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The Special Ndea Institute at Bowdoin College for French Teachers of Canadian Descent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Gerard J. Brault
Gerard J. Brault*
Affiliation:
University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia 4
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Extract

A recent survey estimates that there are. today in the six New England states alone well over a million persons of French-Canadian descent, the overwhelming majority of whom understand and speak French natively. At a time when increased and improved knowledge of modern foreign languages is patently needed, this vast pool of native speakers and potential teachers of French constitutes an increasingly valuable linguistic resource. The Franco-American Institute held at Bowdoin College in the summer of 1961 under the terms of the National Defense Education Act sought to exploit more fully in the national interest this New England French resource. The Institute marked the first time in history that an ethnic group was accorded federal support in its struggle to preserve its linguistic heritage—a sharp divergence from official efforts at intensive Americanization following World War I. It was also the first concerted effort made in this country by language teachers of any nationality to come to grips in a realistic way with the problem of teaching the standard form of a language to a group of persons whose second language is non-standard. The central problem faced by the Institute was the unquestioned right of French-Canadian speech to be recognized as a respectable means of communication. All due respect was accorded to this linguistically-sound fact, but the Institute nevertheless took the position that the national interest demands the teaching of standard French in all U. S. schools today.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 77 , Issue 4-Part2 , September 1962 , pp. 1 - 5
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1962

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References

1 For these statistics, see Notre Vie Franco-Américaine (Boston, 1949), pp. 18–19. According to the 1961 annual report of the Comité de Vie Franco-Américaine (see Le Travailleur for 17 August 1961, p. 4), there are 178 Franco-American parishes in New England supporting a total of 271 parochial schools with a staff of 3,637 Franco-American teachers. Official U.S. Census figures on Franco-Americans are available in Leon E. Truesdell, The Canadian Born in the United States (New Haven and Toronto, 1943) and, notably, Edward P. Hutchinson, Immigrants and Their Children (New York, 1956). On the term Franco-American ‘an American of French-Canadian descent, usually restricted to persons residing in New England,‘ see Dr. Gabriel Nadeau's paper entitled “Notes pour servir à une bibliographie franco-américaine” read before the French VIII Group of the MLA at the Annual Meeting in 1952 and published in the Bulletin de la Société historique franco-américaine—Année 1952 (Manchester, N.H., 1953), pp. 64–65. The Franco-American Institute was one of five special institutes held under NDEA auspices in the summer of 1961.

2 A second institute along identical lines was held at Bowdoin College in the summer of 1962, again under my directorship. This paper, which reports on the 1961 Institute only, was written prior to the opening of the second institute. The major change in the latter program was the addition of a new course dealing specifically with modern French culture and civilization.

3 For two excellent studies on Americanization, consult Edward G. Hartmann, The Movement to Americanize the Immigrant (New York, 1948) and Edward M. Saveth, American Historians and European Immigrants 1875–1925 (New York, 1948).

4 I have discussed the pros and cons of this approach in my article entitled “Comment doit-on enseigner le français aux jeunes Franco-Américains?” Le Canado-Américain, ii, No. 6 (April-May 1961), 30–34. See also my “Conséquences pédagogiques de certaines attitudes franco-américaines” in Le Travailleur for 20 April 1961, p. 4.

5 On the messianicism and dominant Roman Catholicism in French-Canadian culture, see Jean C. Falardeau's masterly essay entitled “Les Canadiens français et leur idéologie” in Canadian Dualism. Studies of French-English Relations, ed. Mason Wade (Toronto, 1960), pp. 23–31.

6 On the evolution of a typical Franco-American community, see Hervé B. Lemaire, “Les Franco-Américains de Fall River, Massachusetts,” in Les Conférences de l'Institut Franco-Américain de Bowdoin College, ed. G. J. Brault (Brunswick, 1961), privately published with funds provided by four Franco-American cultural organizations: L'Association Canado-Américaine, La Société l'Assomption, L'Union Saint-Jean-Baptiste-d'Amérique, and Le Comité de Vie Franco-Américaine.

7 The French-Canadian scholar Benjamin Suite was very influential in disseminating this notion; see, for example, his La Langue française en [sic] Canada (Levis, 1898), pp. 8–9. Consult also my article entitled “Le Mythe de 'La Langue de Louis XIV,” Assumption Preparatory School Alumnus, xxv (1958), 4–6.

8 Pronunciation of the French Spoken at Brunswick, Maine (Greensboro, N.C., 1949).

9 Sister Maris Stella, “A Note on the Pronunciation of New England French,” FR, xxxii (1959), 363–366.

10 See my article entitled “New England French Vocabulary,” FR, xxxv (1961), 163–175. On Franco-American syntax, consult Locke, pp. 153–159; Brault, “A Manual for Franco-Americans” (Brunswick, 1960), the latter being a mimeographed study prepared pursuant to a contract with the Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; see also Raymond T. Ethier's observations in the appendix to the mimeographed “Cours de langue française destiné aux jeunes Franco-Américains” (Brunswick, 1961).

11 Boston, 1961.

12 For a more detailed examination of the problems treated here, see my paper entitled “L'Attitude des participants de l'Institut Franco-Américain de Bowdoin College,” in Le Canado-Américain, ii, No. 12 (April-May 1962), 33–39, a paper read before the French VIII (North-American) Group of the MLA at the Annual Meeting held in Chicago, 29 December 1961.