In the 1980s, a call for comprehensive changes in how schools at the local level contributed to student achievement in the U.S. resulted in the emergence of the concept of standards-based schooling (Chatterji, 2002). According to Volante (2007), standards-based schooling in Ontario followed in the 1990s, providing opportunities for public scrutiny on how tax dollars are spent in education, while at the same time supporting and nurturing excellence at all levels of schooling through the development of raised academic standards and tools to measure students’ abilities to meet these standards. Now 25+ years into a province-wide conversation about accountability, student achievement and educational reform, this epoch of schooling in Ontario presents unique challenges and opportunities in French as a second language (FSL) learning contexts (Core, Extended and Immersion). These challenges may be specifically acute for teacher preparation, since preparing pre-service teachers with the discipline-specific knowledge and the pedagogical knowledge they will need to enable their future students to learn is of primary concern to teacher educators (Johnson, 2009).
In 1997 a standardized and norm-referenced curriculum from K-12 in Ontario introduced mandated content standards and performance standards to assess and evaluate all student achievement in every subject in primary and secondary school, and at every grade level, including French as a Second Language (FSL). Two million students from the beginning of Kindergarten to the end of secondary school in Grade 12 are required to learn a common curriculum. Through all FSL programming formats ranging from Core French (least intensive language learning at 40 minutes per day), Extended French (French language arts and one additional subject in French) and French Immersion (a minimum of 50% of subjects learned in French), the new FSL curriculum “helps prepare students for their role as active and engaged citizens in today’s bilingual and multicultural Canada” (Ontario FSL Curriculum, 2013a, p. 7). Beginning in 2014, new and revised FSL curriculum documents in secondary schools (Grades 9-12) meant students and teachers in Ontario have access to the most comprehensive FSL programming ever seen in the province. These changes to the FSL curriculum are welcome additions because they are a potential step forward in achieving increased bilingualism in Canada.
French is a compulsory curriculum subject from Grades 4 through 9 in Ontario, and the least amount of French a student may take from Grades 4 through 8 is in the Core French program, where by the end of Grade 8 students amass a minimum of 600 hours (40 minutes per day, 120 hours per year). Extended French requires that 25% of the total of a student’s instructional program be delivered in French, meaning that a minimum of 1260 hours of French will have been accumulated by the end of Grade 8. French language arts instruction, along with one other subject, is selected from the following list of possibilities: the arts, social studies (Grades 1 to 6) or history and geography (Grades 7 and 8), mathematics, science and technology, and health/physical education. There is flexibility accorded to school boards in terms of entry point and total number of hours in the Extended French program, so school districts can explore program delivery options that work for their community.
French immersion programs in Ontario offer a minimum of 50% of instruction in French at every grade level, for a minimum total of 3800 hours of instruction by the end of Grade 8. FSL must be studied, as well as two additional subjects in French, from among a list of subjects such as the arts, science and technology, health and physical education, mathematics, social studies (Grades 1 to 6) or history and geography (Grades 7 and 8). Many immersion programs begin in Grade 1 with 100% immersion until Grade 3 or 4, when instruction in English language arts begins. French immersion programs that begin English instruction at this point typically introduce subjects in English, until half (50%) of the instructional program is delivered in English by the end of Grade 8.
Content standards address the “what” of the provincial FSL curriculum, and like other subjects, FSL is published as a separate curriculum document. Both “General” and “Specific” expectations outline the knowledge and skills students are required/expected to demonstrate by the end of each year. Performance standards in Ontario are based on a student’s achievement of the content standards, and are outlined in an achievement chart found in the document. Given that clear and specific standards to assess content knowledge and performance in FSL exist, along with a multi-million dollar practice of large-scale mandated assessments,[1] it is surprising that information about students’ acquisition of FSL proficiency is not available to students, parents or teachers.
However, there is an additional piece in the FSL assessment puzzle: the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). Bill 30 established the EQAO in 1997, the same legislation that requires students enrolled in all publicly funded schools to participate in large-scale provincial assessments. This arms-length organization develops, administers, and reports annually on the results of the large-scale assessments they produce, based on the Ontario curriculum for all students in publicly funded schools. However, EQAO does not assess French, and its near exclusive testing in English may even provide significant challenges to those students in French immersion.
Students who study in English are tested in English in reading, writing and mathematics at Grades 3 and 6. In secondary school they are tested in mathematics at Grade 9, and the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) is administered to students in Grade 10. FSL immersion students are tested (in French) in mathematics at Grade 3, and thereafter are evaluated in English, regardless of whether they have ever studied math in English and despite the fact that they have learned at least 50% of their subjects in French from Kindergarten or Grade 1 to Grade 6, 8, or beyond, in secondary school. In other words, FSL immersion students are not currently assessed in the French language outside the classroom context; neither in reading, writing, listening or speaking.
Thus, without provincial tests or proficiency benchmarks, the mandate is that all Ontario schools follow the FSL curriculum and undertake assessment and evaluation for the primary purpose of improving student learning. The FSL curriculum (2013a) explains that teachers’ assessment practices must “be fair, transparent, and equitable and must support all students with special education needs, those who are learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit” (Ontario FSL Curriculum, 2013a, pp. 22-23). Assessment procedures are to be clearly communicated to students and parents at the beginning of the year or beginning of the course and on an on-going basis, and students are meant to be given multiple and varied opportunities to show the full capacity of their learning over a period of time. The new FSL curriculum mandates increased emphases on oral communication in a variety of social settings; it highlights the value of cultural and linguistic diversity; and implements the explicit teaching of effective language learning strategies (e.g., making predictions before reading a text, and discussing the meaning of an audio clip with a partner to clarify understandings).
A highly useful companion document to the FSL Curriculum (2013a) is the Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12 (2013b). This document was conceived of to “strengthen FSL education in Ontario by supporting English-language school boards in maximizing opportunities for students to reach their full potential in FSL” (Ontario, 2013b, p. 38). The Framework for FSL (2013b) is important because it explicitly links the FSL curriculum in Ontario with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The CEFR is a comprehensive document of some 375 pages that constitutes an all-inclusive approach to language assessment through a departure from performance benchmarks or standards, to a set of linguistic descriptors. In this way, the CEFR promotes an interesting approach to language proficiency in that it outlines descriptions of proficiency according to linguistic behaviours. This approach to language learning puts the focus on the learner because it allows language users to make sense of their own context in order to determine the most appropriate language learning choices that align with their needs.
The last decade has seen the CEFR adopted both around the world and in Ontario where the Framework for French as a Second Language in Ontario Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12 (2013) aligns itself with the CEFR. This framework is of pivotal importance because in this province the reality is that it is currently possible for students to complete years of FSL education destined for teacher education programs offered in their second (or third, or fourth) language without the necessary skills to learn what they need to learn in the TL, French (Mady, Black, Fulton, Hart, Hawkins, & Lukaszuk, 2010). Without necessarily being equipped to understand and do what is being asked of them in French, future teachers may populate classrooms in HE planning careers as FSL teachers without having the knowledge and skills to plan for, manage and ensure their own successful French proficiency development, let alone the proficiency development of their future students.
[1] $33 million (CDN) in 2009-2010
