What level of French does it take to be a tourist guide, receptionist … or a magician?
One might think of a wacky question, but it is at the heart of a very serious project: the Quebec benchmark for French skills profiles of trades and professions, A tool that lists the associated linguistic requirements, for the moment, with more than 170 professions exercised in Quebec and which aims to analyze those of 500 others. Designed in collaboration with a team from the Faculty of Education Sciences at the University of Montreal, this repository wants to answer a simple question for immigrants, workers in training and actors in the world of work: what levels of French are necessary to exercise this or that business in Quebec?
This new tool, whose content of the first two sets can be viewed online, is not intended to set official requirements. Rather, it has the ambition to give clear and concrete bearings: what communication tasks are associated with a given profession? What level of French can these tasks be carried out in a functional way, whether orally or in writing? This repository is thus addressed as much to people in the process of integration into Quebec society as to those who learn French, to training programs as to employers.
A major project born from a need on the ground
The idea of such a tool was born from an observation formulated in 2019, while the Quebec government widen access to francization to employment, foreign students or even temporary workers. Quickly, a glaring need appeared: a reference framework was missing to better secure the learning of French to the realities of the world of work.
It was at the University of Montreal that the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI) and the Ministry of the French Language (MLF) entrusted the mandate to design this benchmark. The research team was made up of specialists in French language teaching as a second language.
Describe more than 9,300 professional tasks
How to describe the tasks of each profession carried out in Quebec? The first step was to select the tasks, which the inter -ministerial team took care of. “The MIFI and the MLF use the national classification of professions, which describes all the tasks associated with each profession,” explains Dominic Anctil, professor in the didactic department.
In the repository, each task has been described in a contextualized manner and has concrete examples. Thus, a task such as “responding to requests from customers in person or on the phone” is associated with a level of competence in oral production and comprehension. This level of competence was evaluated by the UdeM team using theQuebec scale of skill levels in French, of which the 2023 edition was also produced by the research group of the Faculty of Education Sciences.
The working language perceived from the inside
To assign the right levels, the university team literally simulates work situations. “We put ourselves in the shoes of a person who occupies this job and one wonders what to understand, what statements we must be able to produce,” says Geneviève Picard, research advisor. The goal is not to aim for a perfect Frenchman, but a functional use, sufficient to accomplish the task in a satisfactory manner.
This field work is fueled by the diversity of courses in the team. Elham Aryapour thus underlines: “As a native non-French-speaking, my learner experience is taken into account in the team, just like my 20 years of teaching French language. Each task is the subject of discussions to ensure that it is understood in the same way by all. If misunderstandings arise, we analyze the causes to correct them, keeping in mind that this tool is also intended for immigrants. ”
Accessible online, the Quebec benchmark for French skills profiles of trades and professions is called upon to evolve and get rich over time.
And to answer the initial question: yes, even a magician needs language skills, if only to welcome his audience … or negotiate his contract!
