Section 3: Use of languages in daily activities

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Section 3.1 Description of variables and development of language use indices
Section 3.2 Results for indices
Section 3.2.1 French-speaking adults outside Quebec
Section 3.2.2 English-speaking adults in Quebec
Section 3.2.3 Language practices according to weight of official-language minorities within municipalities
Reference
Notes

The approach adopted in this section draws on the study by Landry and Allard (1994). The language practices of members of official language minorities in various social domains are highly dependent on the status of the languages in contact, as well as on institutional support and the demographic capital that these groups possess. Landry and Allard use the concept of "social domain" as defined by Fishman (1965, 1972) and Cooper (1969), which designates "a set of congruent social situations in which language behaviour is governed by a common set of behavioural rules".

Drawing on the work of Landry and Allard (1994), we identified six social domains in which we measured the extent to which the languages were used. For members of official language minority communities, these six domains were first conceived as representing a continuum of progressively closer contacts with the culture of the majority language group. One of these domains is the home and the languages spoken in it. This "domain" is used as a point of comparison with the use of the languages in domains associated to varying degrees with the semi-private and public spheres.

In this section, we will first describe the variables that constitute each of the social domains identified as well as each of the indices developed for this purpose. The results of the survey will then be presented for each of these domains as well as those relating to a general index of language use in domains other than the home language. We will also present results based on the main language of members of official language minorities, that is the language in which they feel most at ease. Lastly, these results will then be examined in light of an "ecological variable," namely the proportional weight of official language minorities within municipalities or census subdivisions.

Section 3.1 Description of variables and development of language use indices

The survey abounds with information on language behaviours in various domains or spheres of private and public life. However, the distinction between these two spheres is not always very clear, partly because language practices in the home sometimes depend on the presence of the languages in the public sphere. Consumption of the various media is an example of this. The viewing of a television program takes place in the private sphere, but it depends on the availability of the program in the public sphere. The same is true for the reading of books or newspapers.

Apart from the languages spoken at home, we therefore developed five language use indices. The first covers languages spoken with friends, both most often and on a regular basis. The second covers the immediate network of contacts of adults within their community. This index is composed of the questions on use of languages in a) community associations, networks and organizations; b) volunteer activities in organizations; c) activities providing social support to someone not living in the household; d) contacts with immediate neighbours; and e) participation in sporting activities within the community.

The third language use index covers the work domain¹. This consists of the questions on use of the languages in the workplace, most often and on a regular basis, as well as questions on the languages used, on the telephone or in person, with people who are not part of the business, company or agency for which the individual works. The fourth index consists of responses to the questions relating to the institutional domain. Included are responses to the questions on care provided by a) the regular medical doctor; b) a nurse; c) the telephone health line; d) other usual places that people go to in order to get health care services; the use of languages e) in businesses; f) to fill out forms such as passport applications, income tax returns and employment applications; g) with different police forces (municipal, provincial and federal) and h) with a lawyer. As to the last index, covering the use of languages in the consumption of various media, it is composed of responses to the questions on a) television viewing; b) radio; c) newspapers; d) book reading and e) the Internet.

It should be noted here that since not all questions are intended for all individuals, we constructed indices based on the number of questions answered. For example, in the case of the index of language use in immediate networks, a person who answered four questions out of the six that comprise this index was assigned a score proportional to the number of questions answered².

Section 3.2 Results for indices

Section 3.2.1 French-speaking adults outside Quebec

The survey results very clearly show the linguistic orientation of French-speaking adults outside Quebec in their language behaviours in the various social domains. Charts 3.1 to 3.4 show French is present to quite varying degrees, depending on respondents' province of residence. In general, New Brunswick, because of the demographic weight of French-speaking adults in that province, stands out sharply from the other provinces.

The use of French is weakest in the provinces west of Ontario, followed by Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. For all provinces combined, the predominance of French³ tends to be weaker in the media domain than in the domains consisting of networks of immediate contacts, institutions and friends. In fact, while French is present as may be seen when the category "French and English equally" is included, its predominant use weakens from one social domain to the next.

Chart 3.1
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the rate of language use by domain, Atlantic, provinces east of New Brunswick, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Chart 3.2
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the rate of language use by domain, in New-Brunswick, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Chart 3.3
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the rate of language use by domain, Ontario, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Chart 3.4
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the rate of language use by domain, provinces west of Ontario and the territories, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

The general language use index shown in Chart 3.5 provides an overview of the use of the languages for all social domains excluding languages spoken at home⁴. Similar to what was seen in the previous charts, the predominance of French is a reality only in New Brunswick. That province aside, French-speaking adults in Ontario stand out from their counterparts in other provinces in that nearly 16% of them use only or mainly French in their daily life and another 22% use French and English equally.

Whereas the predominance of French is very low or non-existent in most other provinces, French-speaking adults in the provinces east of New Brunswick nevertheless report using it at least as often as English in proportions ranging from nearly 9% in Newfoundland and Labrador to 19% and 21% in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia respectively. French-speaking adults in Manitoba also stand out from those of the western provinces, since 18% of the former and 16%^E of the latter report using French at least as often as English in their daily activities.

Chart 3.5
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the general language use index, provinces and Canada less Quebec, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

The information on language use in daily life by French-speaking adults in a minority situation must necessarily be qualified by the information on their main language. Adults who report being more at ease in French than in English can be expected to have language habits and behaviours different from those who report being more at ease in English⁵. This is precisely what Chart 3.6 shows. In all provinces and territories, French-speaking adults who have French as their main language use that language much more in their daily activities than those who are more at ease in English.

Chart 3.6
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the general level of use of French according to main language, provinces, Canada less Quebec, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

A deeper analysis of language practices in New Brunswick reveals a fair amount of contrast among the regions. Chart 3.7 shows that 48% of French-speaking adults in that province's North region report using only French in their daily activities, while another 36% report using mainly French. This index of language use in the public sphere thus shows that French is the language used predominantly (only or most often) by close to 85% of the French-speaking adults in that region. In turn, 51% of French-speaking adults in the province's South-Eastern region report that French is the predominant language used in their daily activities, although close to 10% report using only French. Finally, among French-speaking adults in the rest of the province, French is the predominant language for 26%, while 19% report using French as often as English.

The use of French in Ontario also varies considerably, depending on whether one lives in the Southeast, the Northeast or Toronto. As expected, nearly 50% of those living in the Southeast report that they predominantly use French, while French is predominant for 18% of those living in the Northeast of the province and in Ottawa. The survey also shows that when those using French and English equally are taken into account, French is present in the language behaviours of 55% and 47% of residents of Ottawa and Northeast of Ontario respectively. In Toronto and the rest of the province, the corresponding proportions are 15% and 11%^E respectively.

Chart 3.7
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the general index of language use, New-Brunswick and regions, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Chart 3.8
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the general index of language use, Ontario and regions, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Section 3.2.2 English-speaking adults in Quebec

The survey results quite clearly show that English is heavily used on a daily basis by English-speaking adults in Quebec. The information presented in Chart 3.9 shows that 67% of them predominantly use English with friends while nearly 60% do so in their immediate networks. In contacts with the personnel of various public institutions, 56% predominantly use English. In their use of the media, this proportion reaches 82%. In the vast majority of social domains, the general language use index shows that 64% of English-speaking adults report predominantly using English on a daily basis. When those who report using English and French equally are included, the general index shows that English is present more often or as often as French for 85%.

When the results available for the various regions of Quebec are examined (Chart 3.10), it emerges that English-speaking adults in the regions of Estrie and South of Quebec, Eastern Quebec, Montreal and the West of the province exhibit fairly comparable language behaviours. By contrast, those in Québec and surrounding area and the rest of the province make much more room for French in their daily activities. Thus in Eastern Quebec, in the West of the province as well as in Montreal, respectively 64%, 69% and 66% of English-speaking adults report predominantly using English. As to those in Estrie and South of Quebec, 54% state that they predominantly use English in their daily activities. In Québec and surrounding area and the rest of the province, respectively 10% and 36% of English-speaking adults report that they predominantly use English.

Chart 3.9
Proportion of English-speaking adults by the rate of language use by domain, Quebec, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Chart 3.10
Proportion of English-speaking adults by the general language use index, Quebec and regions, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Section 3.2.3 Language practices according to weight of official-language minorities within municipalities

The theoretical models on the vitality of ethno-linguistic groups consider communities' demographic capital to be a basic ingredient of their objective vitality. Thus the more members or speakers a language community has, the more numerous the opportunities to use the language. This is clearly confirmed by the results of the survey.

Charts 3.11 and 3.12 show that this reality applies both to French-speaking adults outside Quebec and to English-speaking adults in Quebec. However, it is only in its general thrust that the above relationship, between the weight of the members of a language community within the municipality and use of the minority language, reveals a similarity between the situations of the two language groups. Indeed, while less than 5% of French-speaking adults living in census subdivisions where their relative weight is less than 10% of the population predominantly use French in their daily activities, almost 20% of English-speaking adults living in municipalities where their relative weight is similar predominantly use English. As noted earlier, nearly 45% of French-speaking adults outside Quebec live in municipalities where they comprise less than 10% of the population compared to less than 12% of English-speaking adults in Quebec⁶.

Even when they comprise between 10% and 30% of the population of the municipalities in which they reside, 57% of English-speaking adults predominantly use English in their daily life. Outside Quebec, among French-speaking adults living in municipalities where their weight is comparable, only 15% predominantly use French in their daily activities. In fact, only where they constitute 70% or more of the population of the municipality where they reside, do we observe relatively similar results between language behaviours of French-speaking adults (81%) and English-speaking adults (89%).

The information provided in Chart 3.13 is similar to the results seen in Charts 3.11 and 3.12, except that it uses an average score on a scale of 1 to 5. An average score of 1 represents use of the majority language only, while an average score of 5 represents use of the official minority language only. An average score of 3 represents equal use of French and English. As may be seen, there is a sizable gap between the two language groups in their use of the minority language in their daily life. Only when they comprise a very sizable proportion of the municipal population is the use of the minority official language found to be similar.

Chart 3.11
Proportion of French-speaking adults by the general language use index, according to the proportion of minority speaking adults in the municipality, Canada less Quebec, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Chart 3.12
Proportion of English-speaking adults by the general language use index by the proportion of minority-language speaking adults in the municipality, Quebec, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Chart 3.13
Average level of use of the minority official language for French-speaking adults outside Quebec and English speaking adults in Quebec, according to the weight of these minority groups within census subdivisions, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Overall, the survey results confirm the idea stated at the beginning of this chapter, namely that the use of the minority official language tends to diminish going from the more intimate social domains to those where the language with the greater social status predominates. However, this finding must be qualified in light of differences within the same language group and between English-speaking adults in Quebec and their French-speaking counterparts outside that province.

The results concerning French-speaking adults in Chart 3.14 show that the use of French does indeed decrease going from one domain to the next, but there are nevertheless a few exceptions. First, among those living in census subdivisions where they comprise less than 10% of the population, the use of French is weak, but the presence of that language in the media is comparable to the level observed with friends.

One would instead expect that French would be used less in consuming the various news media than with friends, but it can be assumed that for example, the presence or availability of French on the radio and on various regional or national television channels or access to the Internet allows some use of the language by French-speaking communities.

In municipalities where French-speaking adults comprise a sizable proportion of the population, greater use of the minority language is observed in various institutions providing public services to the population. This use is especially high when the weight of the French-speaking adult population is equal to or greater than 70% of the total population of the municipality.

For English-speaking adults in Quebec as was seen earlier, the consumption of media in English is quite substantial, regardless of their relative weight within census subdivisions. Just as for French-speaking adults, there is substantial use of the minority language in getting services from institutions in municipalities where English-speaking adults comprise a sizable portion of the population. The results shown in Chart 3.15 show once again that English is strongly present in the daily life of English-speaking adults in Quebec.

Chart 3.14
Average score for use of French according to the domain of use according by the proportion of minority speaking adults in the municipality, Canada less Quebec, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Chart 3.15
Average score for use of English, according to the domain of use according to the proportion of minority speaking adults in the municipality, Quebec, 2006

Note: Please refer to Appendix E to obtain quality indicators (coefficient of variation (CV) for the estimates used to produce this graph).
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, 2006.

Reference

Cooper, R.L. (1969)
"How can we Measure the Role which a Bilingual's Languages Plays in his Every Day Language?" In The Description and Measurement of Bilingualism, L.G. Kelly (ed.) Toronto: Toronto University Press.

Fishman, Joshua (1965).
"Who Speaks what Language to whom and when". La linguistique, 2, 67 to 68.

Landry Rodrigue and Réal Allard (1994).
"Introduction etholinguistic vitality: a viable construct". International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 108, pp. 5 to 13.

Landry, Rodrigue et Réal Allard (1994b).
"Diglossia, Ethnolinguistic Vitality, and Language Behavior". International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 108, pp. 15 to 42.

Fishman, Joshua (1972).
The Sociology of Language: An Interdisciplinary Social Science Approach to Language in Society.
Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

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Notes

1. However, this report will not present specific information or statistics on the languages used at work. That information will be available after the release of census data on language of work on March 4, 2008.
2. A note on the construction of the indices for use of language in daily activities is found in Appendix F.
3. By predominance of the minority language, we mean that respondents stated that they used a given language "only" or "mostly."
4. The general language use index excludes languages spoken at home but includes the use of languages at work for employed persons.
5. The relationship between main language and language behaviours can nevertheless go one way or the other.
6. Because they are highly concentrated on the Island of Montreal, nearly 53% of English-speaking adults in Quebec Anglophones live in census subdivisions where they comprise between 30% and 50% of the population.
7. ^E use with caution