Menu
Log in


Log in

Learning a Foreign or Second Language: A Skill or a Social Practice?

  • November 12, 2015
  • 12:20 PM - 1:10 PM
  • Peik 355, Minneapolis Campus, U of M

This presentation will look at reading in Canadian French immersion classrooms and how learning to read in French is viewed more as a skill rather than a social practice. French immersion teachers often focus on teaching students how to read but rarely will they discuss the role of French and perceptions of bilingualism in the Canadian society at large. Ideological assumptions that fail to recognize French immersion students as bilingual or multilinguals discourage students from using French outside of school. Absent cultural and native-like demonstrations of competence in the target language, immersion students' French may be limited to a school-based skill instead of a social practice.

Presenter: Sylvie Roy is a professor at the University of Calgary, Werklund School of Education where she also serves as the Chair of Language and Literacy. Her interests are in sociolinguistics, teaching and learning a second language, ethnography and discourse analysis. Cosponsored by the Second Language Education program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.


Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software