French is out of fashion in Rwanda

[CANADIEN]

Then why is it Quebecers must attend a French school up until the end of high school? Or explain what 'compulsory means', for example, how many hours per day of English language instruction students receive or whatever is the case?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Canada

Typical leafless. Posting an inaccurate statement, then posting a link that contradict it. Get your facts straight, will you?

[CANADIEN]

Sorry Macho, English in Quebec as a SECOND language does not compare with the ROC that mostly offers French immersion programs that Quebec does not.

In fact Quebec schools do not even compare with schools in Rwanda, where government wants all academic lessons to be taught in ENGLISH.

Stop the hypocrisy, will you? Everyone knows your pipe dream is to see French disappear from Canada. Fortunately, it will not happen.

It seems Quebec could learn a thing or two from Rwanda.

On how to trample on people's rights to use the language(s) of their country? No need to go there; we have you as a... ahem... shining example.

Even in communist China the official language is standard Chinese, but most buisness people speak English.

And how many of those do you think have abandoned their mother tongue in the process, or have switch to English as their first language? Most likely few. The way it should be.

And everybody who has a clue (that would exclude you) will easily notice that there are plenty of French-Canadian businessmen who can speak English or other languages, while keep French as their first language. The way it should be.

http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/china.htm

[Machjo]

It does not.

In Quebec's French schools, English is taught as a second language. In Rwanda's schools, French (before) and English (now) is the language of isntruction, at the expense o0f local languages. Not the same by any stretch of the imagination.

Thanks for the clarification. In that case, that's just plain linguistic imperialism.

[Machjo]

Ideally the language of instruction ought to be the local indigenous language, otherwise maths, science, etc. all suffer as the pupil struggles to understand instructions in a foreign language. Robert Phillipson's book Linguistic Imperialism is a good book on that subject, showing the economic and other consequences of such policies.

[CANADIEN]

BTW... how manyformer European colonies that have become independant in the past 60 years have switched from having their former colonizer's language as an official lnaguage to having the language of another former colonial power? Biesides Rwanda, the number is...

ZERO

[Machjo]

I've lived in China and I can say that had their English-language policy worked as planned, I wouldn't know any Chinese today. I can state that a very small percentage of Chinese actually succeed in learning English well enough for it to be of any practical use to them.

[Machjo]

By the way, I've read quite a few statistics from Europe, Thailand, India, Canada, etc. and can say that except for areas around interlinguistic corridors such as the region between Ottawa and Montreal and a few regions around there, few really learn their second language well. In many countries the success rate for English to a practical level hovers around the 4 to 7% range, which is pretty dismal if you ask me. Could you imagine getting 7% on your report card?

[Machjo]

And here's a quote from Phillipson in his book Linguistic Imperialism:

"Obura (1986:432)reports that a study in Lesotho shows that primary school leavers have an active vocabulary of 800 words and that 12,000words are needed for science n secondary school. 'This is by any standard a staggering discrepancy. The major significance however of this illustration is that Lesotho may be the only country to have documented this discrepancy in a systematic manner.' This corroborates experience at an international conference in 1986 in Namibia, which endorsed the principle of English across the curriculum but found to its surprise that little work had been done in this area. The fact that ELT has traditionally operated in isolation from thought and practice in general education, is art of the explanation for this failure'."

Linguistic Imperialism by Robert Phillipson, 1992

For any discussion on international language policy, I'd strongly recommend his book. He goes on to describe how those African elites who'd initiated decolonization were often among the most colonized minds in their countries owing to an elite education in colonial schools. Needless to say that they would naturally unconsciously perpetuate the colonial system in their countries even after the colonizers left the country. We can only imagine the economic and technological losses resulting from children being taught science in English in high school when they can't even understand it. If that's the case, that might also explain why former colonial powers have not been able to catch up to their former colonial masters economically over the years. This is also a clear endorsement for instruction in the mother tongue whenever possible, as an economic, scientific, political, and technological imperative in any advanced country. If all in Quebec were forced to study in English, Quebec would face the same problems; the same by the way would apply if English-speakers across Canada were required to receive instruction in French. It just does not make economic sense.

[Machjo]

But Leafless, if you are interested in discussing international language policy, I would strongly recommend the following books:

Linguistic Imperialism by Robert Phillipson (Professor of applied linguistics in Holland)

English-Only Europe? Challenging Language Policy by Robert Phillipson

The Language Challenge by the late Claude Piron (native speaker of Esperanto, former UN interpretor from English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Mandarin to French, and later professor of Psychology at the University of Geneva, Switzerland).

These are just some of the books available in English that I would recommend. The following on-line resources (again available in English) might suffice for a start:

http://www.hltmag.co.uk/sep05/mart05.htm

http://www.linguapax.org/

http://en.allexperts.com/e/p/pr/propaedeutic_value_of_esperanto.htm