So They Want Us to Learn French: Promoting and Opposing Bilingualism in English-Speaking Canada
Matthew Hayday
Since the 1960s, bilingualism has become a defining aspect of Canadian identity. And yet, today, relatively few English Canadians speak or choose to speak French. Why has personal bilingualism failed to increase as much as attitudes about bilingualism as a Canadian value?
In So They Want Us to Learn French, Matthew Hayday explores the various ways in which bilingualism was promoted to English-speaking Canadians from the 1960s to the late 1990s. He analyzes the strategies and tactics employed by organizations on both sides of the bilingualism debate. Against a dramatic background of constitutional change and controvery, economic turmoil, demographic shifts, and the on-again, off-again possibility of Quebec separatism, English-speaking Canadians had to decide whether they and their children should learn French. Highlighting the personal experiences of proponents and advocates, Hayday provides a vivid narrative of a complex, controversial, and fundamentally Canadian question.
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About Matthew Hayday
Reviews for So They Want Us to Learn French: Promoting and Opposing Bilingualism in English-Speaking Canada
Bruce Douville, Algoma University
Canadian Journal of History
Hayday’s work is a careful account of the English Canadian response to the Official Languages Act and French immersion programming that effectively illustrates the divisions of public opinion on these controversial programs. It is a valuable addition to our understanding of the evolution of English Canadian opinions regarding Canadian identity, official bilingualism, and national unity.
Jack Cecillon, Glendon College
Historical Studies in Education
...So They Want Us to Learn French. Promoting and Opposing Bilingualism in English-speaking Canada est à la fois informatif mais aussi symptomatique d’un problème profond et souvent occulté que peu de politiciens canadiens osent regarder en face.
Yves Laberge
The Journal of Canadian Studies