Vancouver, March 8, 2001
The Internet: A Site for Linguistic Co-operation
Speech Delivered at the Symposium on French Studies, Multimedia and the Internet
Dr. Dyane Adam – Commissioner of Official Languages
Check against delivery
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,
Allow me first of all to thank the Centre d'études francophones and the Department of French of Simon Fraser University for inviting me to speak today.
I am particularly pleased to speak to you about a subject of great interest to me, which will be discussed more and more in the future; namely, questions concerning the impact of the Internet on literary studies, methods of second-language learning and education in general. For over 12 years I worked in bilingual university environments where, inevitably, questions about bilingualism and the learning of second languages and mother tongues caused much ink to flow. The advent of the Internet opens up new possibilities for learning as well as new and passionate debates. These debates are undoubtedly one element of the Canadian identity.
As you know, the Internet is now at the centre of economic, social and cultural development, both here in Canada and in the other developed countries. The Internet is at once a universal encyclopedia, an entertainment medium and a forum of communities of interest for some 375 million users all over the world. It has also, of course, become an indispensable tool in universities, both for research and with regard to new methods of instruction. In short, the impact of the Internet is seen almost everywhere, and it directly affects our behaviour and work habits.
One of its impacts is, of course, on spoken and written language. In the era of the Internet and the technological revolution, mastery of language or of languages has become essential in a world where we are required to communicate more and with more people than ever before. As a study carried out for the OECD in the late 1990s shows, 80 percent of managers and professionals are now required to write a memorandum or letter one or more times a week. Moreover, more than 40 percent of new jobs will go to those who can read and write effectively, while fewer than a quarter of current jobs do.
There is no longer any doubt about the growing importance of language in the economy. Today it is a matter of big money and competitive advantage. For example, it is estimated that the costs resulting from workers' linguistic deficiencies are in the order of $225 billion in lost productivity in the United States alone.
In Canada, 43 percent of workers are at the lowest levels on the scale of comprehension of written material. This implies that they are unable to integrate, compare and contrast information found in paragraphs or sections of text. This is certainly a worrisome problem, especially if we compare this rate with that in Sweden, for example, where it is only 28 percent.
For those workers who have insufficient knowledge of the written language, the introduction of an intranet in their company can also have unfortunate consequences.
We are all concerned about the use of a French that is as correct as possible. I wonder, however, about the usefulness of various works, both in France and in Canada, that aim to simplify written French. Would a "simplified" French promote greater use of French in e-mail and chat rooms on the Internet? Would this counterpart of "plain English" enable French to preserve its status as an international language? This is no doubt a question that could provide material for the discussions at our symposium.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not exclusively in the service industries that language skills are important. Research conducted by a team from the University of California at Berkeley has shown that the demand for language skills is greater in American high technology firms than in the traditional sectors.1
Fortunately, there are new language processing tools that make it possible to improve linguistic performance and whose impact is certain to increase. These tools, as you know, are the spelling and grammar checkers, composition aids in controlled language and tools available directly on the Web, such as frequently asked questions and virtual client assistants.
The language industries are also developing software programs that are language processing tools designed to enable computers to use languages like written or spoken English or French the way human beings do.
In fact, the language industries facilitate, accelerate and improve the production of information. For example: the controlled language composition aids can promote the production of texts that are easier to read; machine translators quickly produce a first draft of translations; and "sense extractors" quickly summarize the principal concepts of a document and translate them from one language to another.
The language industries will be at the centre of the linguistic fluidity that is essential on the Internet and will be a necessary tool to accelerate the development of e-commerce among the three quarters of the world's population that does not understand English.
When we consider that there are approximately 700 different language processing programs in English, compared with only 350 in French, we begin to understand the scope of the challenge that faces us. That is why Canadian universities and the Government of Canada must invest more in the development of the language industries, for the productivity tools of the emerging knowledge society do not always speak the user's language. As Commissioner of Official Languages, I believe that the Government of Canada has the responsibility to invest in the creation and use of the language industries, because linguistic tools are needed to promote greater use of the Internet by Francophones in Canada. The French-speaking minorities are often small and isolated. The appropriation of the Internet in French is an excellent way to advance the development of these communities and promote mutual understanding among Canada's two great linguistic communities.
It is vital to enable Francophones to communicate in their language with all the computers around them, to adapt the machine to their needs, preferences and skills - and not the other way round. Indeed, as linguist Florian Coulmas points out, "the machine can really be useful to workers only to the extent that we teach it to mimic and understand the workers' language." (our translation)
French-speaking net surfers must appropriate this technology. It is important, for example, to work to ensure that Canada's registrar of domain names requires the adoption of new standards that allow the use of accents and other French characters in domain names on the Internet.
We must also require the localization of software; that is, most often, their translation and adaptation from English to French. The issue is important because the French language must retain its capacity to express the modern world.
In this regard, Quebec's Office de la langue française has done remarkable work. For example, it suggested the use of the word "clavardage" instead of the usual "chat," and "courriel" instead of "émail." The percentage of informatics terminology borrowed from English is accordingly estimated at 14 percent.
In this virtual universe that does away with space and time, linguistic frontiers remain, but they show a degree of penetrability. As Francophones, we navigate from French to English and vice versa quickly and easily.
But this ease also constitutes a challenge for us. The French language must have sufficient critical mass to encourage increasing use of the Internet in that language, not only in its content, but also in navigation and search tools.
Is French-language content adequately indexed and thus easily searchable on the Web? Electronic content that is not indexed by Yahoo!, AltaVista or some other search engine may as well not exist.
The Government of Canada must stimulate technological innovation because, in the context of globalization, the linguistic and cultural regulations to preserve Canadian culture are becoming as ineffective as the Maginot line.
In short, Canada's linguistic duality on the Internet must be strengthened, and the Government of Canada has a role to play in this regard.
That is why I published a special study entitled The Government of Canada and French on the Internet at the INITI@TIVES 99 symposium of the Agence universitaire de la francophonie. This study is an urgent appeal to the Government of Canada to take initiatives to increase French language content and services on the Internet and thereby to promote the development of a critical mass of information in French. I have brought with me some copies of this study, which is also available on the Internet site of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.
It is important that Canada, as an economic player integrated with America and attached by its official languages to Europe, make haste to preserve Canada's linguistic duality. The next Summit of the Americas, to be held in Quebec City next month, affords an excellent opportunity for Canada to highlight the importance of linguistic and cultural diversity in the context of plans to create a free trade area of the Americas, the FTAA. A recent report of the Conseil de la langue française du Québec entitled Les enjeux et les défis linguistiques de l'intégration des Amériques recommends the following:
- The holding of an inter-American seminar on language promotion that would bring together, in 2002, representatives of the principal linguistic groups in the hemisphere to discuss linguistic challenges and measures to be taken throughout the Americas (Recommendation 8).
- The creation of an inter-American network for language promotion in an integrated America, which would be devoted to increasing appreciation and respect for linguistic diversity in the context of the integration of the Americas (Recommendation 9).
- An inter-American languages bureau with the mandate to monitor linguistic change in a context of integration and to propose measures to promote respect for and the learning and dissemination of languages within the Americas (Recommendation 9).
The French-language market on the Internet is larger than might be thought. According to a study conducted in connection with the Année européene des langues and published in February 2001, more than a third of Europeans speak French. The study shows that 35 percent of Europeans know French, 16 percent of them saying that French is their mother tongue and 19 percent that they speak it as a foreign language.
As you know, French represents less than 2 percent of total Web content. In fact, more than 70 percent of the content is in English, while only 10 percent of the world's population speaks that language.
Indeed, Francophones in Canada, and the international Francophonie, must take ownership of the powerful tool for communications and cultural and economic development that the Internet represents. It is also essential that the Government of Canada invest significantly to produce original content as well as to translate, digitize and, through the availability of appropriate linguistic tools on the Web, make the Internet accessible in French.
The content industry will become the most important in the world because it supports electronic communication, electronic commerce, public services, the electronic media and financial activities.
At the societal level, Canada will also see a profound change by 2005 when generation Y (now aged nine to 12), which favours the screen image as its model of access to knowledge, will enter the labour market in a world where real and virtual products will be integrated. Did you know that, on average, an American child devotes 900 hours a year to school, 1,500 hours to television and 1,600 hours to the computer? In this context, it will also be necessary to win the struggle for Internet portals in the Francophonie.
Conclusion
Will the emerging collective intelligence, based on communities of interest that transcend borders, be multilingual when, according to a report by Computer Economics, most Internet users will not be Anglophones?
A country is first of all an imaginary place - an imaginary individual with values and attitudes, of course, but also a collectivity of the imagination based on culture. It is starting from the imaginary that people create together the kinds of consensus required for society to run smoothly.
The appropriation of the Internet by Francophones requires investment, to be sure. Of those who would refuse to make it I ask: what investments have to be made to ensure that our children are Canadians? What value should we attach to the fact of being Canadian, and of still being Canadian 50 years from now?
Notes
1 Hull, Glynda (1998), Changing Work, Changing Literacy? A study of Skill Requirements and Development in a Traditional and Restructured Workplace, s.l.
