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Articles

Vol. 28 No. 2 (2025)

La transmission du français en contexte multilingue anglodominant : étude monographique de couples à l’Est du Canada

DOI
https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2025.33614
Submitted
September 19, 2023
Published
2025-09-15

Abstract

Parents' life experiences and language representations influence the nature of family interrelations and language practices. The object of this empirical paper is to describe the educational and family sociolinguistic contexts of the Southeastern Canadian province of New Brunswick, and then identify, from the comments of new plurilingual parents, certain ecosystemic factors that may structure their family language choices. A cross-sectional analysis of narrative summaries obtained from semi-structured interviews with seven couples of future and new parents of children under 5 years of age showed that the parents' ethnolinguistic experience influenced their language behaviours and representations. These representations, combined with the access to educational services in a minority language, which itself is made possible by language policies supported by the macrosystem, would influence the child's language microsystem. Nevertheless, it seems that the belief of being able to influence their children's language development is the main factor structuring parents' family language choices.

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