Les transferts linguistiques chez les adultes allophones de la région métropolitaine de Montréal: une approche longitudinale

The authors use a longitudinal approach to study language transfers to French and English by Allophone individuals (whose mother tongue is neither French nor English) living in the Montreal metropolitan census area. They use data collected by the Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities conducted by Statistics Canada during the Fall of 2006, a few months after the census. This Stats Can survey made possible the collection of retrospective information on the moment (age) and location (in Canada, outside Canada) where the adoption of French or English as the main home language took place. The authors analysed the language transfers for two sub-groups: Allophones (second-generation) born in Canada and Allophones who immigrated to Canada. The authors examine transfer rates for selected variables such as age, length of residency in Canada and historical time (date of arrival). Their conclusions are that the propensity of an Allophone to make a language transfer before arriving in Canada is more important for transfers to French than for those to English. Thus, between birth and age 35, twenty-one percent of Allophones had made a linguistic transfer to French prior to their arrival in the country, compared to twelve percent to English. Second-generation second-language (i.e. Quebec-born) Allophones who have made a language transfer are much more likely to have made it to English (seventy-three percent) than to French (twenty-seven percent), a situation that results in particular from the fact that they and their parents were more educated in English, especially during the period preceding the adoption of the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). The authors' analysis is that the recent historical evolution of language transfers indicates that transfers to English are declining at a pronounced rate, while those to French are stable or slightly increasing. However, recent trends tend to favor an increase in the retention of third-country mother tongues by Allophones.

Cahiers québécois de démographie

Vol. 43

no. 1

5-34

Printemps 2014

fr