ERIC Number: EJ1482836
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Sep
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0026-7902
EISSN: EISSN-1540-4781
Available Date: 2025-08-10
Rethinking French-as-a-Second-Language Education as a Space for Supporting Indigenous Language Work on [foreign language word omitted] (Musqueam) Land
Meike Wernicke1; Candace Galla2; Nicole George1
Modern Language Journal, v109 n3 p586-606 2025
In Canada, growing awareness of multilingualism in language teacher education requires educators to rethink how we practice language education. Many are increasingly questioning how established English-French official language programming can be reconciled with the reviving and reclaiming of Indigenous languages, and how we might think across Indigenous and Western worldviews in ethical, relational, and responsible ways. One such example is the redesign of a course that familiarizes future elementary teachers with a multilingual, place-based approach to teaching French that incorporates knowledge of local ancestral and immigrant languages. Classroom discussions made evident ideological tensions as students and instructors navigated conflicting priorities, often pitting the need to learn instructional strategies for teaching official languages against the urgency to support local First Nations languages. By engaging our respective settler (European) and Indigenous (Hawaiian) perspectives, we identify moments of critical reflection to better understand how differently conceptualized approaches to language learning and teaching can coexist across language education programs in Canada and beyond.
Descriptors: Second Language Instruction, Second Language Learning, French, Indigenous Populations, Indigenous Knowledge, Foreign Countries, Multilingualism, Native Language, Curriculum Design, Place Based Education, Ideology, Conflict, Teacher Student Relationship, Official Languages
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; 2Department of Language and Literacy Education & Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

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