Exploring Canadian Integration through Critical Discourse Analysis of English Language Lesson Plans for Immigrant Learners

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2021.28959

Keywords:

English Language Teaching, English as a Second Language, Canadian Immigration, Integration, Multiculturalism

Abstract

The Canadian government implemented the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program to help immigrants integrate into Canada. However, research indicates that the LINC program fails to achieve its integrative goals. Using Fairclough’s analytical concepts of genre, discourse and style, this article closely examines a unit of LINC lesson plans to understand how they advance an understanding integration among classroom stakeholders (Canadian teachers and immigrant students). The analysis reveals that the LINC curriculum proliferates inequality between Canadians and newcomers by fostering an assimilative orientation that subjugates immigrants as problematic Others. Immigrants are expected to conform to dominant Canadian ways of being and ways using language. This article calls for a rethinking of integration by identifying possibilities for resistance that could shift immigrants’ positioning and reduce discrimination. This could occur through better recognizing bias and dominance, and through acknowledging and validating newcomers’ ways of speaking and interacting.

Downloads

Published

2021-01-22

How to Cite

Barker, M. E. (2021). Exploring Canadian Integration through Critical Discourse Analysis of English Language Lesson Plans for Immigrant Learners. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 24(1), 75–91. https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2021.28959

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 1 (2021)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics / Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquée

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with The Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics (CJAL) agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the CJAL right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/> that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in the CJAL.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the CJAL's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the CJAL.
  • Authors will not simultaneously submit the same piece of work for possible publication to more than one academic journal at a time.