L'insécurité linguistique chez les élèves d'immersion française en Saskatchewan

Abstract

Although French immersion program has been quite successful over the last few years in Saskatchewan due to the number of students enrolled in the program, many students in the program demonstrate a lack of confidence in expressing themselves in French. This PhD thesis attempts to provide a better understanding of linguistic insecurity among French immersion students in Saskatchewan while drawing on the perspectives of students and teachers; perspectives such as these are not clearly reflected in most studies on linguistic insecurity among French immersion students in Canada. The qualitative and quantitative data collected from students and teachers lead to the conclusion that, generally, most French immersion students in Saskatchewan have a positive attitude toward French language, and they consider their experience in the program a positive one. However, despite their enviable level of proficiency in French, some of them are not always confident to express themselves in French in certain circumstances, especially outside of a well-structured French class. This lack of confidence does not necessarily stem from a low level of proficiency in French but rather from the lack of opportunities to interact in the language. This is exacerbated by native-speaker ideologies as well as other factors such as the preconceived notion that French is only useful at school, the negative judgment others have of their language skills. As a result, students do not appreciate their enviable level of proficiency in French, make less effort to speak it and display less confidence in identifying as bilingual and as part of the French-speaking world. This situation negatively impacts the achievement of the objectives and the maintenance of the principles of the French immersion program, thus affecting the development and promotion of French in Saskatchewan. According to this study, to alleviate linguistic insecurity among students, it is imperative to focus, among other things, on creating several opportunities for students to interact in French and on explicitly teaching French grammar and vocabulary through an enjoyable approach. Key Words: Sociolinguistics, French immersion, linguistic insecurity, language norms, linguistic variation, sociolinguistics for change, French as a second langue, second language acquisition, French immersion ideologies