Conclusion

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General findings of the report
A few objective measures of vitality
Use of languages in daily activities
Language and use of health care services
Children's school attendance
Sense of belonging and subjective vitality
Survey on the Vitality of Official Language Minorities: follow-up

The purpose of this report was to highlight a few of the main findings of the Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities (SVOLM). Another goal was to present various factors either directly or indirectly included in the concept of vitality. That concept has a number of dimensions, only some of which were examined in the survey.

Of the many themes that could have been analysed, this report focused on four: the sense of belonging and subjective vitality; use of languages in daily activities; access to and use of health care services in the minority language; and lastly, the school attendance of children with one parent who belongs to the official language minority. These themes were selected based on the importance attributed to them by researchers, decision-makers and members of official language minority communities, as well as their potential to explain or influence how these communities evolve.

The results drawn from the first theme are of particular interest. This is the first time that a Statistics Canada survey has collected information on perceptions or subjective assessments of the situation of official language minorities. The second and third themes are also of key importance, since there is now detailed information on the use of the languages in a large number of social domains associated with the public sphere. The data on public language use thus serves to enhance the information already available in the Canadian census.

Lastly, information on the theme of school attendance is also of great interest in that schooling the young in the minority language is considered by many to be key to the future of official language communities in a minority situation. For the first time, very detailed information is available on the characteristics of children who attend minority schools and whose parent belongs to the official language minority.

General findings of the report

This report highlights the results on at least two dimensions of the vitality of official language communities: an objective dimension and a subjective dimension. We will begin with the first of these.

A few objective measures of vitality

The results of the survey enhance the information available in the census, since the survey includes data on individuals' main language, that is the language in which they are more at ease. Main language plays a key role in observed language behaviours: it results from them as well as guides them.

The survey results tell us, for example, that among French-speaking adults who reported speaking English most often at home (38%), nearly three-quarters report being more at ease in English than in French and another 16% report being equally at ease in the two languages.

Also, data from the survey indicate that adults who have French as their mother tongue and are aged 25 to 44 hence, mainly those of an age to have young children and who live in a French-English exogamous couple relationship, and who report speaking English most often at home, are very unlikely to have begun using that language at the time of forming an exogamous union. In fact, 70% of them reported having begun speaking English most often at home before age 20, including 48% before age 13, i.e., before entering secondary school.

Like many previous study findings, the results of the survey highlight the influence of the social environment both on language behaviours and on perceptions regarding the vitality of official language communities in a minority situation. Thus, the survey results suggest that the linguistic makeup of the place of residence has a major impact on the language in which individuals report being most at ease. For example, the survey shows that nearly 60% of French-speaking adults who live in municipalities where they comprise less than 10% of the population, 45% of the total, report being more at ease in English than in French. In municipalities where they comprise 70% or more of the population, 18% of the total, 91% of French-speaking adults report having French as their main language. In the case of English-speaking adults in Quebec, the main language is a less useful piece of information for analysis purposes, since almost all of them report having English only as their main language.

Use of languages in daily activities

These factors shed light on many of the language behaviours measured in the survey. In Quebec, the vast majority of English-speaking adults aged 18 and over have that language as their main language, whereas outside Quebec, the exposure of many French-speaking adults to English from early childhood affects language behaviours both within and outside the home. While Quebec's young English-speakers are also exposed to French, notably through French immersion programs, this influence appears to have little effect on the language in which they feel they are most at ease.

Outside Quebec, the report shows that the predominance of French in daily activities is a reality only in certain regions of New Brunswick and of Ontario bordering Quebec. In the various provinces and territories excluding Quebec, 23 % of French-speaking adults use predominantly French in their daily activities. This proportion rises to 42% when those who report using French and English equally are included. Of course, in all provinces and territories, those who report being more at ease in French than in English make greater use of French than of English. Also, it is observed that in general, the higher the relative weight of French speakers within the municipality of residence, the greater will be the use of French in the home, with friends, within immediate networks, at work, in contacts with different institutions that provide services, and in the media.

In Quebec, the results of the survey show quite clearly that English-speaking adults make substantial use of English in their daily lives. While nearly two-thirds of them report that they use English preponderantly in their daily activities, that proportion rises to 85% when those using English and French equally are included. Also, the survey results show that in Quebec, the use of English by English-speaking adults is generally less dependent on their relative weight within their municipality of residence than is observed with respect to the use of French by French-speaking adults outside Quebec. Even when they comprise only 10% to 30% of the population within their municipality of residence, 60% of English-speaking adults use English preponderantly in their daily activities.

Language and use of health care services

The information on the use of health care services paints a similar picture. Within French-speaking minorities, 8 adults in 10 report having a regular medical doctor. Of those who consulted that doctor in the twelve months preceding the survey, 35% reported using mainly French with him or her. Similar proportions are observed for use of the services of a nurse or another professional consulted in the other places usually gone to in order to get care (hospitals, clinics, community health centres, etc.).

In Quebec, the results of the survey show that for the roughly 80% of English-speaking adults who reported having a regular medical doctor, 72% reported using only the minority language in their visits to that doctor. However, the proportions were lower (around 50%) for contacts with a nurse or another health care professional.

The survey brings an important dimension to the study of factors likely to have an effect on getting health care services in the minority language, namely the subjective dimension. Thus, in Quebec, nearly 75% of the English-speaking population reported that they considered it '"very important" or '"important" to get health care services in English. Among French-speaking adults outside Quebec, the corresponding proportion was 53%. However, among French-speaking adults with French as a main language, 80% assigned importance to getting health care services in French.

Children's school attendance

The information collected on children's school attendance is especially important in that it gives a picture of the probable linguistic orientation of the younger generations.

The survey reveals that among children with at least one French-speaking parent, 49% attend a French-language elementary or secondary school, while another 15% are exposed to instruction in French via an immersion program in that language. Among the children of "ayant droit" parents, these proportions are 52% and 15% respectively. By comparison French-language school attendance is less than 15% among children whose parents are not rights holder, the majority (71%) attend a regular English instruction program.

The parents' mother tongue influences the choice of a school. The vast majority (88%) of children whose parents are a French endogamous couple attend a French school compared to 34% of children whose parents are a French-English exogamous couple.

The main language of the French-speaking parent sheds another light on the choice of the language of instruction. Outside Quebec, 41% of children have at least one parent with French as a main language. Of these children, 80% attend a French school and 7% are registered in an English school in a French immersion program. Conversely, the respondent parents of 41% of children have English as their main language. Of these children, 21% attend a French school and 18% are registered in an English school in a French immersion program.

Finally, the French-speaking parents of 35% of children registered in a French immersion program reported that they would have preferred their child to be registered in a minority school. The corresponding proportion is 42% for children registered in a regular program of instruction in English. The proximity or availability of the school as well as the quality of the program explain in part why the child does not attend a minority school.

In Quebec, nearly half (49%) of children with a least one English-speaking parent are registered in an English-language elementary or secondary school. Among children with at least one English-speaking parent who attended elementary school in English in Canada, 64% were attending an English school at the time of the survey, compared to 31% who were attending a French school.

While the criterion of the parent's mother tongue does not apply in Quebec as a condition of eligibility of children for English school, it is important to note that of children whose parents are an English endogamous couple, nearly 80% attend English schools. Of those whose English-mother-tongue parent is in an English-French exogamous union, 37% attend English schools. Lastly, the results of the survey reveal that of the roughly 87,000 children registered in English-language schools, approximately half are registered in a French immersion program.

Sense of belonging and subjective vitality

The subjective dimension of vitality examined in this report reveals quite an interesting picture, in that some results on perceptions contrast sharply with the findings on language behaviours.

In Quebec, while one English-speaking adult in two reports identifying primarily with the Anglophone group, 40% of adults report identifying both with the Anglophone and the Francophone groups. Outside Quebec, 34% of French-speaking adults report identifying mainly with the Francophone group, while nearly one in two adults reports identifying with both Francophones and Anglophones.

Outside Quebec, 78% of French-speaking adults report that it is '"very important" or '"important" for them to be able to use French in their daily life. This finding contrasts sharply with the fact that nearly 4 persons in 10 report having English as their main language and the fact that very few French-speaking adults report using mainly French in their daily activities. In Quebec, 87% of adults reported that they assigned importance to being able to use English in their daily life.

Even though French is not very present in the daily activities of many French-speaking adults, a very large proportion of them say that they assign importance to linguistic rights being respected in their province and to the provision of federal government services in the minority official language. Similar but slightly higher proportions are observed in Quebec.

These results on the theme that we have named '"sense of belonging" appear to show a strong sense of belonging and attachment to the language and the minority group. This leads us to the theme of subjective perceptions on the vitality of official language communities in a minority situation.

English-speaking adults in Quebec appear to have less optimistic perceptions than French-speaking adults outside that province. Whereas 26% of the latter report that the presence of French has increased in their municipality in the past ten years, the corresponding proportion is 19% for English-speaking adults in Quebec. Also, for the latter, 35% report that the presence of English has diminished, compared to only 20% of French-speaking adults with respect to French. Quite similar results were obtained regarding the future presence of the minority language over the next ten years.

Finally, while we had found that English-speaking adults in Quebec make substantial use of English in their daily activities, 42% of them report that the vitality of the Anglophone community is strong or very strong in their municipality, yet more than one adult in four reports that this vitality is weak or very weak. By comparison, outside Quebec, the proportion of adults who report that the vitality of the Francophone community in their municipality is strong or very strong is 41%, compared to 31% who report that it is weak or very weak.

Survey on the Vitality of Official Language Minorities: follow-up

This report touched on only some of the themes and issues concerning official language minorities. Those requiring a closer look include early childhood and development of early literacy in the minority language; linguistic trajectories from childhood to adulthood; the linguistic dynamics among household members within the home; language practices at work; mobility; immigration; various themes relating to the labour force; and many others.

Further analyses could, for example, shed light on the factors that affect the use of the minority language in the home. In cases where it is not used, what are the main factors that make this so? Considering how many families are exogamous, what type of use of the minority language prevails in these families? To what extent does a knowledge of the minority language by the spouse from the majority group influence the use of the minority language in the home? When the majority language dominates in the home, to what extent is the minority language nevertheless spoken by one of the parents with the children? Theoretically, the use of the language in the home should be related to the value assigned to it, the perceived importance of it being spoken by the children and the subjective ethno-linguistic vitality of the respondents.

The interest shown in the theme of early childhood should also give rise to analyses drawing on SVOLM data. This interest lies primarily in the fact that the parents' choices as to whether or not to transmit the minority language and culture will have an undeniable influence on how official language minorities evolve and their future.

Not only do parents' choices affect intergenerational transmission, but they also influence the children's language practices from early childhood and their language retention. For example, to what extent do parents from OLMs choose to expose their children to the minority language and culture, whether through the use of the language in the home (language spoken, television viewing), the development of early literacy in French (reading with or without parents), participation in activities in the minority language outside the home, or attendance of daycare or childcare centres? Apart from the region or province, what distinguishes families where the children are transmitted the minority community's linguistic and cultural heritage from those where this is not the case?

When parents have young children, the linguistic choices made in the home have a decisive effect on participation in the minority language community by its youngest members.

Further analyses on the theme of school attendance should provide answers to the following questions: What link can be established between the type of school attended and the presence of the minority language in the home? What is the relationship between these schooling choices and the sense of belonging to the OLM or its subjective vitality? The case of exogamous couples is certainly the most interesting, since this phenomenon is quite widespread outside New Brunswick. What distinguishes exogamous couples who choose to send their child to minority schools from those who choose majority schools (with or without immersion)? Also, it would be useful to know more about the link between the parents' linguistic and identity profile and the choices that they make for their children.

This survey therefore proves to be a unique tool for getting a better grasp of the situation of official-language minorities. Despite its limitations, it has great analytical potential. It offers many research opportunities, and hopefully these will add to the findings of the many studies already carried out on this vast subject.