This article draws on argument-based validation to gather and evaluate construct-related evidence (i.e., the explanation inference) of a high-stakes test. The data stemmed from the listening component of a French test used for immigration to Canada through the province of Quebec. An expert panel with varied backgrounds in applied linguistics…

French immersion (FI) programs in Canada have historically served predominantly Canadian-born, English-speaking students and families in their endeavour to learn both of the country's official languages, French and English. However, FI programs are becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse as a result of increased global…

French as a second language (FSL) teachers in Canada face unique circumstances and challenges in the profession, from their initial teacher preparation into the beginning years of teaching and beyond. These challenges play a role in the long-standing FSL teacher shortage across Canada. To better understand the complexity and nuance of issues…

The following study focuses on learners of French in an English-dominant context and contributes to a better understanding of language hierarchization by investigating attitudes toward different varieties of French. It aims to identify a possible correlation between the evaluation of different varieties of French and the participants'…

Addressing race/racism and colonialism in French as a second language (FSL) education is essential to preparing culturally responsive teachers and meeting the Ministry mandate to teach students equitably and with respect. This article describes whether, and if so, how, candidates are being prepared to disrupt colonial ideologies and practices with…

Communication strategies (CSs) have been generally viewed as ways in which learners may circumvent, and ideally overcome, communicative difficulties. However, over 40 years of research in this area has been largely confined to theory and experimental studies, and it is not clear to what extent CS research has filtered into contemporary second…

The purpose of this article is to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of such key stakeholders as students, parents, and teachers in Ontario's FSL program, and what potential impacts such attitudes could have on future participation in FSL learning in secondary schools in the province. It also examines some prevailing teaching and learning…

Poor retention rates for Core French, combined with the federal government's action plan to increase bilingualism in Canada, have led to the introduction of Intensive French (IF) in Grade 6 as an alternative for learning French. While anecdotal reports suggest that IF has no negative impact on English language skill development, empirical evidence…

Using critical interpretive procedures, this synthesis reviews qualitative and quantitative empirical studies (N = 181) published between 2000 and 2017 in the Canadian French as a Second Language (FSL) K-12 context. This study examines the thematic focus of findings relevant to key stakeholders (i.e., students, teachers, teacher candidates,…

This article describes a collaborative research project with four Quebec college teachers offering French and ESL classes designed to support immigrant students' bilingual learning. Using action research, a professional learning community was created that allowed the researcher and teacher participants, through cycles of planning, action, and…

This study explores the cross-linguistic reading strategies that 16 Grade 3-4 French immersion pupils schooled in Saskatchewan used while reading two types of dual-language children's books: translated and integrated. In the first type, the same text appears in both French and English, whereas in the second one, English and French are integrated…

While Canada's multiculturalism and bilingual education represent an opportunity for educational sectors to foster students' intercultural citizenship, in New Brunswick -- Canada's only officially bilingual province -- provincial language ideological debates (LIDs) may create structures impeding Anglophone French immersion (FI) students'…

High engagement and supportive social networks appear to promote L2 sociolinguistic development. This study investigates the relationship between these two constructs and their influence on Quebec French learners' use of two informal features: "ne" deletion and first-person "on"; and two geographically conditioned features:…

This study focuses on L2 French spoken in two different Laurentian settings in Canada: L2 French spoken by anglophones who have developed bilingual community practices in Montreal, where French is the majority language; and L2 French spoken by anglophones who have learned French in a formal context in Ontario, where French is a minority language.…

Translanguaging practices come into play in social interactions between bilinguals when they are making use of all their shared linguistic resources and blending their languages in natural ways. Stemming from these practices is translanguaging pedagogy, which is designed so that students in school-based additive bilingual programs can benefit from…