Cardy announces changes to second-language learning in schools

The Department of Education and Early Childhood of New Brunswick announced a series of changes aimed at improving French proficiency among students. 

In a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Education Minister Dominic Cardy said the department has adopted 18 of 24 recommendations to improve second-language learning. 

The recommendations were contained in a report by two commissioners appointed to conduct a review of the Official Languages Act.

"These recommendations align with a variety of work underway for quite some time at the department," Cardy said Wednesday, noting the report's findings echo feedback the department has heard from students, educators, stakeholders and families in recent years. 

The recommendations accepted Wednesday aim to improve second-language learning at early learning and child-care facilities and in the public school system.

Key among the 18 recommendations accepted was the first one on the list: a recommendation to adopt the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) as the standard in second-language and additional-language programs.

"CEFR is an important tool," Cardy said, noting it gives the department "a globally acceptable standard to describe and evaluate" students' progress and proficiency.

The system is recognized globally and describes language fluency on a six-point scale, from A1 – a simple but limited understanding of a language – to C2, the highest level of fluency on the scale. 

French immersion registration will proceed as usual next week for the 2022-2023 school year, and no changes have been announced regarding entry requirements or timing.

Additional funding from this year's budget will also be directed toward prototype projects underway in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 classrooms.

Currently 11 schools have been part of the projects. 

But the province would like to see more schools participate, and will be reaching out to additional schools and early childhood education centres.

Long-standing problems with fluency 

Recent data shared by the province found that nearly half of its students have not reached a conversational level of French.

Furthermore, only a third of Grade 10 students reach either intermediate or higher levels of competency in French.

Retaining teachers and providing "equitable" French-learning opportunities across the province have also been an issue, Cardy said, with 66 of the province's approximately 300 schools not offering French immersion programming.

"Course offerings have not always provided equitable services for Anglophone sector students, and they vary enormously from region to region from rural to urban areas," he said.

The report also highlighted issues with "streaming," which sets up separate learning programs for French and English and places students with others of perceived comparable skill.

"The results of this is we've had students who felt discouraged about their French language learning," Cardy said.

"They disengage from it in many cases, especially in the older years, and we've heard stories like this from family students, school staff ..." 

Work is also ongoing to improve how French is taught to newcomers to the province. 

"One of the challenges we'd have with French language learning was ... the entry points for immersion," Cardy said.

New students often arrived in a year "that didn't match our programming requirements," and were then "completely cut out" of learning the second language or learning it at a higher level.

"That makes no sense at all," he said.

"You've got to have a system that reflects the needs of the students, not the other way around."