Support for bilingualism and learning a second language

Support for bilingualism and learning a second language

The 2024 Confederation of Tomorrow survey revisits the topic of official bilingualism and the importance of children learning to speak a second language. It finds that support for bilingualism as a policy, and interest in children learning a second language, both remain fairly high. And most Canadians outside Quebec who think it is important that children learn a second language also think that the specific language they should learn is French. Support for official bilingualism and interest in children learning French as a second language are both much higher among anglophones who have close friends who are francophone.

The survey confirms, however, that for some Canadians at least, opinions on bilingualism are linked to sentiments of regional resentment. Those who say their own region is treated unfairly in the Canadian federation, or who believe that Quebec is favoured, are much less likely to support official bilingualism. 

Generally speaking, the preferred alternative for those who oppose English-French bilingualism is not another form of bilingualism (or multilingualism), but rather English unilingualism. In other words, a plurality of those who are not interested in having their children learn French do not think it is important for children to learn any second language. This suggests that a focus on English-French bilingualism in Canada is not in tension with the promotion of other languages, and remains the best pathway for strengthening second language proficiency of any kind.

Read the report.

Lisez le sommaire en français.