Children of Canada's Official Language Minority Communities and Canada's Official Languages

In 2006, Statistics Canada conducted a post-censal survey aimed at evaluating and describing the vitality of Canada's "Official Language Minority Communities" or OLMC. Using this survey data based on responses from their parents, the author describes the experiences of "OLMC children" based on four components: the linguistic socialization of the children in the family and extra-familial environments; the linguistic behaviour of the children; their knowledge of the official languages; and their official language skills. The data covered 5,240 children considered "English-speakers in Quebec". Among the author's findings are that among English-speakers in Quebec: the official language most commonly spoken to children in the home is English in 60% of the cases and French in 40% of the cases; 34% read books or tell stories to the children only in English or in English more often than in French while 38% read books or tell stories only in French or in French more often than in English; 51% of children watch TV, videocassettes, and DVDs exclusively in English or in English much more than in French; 52% use English exclusively or more than French on the internet; and 52% participated in organized sporting events held exclusively in French (38%) or in French much more than in English (14%) and 24% participated in organized sporting activities in French and in English equally, while only 24% participated in organized sporting activities held exclusively in English or in English much more than in French. The author found that 47% of the children speak English most often with their siblings at home, while 53% speak French with their siblings most often at home. Speaking with their friends, these children speak exclusively in French 46% of the time, English and French 21% of the time, and solely in English 33% of the time.

Life in an Official Minority Language in Canada

Moncton, NB

Institut canadien de recherche sur les minorités linguistiques/Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities

October 2014

25-90

en

978-1-926730-36-3

life_official_minority_language.pdf