Search

This study explored the role of linguistic variables (fluency in both official languages, passing in both official languages and University affiliation) and identity variables (centrality and satisfaction towards the new cultural group) in the acquisition of a new cultural identity among international students in Canada. Two hundred and fifty four international students were recruited from universities in the Montréal region. Self-reported questionnaires were used to assess which new identity international students are in the process of taking on, their linguistic abilities, their university affiliation and in-group identification. The results demonstrate that international students who were fluent in French, could pass for a bilingual or a Francophone, and who attended a primarily French-speaking University mostly took on the Québécois identity as their new cultural identity. International students who were fluent in English, could pass for an Anglophone or neither pass for an Anglophone nor a Francophone, and attended a primarily English-speaking University took on either the Montréalais or the Canadian identity. International students who took on the Montréalais identity reported higher satisfaction towards their new cultural group compared to those who took on the Québécois or Canadian identities. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews key elements of the model of multilingual communication (MMC) (Sachdev and Bourhis 2001, 2005) as they pertain to the case of the “two solitudes” in the province of Quebec: the Francophone majority and the Anglophone minority. The first part of the article provides an intergroup analysis of how language laws in Quebec succeeded in changing the respective ethnolinguistic vitality of the Francophone majority and the Anglophone minority in the province. Along with the MMC, communication accommodation theory is used to review the intergroup, normative, and social psychological determinants of bilingual switching behaviors, as well as specific social psychological studies of bilingual communication conducted in Quebec. The second part of the article describes empirical field studies of language accommodation in Montreal conducted in 1977, 1979, and 1991 (Bourhis 1984b; Moïse and Bourhis 1994). As a follow-up to our earlier studies, the goal of the 1997 experiment (N = 482) was to monitor the language strategies adopted by pedestrians who were randomly accosted by a white or black female confederate who voiced a plea for directions in either English or French. Results of the 1997 study showed that both Francophone and Anglophone pedestrians overwhelmingly converged to the linguistic needs of the white and black confederate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]