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Bilingual Education in Canada

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Bilingual and Multilingual Education

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

Abstract

Bilingual education, for the purposes of this chapter, is defined as a program at elementary or secondary school where two (or more) languages are used as media for content instruction. In Canada, due to the success and popularity of French immersion, bilingual education programs tend to follow an immersion model, described in more detail later. In this chapter, we consider three main forms of immersion in Canada: (1) French immersion (FI), originally mainly for English-speaking majority students, but now also populated by learners from nonofficial minority language backgrounds (Taylor 2010) (2) heritage language (HL) programs for students with backgrounds in nonofficial languages such as Ukrainian, German, and Mandarin; and (3) indigenous language programs for aboriginal students (e.g., students of Inuit, Mohawk, or Cree backgrounds). Despite some differences, in general, each program type respects two fundamental principles: (1) additive bilingualism is the assumption that acquisition of a second language brings personal, social, cognitive, and economic advantage without negative effects on first language or academic development, and (2) learning a language when it is used as a medium of general curriculum instruction (e.g., in mathematics and science) in an intensive and extensive time period is effective. We begin by summarizing early developments in each program type and then describe the evolution of each along with trends in recent research. We conclude by proposing a number of issues that warrant further research.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Second Language Research Institute of Canada, Faculty of Education, University of New Brunswick, Marshall d’Avray Hall, Rm 227 UNB Fredericton Campus, 2 Duffie Drive, E3B 5A3, Fredericton, NB, Canada

    Joseph Dicks

  2. Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Fred Genesee

Authors
  1. Joseph Dicks
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  2. Fred Genesee
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Correspondence to Joseph Dicks .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York, New York, USA

    Ofelia García

  2. Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong

    Angel M. Y. Lin

  3. Faculty of Education and Social Work, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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Dicks, J., Genesee, F. (2017). Bilingual Education in Canada. In: García, O., Lin, A., May, S. (eds) Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02258-1_32

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