Promoting Multilingualism through French Immersion and Language Maintenance in Three Immigrant Families

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the language practices in three immigrant families of South Asian ancestry who reside in Canada and have chosen French Immersion education for their children. Basing our discussion on interview data, we present a profile of the inter- and intra-generational language interactions that distinguish each family. Also, we describe their reasons for maintaining their family language and their interest in French Immersion. The findings reveal that parents adopt language maintenance strategies that vary from one family to another and they attribute value to French and English as official languages of the country and important languages internationally. Drawing on sociocultural theories of language learning that view language as inextricable from context and critical constructs of language exchanges, we argue that these parents support language maintenance and opt for French Immersion education as part of a family project aimed at developing child multilingualism. Multilingualism is viewed as a means of securing advantages for their offspring nationally and internationally.