4. OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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4.3.2 LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE AND EXPECTATIONS
English-speaking and French-speaking athletes differ significantly in the linguistic aspect of their sport experience, in their expectations, and in their level of satisfaction. Although both groups state that they have had the opportunity to learn one or more foreign languages as a result of their involvement in sport, Francophones rate themselves as more bilingual in English and French. Francophones rate their knowledge of English as better than functional but less than perfect fluency; Anglophones rate their knowledge of French as less than needed to get by. Anglophone respondents express greater interest in learning French than Francophones do in learning English. This does not reflect a lack of interest in becoming bilingual: individuals who consider that they are already fluent in their second official language generally give negative answers to this question. Overall, athletes have very positive attitudes toward becoming bilingual in Canada’s two official languages, and many included comments and suggestions to the effect that they would appreciate more language-training opportunities.
French-speaking athletes were more likely than English-speaking ones to agree with the statement: “I am willing to make significant language concessions in order to pursue my sport career.” The high rate of positive responses to this question no doubt reflects the fact that Francophone athletes have in fact made language concessions in order to pursue a sport career. English-speaking athletes attach more importance to training in an environment where their language is ordinarily used and are more likely to state that the possibility of using or not using their language would influence their decision to remain in sport. We believe that these results reflect the group’s generally lower level of bilingualism.
French-speaking athletes expressed less satisfaction with the language aspect of the sport system than English speakers. The differences between the two groups were particularly marked with respect to the language of coaching advice and the language aspect of their sport training environment. Among Anglophone respondents, 85 percent indicated they were satisfied or moderately satisfied with the language aspect of their sport training environment, whereas 29 percent of Francophones stated that they were dissatisfied, and just over 50 percent stated that they were satisfied. Anglophones are highly satisfied with the language of coaching advice provided (84%), while a quarter of Francophones are dissatisfied.
Differences between the two groups are even more marked with respect to their experience with various components of the sport system. Anglophones state that they receive the necessary support in their preferred official language from all sources most of the time. On a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 means “Never” and 7 means “Always,” responses from English-speakers range from 6.92 to 6.50, extremely high values. The highest value Francophones gave in response to this question was 6.3, for provincial sport organizations. Other components of the sport system received the following responses, all drifting toward the value of 4, or “Sometimes”:
| A | Sport Canada (5.85) |
| B | the Canadian Olympic Association (5.3) |
| C | physiotherapists and chiropractors (5.14) |
| D | coaches (5.06) |
| E | doctors (5.03) |
| F | national sport organizations (4.55) |
| G | sport psychologists (4.39) |
| H | sport scientists (4.35). |
The follow-up question — “Have you encountered communication problems, arising from the use of your preferred official language, which had adverse consequences on your career as a high performance athlete?” — provides an equally discouraging picture. Fifteen Anglophones identify such career-limiting incidents, whereas Francophone respondents mention 113 cases. Of the incidents mentioned by French-speaking respondents, 26 involve coaches, 23 concern NSOs, 14 sport psychologists, and 11 sport scientists. Four of the Anglophones who identify problems refer to the government of Quebec or to provincial sport organizations in that province. Another notes: “Very often, the coaching support provided to team, listed and carded athletes is an individual who speaks neither of Canada’s official languages well. German is often the first language of top level coaches brought to this country.” The situation described by a Francophone respondent is more dramatic: “Coaches, psychologists, the doctor and physiotherapist did not speak French when I started with the Canadian team and, for my part, I could not speak English. At the end of each day at camp, I was very very tired mentally because I was trying to understand what they were saying. This greatly affected my performance. I felt I was in a different world, not being able to communicate. P.S. Now I speak English ... so much easier....”(Our translation)
After identifying particular incidents that may have hindered their career development, athletes were asked a more general question, whether various components of the sport system were hampering their career development. Even more Francophone athletes than those who mentioned particular incidents agreed that certain components of the system are slowing their career development, and the elements identified were the same: 36 mentioned coaches, 34 NSOs, 22 sport psychologists, and 17 sport scientists. Very few Anglophone respondents reported experiencing such difficulties.
We then probed for linguistic factors that might influence the decision to remain in high performance sport and found that the answers of Anglophone and Francophone athletes converged. Approximately one-third of each group identified factors that could greatly influence this decision, another third identified factors that might have a moderate influence, and a third indicated that none of the factors would have any influence. We conclude from this that some members of each group are sensitive to the language of the sport environment and that others are less so or not at all. We believe that NSOs and national teams should be aware that some individuals experience significant stress when training in an environment where their language is not generally spoken and that programs should be adapted to meet these athletes’ needs. This individual sensitivity has less impact on English-speaking athletes, who can usually train in an English environment anywhere in North America. The athletes we met also emphasized that stress related to language is more acute for younger athletes, particularly those who are leaving their home environment for the first time.
The two language groups identified different linguistic factors that might influence their decision to remain in sport, but the differences were not statistically significant. The most important ones identified by French-speaking athletes are: access to sport psychology and psychological counselling generally, communications with the Canadian Olympic Association, and communications with Sport Canada. English speakers identified access to medical services in their preferred language, communication with coaches, and access to training directives as potentially influencing their decision to remain in sport.
