By Taylor Breckles (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 18, 2014
After many years of development, UFV will be able to offer students a French major as soon as September.
“This French major has been a long time in coming,” says UFV French professor Betty-Joan Traverse. “We know that a lot of students that are doing the bachelor of arts want to go into teaching, and we know that students who can teach French are hired more easily.”
According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail, Traverse notes, there is a skyrocketing demand for French immersion teachers within Canada. To validate this demand, she also mentions 43 per cent of available positions listed on a teacher-hiring website require some degree of French.
According to Traverse, the usefulness of this major is not limited to teaching, as it can also provide students with an edge to get hired in federal government, translation, and CBC Radio.
However, it was more than career opportunities that prompted UFV to make this major possible.
“Of course, it is our other official language, so it seems like now that UFV is a university, we should at least have education in our second language,” she says.
According to Traverse, those who live in BC often forget how prominent French is in provinces such as Quebec and Ontario which use both French and English almost equally. She goes on to explain that the importance of the language extends beyond Canada as well. The program will focus on bringing awareness to francophone cultures around the world.
“It’s not just Quebec and France; there’s also extensive French language and culture in francophone Africa, in parts of Asia, and [in other areas] around the world,” Traverse explains.
In order for students to be able to major in French, more courses have been added to the curriculum. One third-year course and three fourth-year courses will be offered, including one in francophone myths and legends and a French linguistics course.
With the new major, Traverse hopes the path will be paved for other languages to expand their options and potentially create majors of their own, although it’s not as simple as adding new courses to the timetable.
“It’s a chicken-and-egg thing because if you don’t have the courses, you can’t get the students, and if you don’t have the students, you can’t get the courses,” Traverse explains.
With a demand for French teachers, years of development, and a dash of national pride, UFV’s French major will be available come the fall 2014 semester.
