Clé d'ouverture sur le monde ou langue de Lord Durham? Analyse de cadrage du débat public sur l'enseignement intensif de l'anglais, langue seconde, au Québec

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Clé d'ouverture sur le monde ou langue de Lord Durham? Analyse de cadrage du débat public sur l'enseignement intensif de l'anglais, langue seconde, au Québec
Abstract
The author studies the role played by the “myth” of English as the global language in framing the debate on the intensive teaching of English in Quebec schools between 2011 and 2015. Due to its hegemony around the world, some researchers describe the discourse that constructs English as the universal language as a "myth." In the unique sociolinguistic context of Quebec, where the French and English languages have coexisted and competed for a long time, the author suggests that this myth influences the framing of linguistic issues and government policies. She notes that in some debates surrounding the teaching of English in Quebec, there is a tension between two ways of framing the teaching of English: some describe it as a “key to opening up to the world,” a promise of individual success and social mobility; on the other hand, others see it as the "language of Lord Durham," a dominating language whose expansion, particularly in the Quebec context, threatens the French language and the feeling of collective identity. The author focuses on the framing of the public debate in Quebec surrounding the announcement of a mandatory intensive English program policy in schools, between February 2011 and 2015. Using a three-phase mixed methods research design, the author begins with a historical survey tracing the genesis of the frames and myths emerging from different public debates on the teaching of English. She then uses a qualitative analysis to list the different frames and describe framing and reasoning devices that compose them. Finally, she undertook a quantitative automated content analysis of documents from sources involved in the debate to validate and measure the frames’ presence in this public debate. The author maintains that her results underline the central and polarizing nature of the issue of the teaching of English as a second language in Quebec history and shows that it represents a terrain for a long-lasting ideological struggle. She observes a weak dominance of the globalizing master frame and notes that this instrumental and universalizing perspective is not specific to recent debates, but that it has been expressed throughout Quebec's history. The author also contends that her study shows the strength and resilience of the nationalizing master frame in Quebec even though she observes signs of a decline of the myth of “English as Lord Durham’s language.” Finally, she shows that in the Quebec debate, the myth of “English as the global language” provides a cultural resonance effect to the frames which mobilizes it. It allows actors to anchor their arguments in a widely shared historical narrative and conveys a certain communication ethos. It thus provides a moral evaluation grid of the issue which makes it possible to legitimize the dominant position of English in the world and, by the same token, to justify the adoption of policies favoring its teaching.
Type
PhD dissertation
University
Université Laval
Place
Québec
Date
2020
# of Pages
xvi-352p.
Language
fr
URL
Citation
Hébert, Virginie. “Clé d’ouverture sur le monde ou langue de Lord Durham? Analyse de cadrage du débat public sur l’enseignement intensif de l’anglais, langue seconde, au Québec.” PhD dissertation, Université Laval, 2020. https://corpus.ulaval.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/612647c9-63fa-4811-b132-da03803a4d91/content.
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