Linguistic Security Committee of BC
WHERE
British Columbia
WHEN
From September 24th 2024 to June 25th 2025
AGE
15-25 years old
11 participants
Your contact : louise@cjfcb.com
What is linguistic insecurity?
It’s a fact that many French speakers feel uncomfortable speaking French for fear of being judged based on their accent or their variety of French. But what are the causes of this feeling and above all how to remedy it ?
This feeling is often fuelled by social norms that value certain varieties of French to the detriment of others. Speakers hesitate, correct themselves, or in the worst case even avoid speaking their language to escape this feeling of illegitimacy. Remedying this insecurity requires both valuing and normalizing the diversity of accents and varieties of French, all of which deserve the same respect and recognition.
It is to overcome this problem which is at the heart of young people's daily lives but above all to allow them to express themselves freely on the subject that our committee of experts on linguistic security has been working since 2019.
LANGUAGE SECURITY COMMITTEE
Since its creation, the committee has been working across the province to reach out to its community, raising awareness about language insecurity and the impact it can have on language vitality. The committee also had the opportunity to make a number of presentations on a pan-Canadian scale, highlighting the social and linguistic realities specific to British Columbia.
For the 2024/2025 year, 11 young people have joined the committee. Members are trained and mentored by Suzanne Robillard - Doctor in Sociolinguistics and Honorary Life Member of the Youth Council. As ambassadors for language security, the committee's mission is to create spaces for dialogue and reflection with members of the community. To this end, they run awareness-raising and training workshops, and develop a variety of resources to meet the needs of young people and strengthen their linguistic confidence.
WORKSHOPS AND RESOURCES
The workshops offered by the committee were developed by the founding members with Suzanne Robillard. Their aim was to respond to the needs and realities of youth growing up in a minority context. In order to reach out to the various environments that play a key role in both identity-building and the development of a sense of linguistic legitimacy, this workshop is offered to young people, teachers in training, parents and other community players. In addition, to promote accessibility and dissemination of their message to young people who don't take part in workshops, the committee is also developing related awareness-raising resources.
IN THE PRESS
