« I’m almost bilingual » : sentiment de minorisation d’élèves d’une école de langue anglaise en région éloignée au Québec

Abstract

In recent decades, francophones in Québec have gone through a process of sociopolitical ascension while anglophones have gone through a process of minoritization. These processes were intertwined with the policies, legislation, and school experiences of young people attending English-language schools. This study enables us to examine the relationship between linguistic groups of young people attending a school board in the eastern part of Québec which includes two regions : Gaspésie-Île-de-la-Madeleine and Côte-Nord. We analyzed the identification of these young people and their relation to linguistic groups using a qualitative interpretive methodology, and a constructivist approach to linguistic boundaries. The results revealed discourses and a feeling of minoritization, fuelled by a sense of geographical and linguistic isolation, which characterized the region. Participants lamented a lack of recognition of their status as a linguistic minority by the francophone majority in Quebec. These young people identify more with Canada, the Maritimes, and the fisheries, than as Quebecers. They mostly identify as anglophones or “almost bilinguals.” They report experiencing a form of linguistic insecurity towards their competence in French, even if a number has French as their first language.