you please briefly give me your comments because I want to take the rest of the time to talk about education. Early childhood is part of that. The federal government had signed agreements with all the provinces, and each of them involved early childhood for linguistic minorities. In each case, the linguistic minorities had applauded these agreements, but the first thing the new Conservative government did in 2006 was to announce that it would abolish these agreements. Could you please comment on this?
Mr. Chair, dear members of the committee and partners, I wish you a good day.
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Caroline Turnbull. I work with the New Brunswick Ministry of Education and Early Childhood Development, francophone sector. I also serve as vice-president of the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers, the CASLT. It is in this capacity that I am here today.
Mr. Michael Salvatori, president of CASLT, registrar and chief executive officer the Ontario College of Teachers, deeply regrets not being able to attend and sends his most cordial greetings.
I'm accompanied by Guy Leclair, executive director of the association, and Mr. Hilaire Lemoine, executive in residence at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute, University of Ottawa. Mr. Lemoine is treasurer of CASLT, and it is in this capacity that he is here today.
The Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers has been in existence for more than 42 years. Its mission is to foster professional excellence in the teaching of second languages in Canada. It is composed of over 3,000 members. Its organizational structure, representative of all Canadian provinces and territories, allows it to be present throughout the country.
[English]
Over the years, the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers, CASLT, has endeavoured to meet the needs of its members with regard to professional training, educational resources, sharing of ideas, and exchange of information.
Today, new needs emerge. New technology, multilingualism, multiculturalism, and internationalization are much more prevalent in the classroom, adding new challenges to teachers' tasks. It goes without saying that the services, activities, and resources of CASLT evolve within this Canada-wide context. Besides striving to enhance our teachers' skills and the quality of education, CASLT aims, first and foremost, to reinforce students' second language acquisition and to ensure that our young citizens become bilingual and contribute in an exemplary fashion to Canadian society in the 21st century.
As a national association, and with the help of support programs for official languages offered by the Department of Canadian Heritage, CASLT also leads important national projects, creating synergies and partnerships that support its mandate. These achievements benefit not only our youth but also all stakeholders in education. I would like to present to you two major initiatives currently undertaken by CASLT that illustrate this work.
[Translation]
The first example is the Common European Framework of Reference. As its name indicates, the framework was created in Europe and aims to establish common references for teaching, learning and assessment of second languages. This reference tool offers several advantages. Please refer to appendix 2, which gives an exhaustive list of these. This framework allows us to establish common uniform levels of language competency applicable to primary, secondary and post-secondary schools, as well as to the workplace, throughout Canada and around the world.
It focuses on communication in action, autonomy and self-directed learning throughout one's lifetime. It therefore facilitates interprovincial international mobility, and transition to the workforce. These assets appeal to students and parents who see the framework's relevance and significant added value.
Although CASLT is a national leader with respect to promoting the framework, many people have worked, and continue to work, towards its implementation. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada studied the framework in depth and wrote a guide for its use in the Canadian school context. The Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training adopted the framework and curriculum development for official second language programs within the four Atlantic provinces.
And the Minister of Education in British Columbia developed a language curriculum based on the framework in 2010. Various ministerial departments, school boards, councils of ministers, schools and teachers throughout Canada have adopted, and continue to adopt, the basic elements of the framework. Through the work of CASLT, the idea of the systematic implementation of the framework is growing throughout the country.
A second example is the creation of forums and national steering committees implemented by CASLT in order to foster dialogue among all stakeholders and research institutions, for example with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, with the Institute of Official Languages and Bilingualism, University of Ottawa, or the Second Language Research Institute of Canada, University of New Brunswick.
These interactions may focus on, among other things, the evolution and effectiveness of certain teaching methods or programs, such as basic or intensive French, or the tendencies related to best practices for utilizing technology in second language teaching.
Disseminating results of these discussions can enrich knowledge, not only for teachers and school administrators, but also for researchers, public policy analysts and decision makers, within the Ministry of Education, the federal government, professional teachers associations, etc.
[English]
The evolution and advancement of bilingualism as well as the promotion of linguistic duality in Canada are certainly not perfect yet. These are important and long-ranging national projects that progress constantly, albeit with certain delays, but overall, the work that is done is commendable.
For example, only a few years ago we were focused on ensuring the transition of second-language students from primary to secondary school. Today we are working to ensure their transition from secondary school to post-secondary education and to the workforce. This being said, we need to continue our efforts, since this imposing project is not yet completed. Still today there is a lack of second-language teachers, the second-language teaching profession is still undervalued, and needs for professional training, educational resources, and best practice sharing are still acutely felt.
Funds granted through Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality and other programs offered to the provinces and territories by Canadian Heritage have allowed us to maintain and sometimes to broaden second-language programs offered in schools and in teacher training institutions. However, there is still much to accomplish in order to revise and update certain curricula in line with new language-teaching and learning practices. We need to ensure that teachers have the necessary tools and opportunities for continuing education and that administrators are well aware of teachers' needs and of new second-language teaching methods. This is where associations like CASLT can intervene.
While we are very grateful for the financial support received from support programs for official languages offered by Canadian Heritage, we note that despite investments made by the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality, to our knowledge there has been very little new funding granted to associations such as CASLT that work towards promotion, development, effectiveness, and excellence of programs for teaching official second languages in all Canadian schools.
[Translation]
In this day and age, it is essential to be bilingual. We need to offer our young people a second language education that will allow them to be competitive, both nationally and internationally. Public and private sectors increasingly look for this type of skill in young employees. Our schools bear the responsibility of preparing our young people for this new reality.
Education professionals who are entrusted with the responsibility of teaching and guiding our young people, including the learning of official second languages, must have the resources, the necessary training and support that will allow them to offer quality education to our young people, something to which they are entitled as Canadian citizens. In this context, CASLT is committed to continuing its work with second language teachers and education professionals, enabling them to play a key role in this project which is so important to our society.
[English]
In closing, we would like to suggest five recommendations we believe are essential to providing quality second language education for all students across the country.
One is a clear federal leadership with respect to bilingual competence in our students at all school levels, particularly at the end of secondary school, by renewing and enhancing agreements with provincial and territorial governments, providing increased support to second-language teaching associations, and by renewing a multi-year strategy such as the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality.
The second is a sustained financial commitment that will allow the implementation of a Canadian framework of reference for second-language teaching and learning based on the Common European Framework of Reference.
[Translation]
The third recommendation is increased funding for research, for the development of innovative language teaching methods and for the development of initial and continuing training programs for second language teachers.
The fourth is a national campaign to promote the second language teaching profession to young bilingual graduates pursuing university studies.
The fifth is financial support for a campaign to disseminate new research on bilingualism, demonstrating its numerous and diverse benefits with respect to intellectual capacities, mental health, international mobility, professional advancement, etc.
Thank you.
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What do , , and have in common? All these members of Parliament have French immersion in common, either as a teacher or a student. We could also include in that list the young Canadian athletes who managed to charm viewers in both languages during the recent Vancouver Winter Olympics.
My name is Philippe LeDorze, and I work in the Pembina Trails school district in Winnipeg as a language coordinator. I am speaking to you this morning as president of the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers, the CAIT. Our board of directors is made up of people from across Canada, all united by their love of education and the French language. Some are francophones whose mother tongue is French and others are francophones whose mother tongue is English. Our association has been around for about 40 years, since the birth of your predecessor, which was borne out of the official language support programs, now Canadian Heritage. We are pleased to take part in your consideration of the roadmap, and we want to contribute through our expertise, that is to say French immersion, which is an exemplary model of learning French as a second language in Canadian schools throughout the country.
And what progress we've made in 40 years! Approximately 350,000 young anglophone Canadians are registered in French immersion. Never before have there been so many Canadians able to express themselves in English and French as today. Almost 18% of Canadians can speak English and French, compared with 13% in 1971. The rate of bilingualism in young people 15 to 24 years of age has gone from 18% in 1971 to 23% in 2006.
Learning a second language even contributes to health. The most recent studies have shown that bilingual individuals are less affected by cognitive illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease. French as a second language programs are growing in Canada, and it's thanks to a 10% increase in French immersion programs in recent years. Immersion is increasing almost everywhere in the country. In some provinces, immersion programs are unfortunately like a lottery: only the lucky will have access to them. We deplore that. Parents who choose French immersion for their children should have the right to it, regardless of where they live.
Immersion is and will remain the most effective program for learning French as a second language. Students attain high skill levels in French as an added value, meaning it doesn't affect their mother tongue or their knowledge in other subjects. So it is desirable to maintain and broaden access to these programs, because demand is growing in many regions.
We want to highlight the importance of the roadmap throughout the country and point out a number of examples of success that can be traced back to the roadmap. The roadmap lays out the values of the Canadian government with respect to languages. It states quite clearly how important English and French are to the country and, at the same time, concretely shows its support for linguistic duality. The education of young Canadians in French immersion guarantees a bilingual future for our country, a future where the added value of French and English also values the other languages spoken in Canada.
[English]
All kinds of projects have been made possible by the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality. In no particular order, here is a very small sample that speaks to the presence of French as an official language in the west. One example is the creation of a French-language resource centre in Grande Prairie, Alberta, whereby several school districts cooperate to better meet the needs of the French-language learners, both first-language learners and second-language learners. As well, there is the participation of young Canadians in the creation of cultural content through Immersion Clip, a video contest run by ACP and the University of Ottawa. The themes developed by these young bilingual Canadians over the past few years were Canadian citizenship, perseverance, the meeting of cultures, and, this year, essential democracy.
[Translation]
Another project involves a collective creation by six schools in my school board, namely, an original song titled Notre école. This project was directed by Damien Lussier, a local songwriter from Manitoba.
There is also the Boréal film festival in northern Manitoba. It involves a partnership between the Flin Flon school district and Freeze Frame, which shows video and animation to young people learning the language of Leclerc, Tremblay and Lavoie.
The importance of creating in French strengthens the seriousness about learning French in young people. The roadmap makes this possible.
Through roadmap funding, the CAIT publishes a journal and electronic newsletter for immersion educators. More than 6,000 people receive these publications.
The CAIT organizes training days for teachers in the region and days for new teachers. We met with more than 500 people in 2011.
The CAIT organizes a national convention. In recent years, between 500 and 1,000 immersion teachers from across Canada have attended.
The CAIT organizes competitions for students. Over 150 students submitted a clip or a poem in 2011 as part of our poetry and Immersion Clip competitions. Thanks to partnerships, we are offering scholarships to the winners.
The CAIT provides support to teachers on our website and our blog. Over 1.5 million people visit our website annually.
The CAIT is the advocate for the Diplôme d'études en langue française au Canada. To carry out this role, we have developed information kits, information sessions, DELF symposiums and done research.
The CAIT published an oral competencies framework, which has been downloaded over 150,000 times. We have also produced a book entitled 70 activités motivantes de communication orale, published by Chenelière. This project has been very successful. The CAIT is currently working on a framework for written competencies.
Lastly, not too long ago, we published some research entitled "Pourquoi les nouveaux enseignants d'immersion ou de français langue seconde quittent-ils la profession? Résultats d'une enquête pancanadienne".
Let's talk about challenges and avenues for action. The CAIT believes that the roadmap is really important for education in French. Continuing the roadmap reaffirms the Canadian government's commitment to linguistic duality. The roadmap is a compass that guides us and also helps us to measure the road taken, to know the status of bilingualism in Canadian society.
I would like to use this forum to propose a few courses of action to you. We need to continue to invest in French as a second language education and build on the success of immersion by allowing a larger number of Canadians to become bilingual. It is extremely important to facilitate access to immersion programs for Canadians in urban and rural areas, to allophones and children with learning difficulties. Immersion is for everyone.
We need to enrich what's offered in the French immersion program at the secondary school level to motivate young people to stick with it. Moreover, this would involve investing in the education continuum by equipping post-secondary institutions with programs that promote bilingualism and linguistic duality. The universities have a big role to play in training young bilingual people to help the public service in recruiting the some 5,000 bilingual employees it will need each year in the future.
We need to encourage research and its dissemination, and provide tailor-made training opportunities for French immersion and French as a second language teachers. We need to encourage the provinces and territories to gradually align the curriculum of second language programs with the competency scales of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the CEFR.
We also need to take steps to create a national tool for assessing French language skills, calibrated against the common framework of reference, that covers the various sectors, including the school, university and even professional sectors. The CAIT would be happy to manage this national project with the participation of one or two ministries of education and partners such as the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers. The Canadian expertise is there; we just need to bring it together and coordinate it to create this new Canadian tool.
Lastly, this also involves promoting the creation of bridges between francophiles and francophones.
To conclude, allow me to reiterate the importance of the roadmap. Let's celebrate its many successes and, very soon we hope, we will be able to delight in future successes that we will all be proud of. The Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers remains at your full disposal if you need information on education in French in Canada. Happy trails to the Standing Committee on Official Languages in creating the next step.