Evolving French language learning

French language learning within New Brunswick’s anglophone school system has been evolving for more than 50 years.

Being able to communicate in both official languages provides students with social, cultural, academic, and cognitive benefits and opportunities that will follow them throughout their school years and beyond.

In Canada’s only officially bilingual province, we are committed to help all learners develop their French language skills in a way that allows them to converse openly and with confidence. We want to give every anglophone-sector student the chance to learn a conversational level of French, at a minimum while giving them opportunities to achieve more advanced levels of French before graduation.

That means we need to move toward a system that supports every learner in accessing French language learning opportunities– no matter where they live or how they learn. This includes ensuring students have the chance to truly engage with diverse communities and nurture a deep cultural appreciation for bilingualism.

What is conversational French?

A conversational level of French would translate to a B1.1 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CERF), or an Intermediate level of the New Brunswick Oral Proficiency Scale. This is our minimum target.

Here are the criteria:

• Able to satisfy routine social demands and limited requirements in school/work settings
• Can provide information and give explanations with some degree of accuracy, but language is awkward
• Can handle most common social situations, including introductions and casual conversations about events in school and community; able to provide autobiographical information in some detail
• Can give directions from one place to another; can give accurate instructions in a field of personal expertise
• Has a speaking vocabulary sufficient to converse simply, with some paraphrasing
• Accent, though often quite faulty, is intelligible
• Uses high frequency language structures accurately but does not have a thorough or confident control of grammar
• In certain situations, diction would probably distract a native speaker