The Ins and Outs of ESL in Canada: How the Past Can Inform the Future.
Derwing, Tracey M.
The Ins and Outs of ESL in Canada: How the Past Can Inform the Future.
I was invited by TESL Canada to present a keynote on the evolution
of English language teaching in Canada and to make observations on the
TESL Canada Federation. What follows is an abbreviated version of that
presentation, given in June 2017 at the TESL Canada Conference in
Niagara Falls. Afer this manuscript was submited, TESL Canada announced
that it would be suspending all services and closing its office. I have
writen a postscript to this paper, but have left the information about
TESL Canada in the paper itself to be true to the content of the keynote
presentation.
Between 1870 and 1913 Canada experienced rapid economic
development. The railways were built to secure British Columbia's
participation in Confederation and to open up the west. The government
designed land policies to atract newcomers, but there was a concern
about the "quality" of immigrants. Many Chinese labourers had
worked on the railroads and wanted their families to join them, but in
1885 Canada imposed a stringent head tax to significantly restrict
Chinese from immigrating. Not content with limiting Chinese newcomers,
in 1897 the government passed the Alien Labour Act, to keep railways
from importing too many "aliens." The 1910 Immigration Act
gave Cabinet the power to refuse immigrants "belonging to any race
deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada, or of
immigrants of any specified class, occupation or character" (Green
& Green, 1996, p. 5). Moreover, Cabinet declared publicly that they
would recruit farmers, farm workers, and female domestics from Britain,
the United States, and northwestern Europe, but in fact, the government
made arrangements with the CPR and other businesses to recruit labour
from anywhere in Europe. Although the stated aim was to populate the
west, people went to all regions of Canada (Green & Green, 1996).
Thus English language teaching was needed throughout the country.
Immigration dipped significantly between 1914 and 1918 during World
War I. Canada sent more people to Europe than they brought in: 61,000
Canadians were killed overseas, and 424,000 served overseas (Canadian
War Museum, n.d.). But in 1919, the war over, it was back to business as
usual. The government made more revisions to the 1910 Immigration Act to
gain even more control. They expanded their power over numbers and the
ethnic composition of immigrants, all in an effort to ensure
"quality" newcomers.
So where does English language training fit in? The earliest formal
training began with Frontier College, the well-known national literacy
organization. Frontier College was founded by Reverend Alfred
Fitzpatrick, who sent teachers to logging camps, railway lines, and
other worksites to help with both literacy for Canadian-born workers and
ESL for immigrants (www.frontiercollege.ca, n.d.). Fitzpatrick also
published a Handbook for New Canadians in 1919. Just one year before,
James Anderson had produced The Education of the New Canadian: A
Treatise on Canada's Greatest Educational Problem (1918). The
problem, in Anderson's view, was too many immigrants from less
desirable regions, such as Ukraine and southern Europe. Anderson
wasn't against all newcomers, as indicated here:
There is no finer type of foreign immigrant to Canada than the
Scandinavians. They are a close second, indeed if not equal, to the
British and American immigrants. The Scandinavians readily become
assimilated to the new life of the Dominion; a very large proportion of
them naturalize. They make frugal, industrious citizens, an asset to
any young country. (1918, p. 200)
About the Chinese he said,
Gambling seems to be a beseting vice of Chinese, probably due to their
social isolation. But on the whole, the Chinese are industrious,
inoffensive and well behaved. Their industry would make them a splendid
asset, but race antipathy has decreed that Canada shall never have a
large influx from China. (1918, p. 221)
Anderson would be shocked to see that the Chinese now constitute
one of Canada's largest immigrant groups. Like Anderson,
Fitzpatrick thought the primary goal of educators was to assimilate
newcomers. He argued,
the task of assimilating so many diverse peoples is a slow one.... in
the interest of the rising generation and those unborn, it is incumbent
upon us that assimilative forces be carefully and expeditiously set to
work. The children in the public schools of today will be the fathers
and mothers of the next generation, and it is essential that the former
be given an insight into our Canadian life and ideals, so that they in
turn may impart these to their offspring. (Fitzpatrick, 1919, p. 238)
This sounds somewhat like the proposed Charter of Values that the
Parti Quebecois tried to introduce in 2013. These ideas have been around
for a long time. In fact perhaps Anderson, Fitzpatrick, and others felt
even more threatened than some people do today, because of the enormity
of immigration in those early years (see Figure 1). Figure 1 shows us
that 1913 saw more immigration than any other time in our history;
400,000 people arrived. However, Canada's population in 1913 was
just over 7,500,000, much smaller than the current 35,000,000; thus the
impact of immigration at the beginning of the last century was profound.
So, in the early 1900s, immigrants learned English and
"Canadian values" if there were classes where they lived or if
they worked where Frontier College sent volunteer teachers. And then
immigration dried up. Canada stopped admiting newcomers because much of
the country itself had dried up, literally. Farms were knee-deep in dust
during the Great Depression and unemployment was at an all-time high.
Then World War II started and Canada not only limited immigration
severely, but, appallingly, also interned Japanese Canadians. Figure 1
shows that fewer people were admited to the country during this period
than any time in our history. This was not our shining hour as a nation;
not only did we intern citizens, but when 907 Jews boarded a ship to
seek sanctuary from the Nazis, Canada refused to admit them. None is too
many, said one of the border agents--also the view of our leaders at the
time (Abella & Troper, 2012).
When the war ended, Canada's leaders saw the country as
increasingly independent of Britain, especially because of the winning
performance of the Canadian military in Europe. Immigration recommenced,
and a Citizenship Act was passed 1947. Since the days of Anderson and
Fitzpatrick it had been assumed that learning an official language would
lead to assimilation or at least integration--the two became formally
linked shortly after World War II. Paul Martin Sr. stressed the
importance of federal involvement in citizenship education for adult
immigrants: "Apart from the purely legal consequences of acquiring
a new citizenship, we must remember that in a democracy there are
obligations and responsibilities upon a citizen, and these should be
thoughtfully explained to those who join us" (Joshee & Derwing,
2005, p. 63). This marked a change from the clear "us and
them" mentality to working toward seeing newcomers as belonging to
"us." Almost immediately after the act was passed, citizenship
education was subsumed under second language instruction for newcomers.
The federal government started a transfer payment program to the
provinces called Citizenship Instruction and Language Textbook (CILT)
agreements. The intent of this funding was clear, but following a review
conducted decades later, the federal government ended the CILT payments
in 1989 because the funds were not being used for the intended purpose;
moreover, the payments had no ceiling. There was no real oversight for
all those years, but the federal government had assumed that the
language classes it funded provided citizenship instruction (Joshee,
1996).
The 1960s brought major changes to Canada: the Bill of Rights was
introduced and several other changes took place to make Canada more
equitable. In 1962 the government introduced a modifcation to alter
immigration substantially: people were chosen on the basis of their
skills rather than their nationality (Derwing & Munro, 2007). This
was the first step toward a less racist immigration policy.
Language became a huge issue in the late 1950s and early 1960s,
with the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. Quebeckers had legitimate
complaints and were talking of separation. In 1963, the federal
government established the Bilingualism and Biculturalism (B&B)
Commission, which travelled across the country listening to citizens
discuss the role of the two "founding races"--English and
French (Derwing & Munro, 2007). The irony, of course, is that the
real founding peoples, Indigenous nations, were entirely left out. Also
treated as an aferthought were the descendants of immigrants whose
ancestry was neither English nor French. The Commission recommended that
Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick become officially bilingual; only New
Brunswick did so. It also recommended that English and French be
declared the official languages of Canada, which happened in 1969. The
Commission heard from ethnic groups, notably that "greatest
Canadian educational problem," Ukrainians. They argued that their
significant contributions to Canada should not be ignored. The findings
of the Commission led to an awareness that immigrants from non-English
and French backgrounds should be able to access heritage language
programs (Derwing & Munro, 2007).
In 1971, Pierre Trudeau introduced a multiculturalism policy to
support the development of ethno-cultural groups and to assist new
Canadians in acquiring an official language; in 1988, the policy became
law when the Multiculturalism Act was passed. A few years before the
policy was introduced, the Department of Manpower and Immigration
initiated an English language program aimed at principal breadwinners:
another word for "men." The program entailed a living
allowance in addition to classes focused on preparation for employment.
But when married couples entered the country ("married
couples" meant a man and a woman at that time), they would be asked
who the principal breadwinner was. Usually women deferred to their
husbands, but in fact it was often women who first secured employment
(Derwing & Thomson, 2005). Setlement Language Programs (SLPs) were
introduced in the 1980s to give support to the many newcomers who could
not access other language instruction; Manitoba showed leadership in
this area. SLPs had very litle funding, but they addressed a pressing
need (Burnaby, 1998).
In 1990, the federal government gave Quebec control of setlement
and language training in that province; funds are transferred from Otawa
such that Quebec controls French language training and setlement. Then,
in 1991, something very strange happened. The federal government tried
to convince the other provinces that they should take on setlement and
language training for newcomers. The federal government would devolve
responsibility while supplying the funds. Both British Columbia and
Manitoba agreed, while the rest of Canada continued to work directly
with the federal government. In British Columbia there was a panic
initially, because the province put the money provided by the federal
government directly into their general coffers, and gave just a portion
to the setlement agencies and language providers, but that was
eventually straightened out.
1992 saw the implementation of Language Instruction for Newcomers
to Canada (LINC). Massive changes grew out of the Immigrant Language
Training Policy Framework, developed by the federal government, which
was intended to:
* provide more immigrants with access to language training
* foster greater consistency of access and quality
* maximize cost-effectiveness of language training
* provide greater flexibility within programs to meet varied needs
of clients
* develop greater cooperation and coordination among governments,
NGOs, the private sector, and other partners
* incorporate information on Canadian values into training programs
(Government of Canada, 1991b).
Initially, many were resistant to LINC; ATESL and TESL Ontario both
submitted briefs protesting its implementation. The notion of opening
LINC funding to a wide range of providers was viewed as a way of
"cheaping out," as some entrepreneurs saw LINC as a financial
opportunity with no need to pay instructors a living wage. The
government indicated that it wanted programs to respond to diverse
learner needs, but as time went on, private programs became increasingly
similar. One issue that arose very early on was the government's
conception of shared values.
[LINC] is a hegemonic force that operates to manage linguistic and
hence, ethnic difference in a monolingual/bilingual nation-state that
is threatened by linguistic (and "other") diversity... The path that
leads to "integration" through ESL instruction is litered with issues
of identity, race and ethnicity, and assimilation that makes becoming
"integrated" a much more complicated journey. (Cleghorn, 2000, p. 52)
The federal government contracted consultants to produce Canada: A
Source Book for Orientation, Language and Setlement Workers (Government
of Canada, 1991a). This resource was intended to help language
instructors and setlement workers convey Canadian values. It quickly
fell out of favour: it was lambasted by ethnic groups and setlement
agencies who found it condescending. They objected to statements such as
"Urinating in public is illegal in Canada" (1991a, p. 107),
implying that no Canadians perform this act. In fact, many Canadians do
urinate in public, especially after hockey games. Furthermore, there
were etiquete statements such as "most Canadians eating in a
restaurant avoid making any noise when eating liquid foods such as
soup" (p. 207). The book was withdrawn from shelves immediately
because of its insulting nature. It was definitely an "us"
versus "them" document, assuming that all Canadians behaved in
certain ways and that all immigrants needed instruction on how to
behave. Thomson and Derwing (2004), in a survey of LINC instructors,
found that most teachers restricted "values" teaching to legal
issues, gender equality, and respect for diversity. In fact, nearly a
quarter of the instructors indicated that they didn't teach
"values" at all, but focused exclusively on survival English.
Despite resistance, LINC was implemented, and programs went into
curriculum development mode. The federal government was concerned that
measurement of the progress of learners be consistent from one program
or province to the next. A national working group was established to
collect input from teachers, learners, and program directors on how best
to do this. Ultimately the working group's findings were sent to
Grazyna Pawlikowska-Walentynowicz, who became the principal author of
the first version of the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLBs; 1996).
Ongoing evaluation of the CLBs was conducted, and in 2000
Pawlikowska-Smith wrote a revised version.
In 1998, the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks was
established. The Centre provides support in the implementation and
dissemination of the Canadian Language Benchmarks and its corresponding
French version. It conducts research projects on all things CLB, and in
2012 a fully validated update of the CLBs was issued. The CLBs
constitute a massive endeavour. An offshoot of the CLBs is
portfolio-based language assessment (PBLA). This is an approach to
assessment designed to promote reflection on the part of the learner and
the teacher, and to ensure that everyone understands where the
learners' focus should be.
The 1990s and the 2000s saw a huge flurry of locally developed
resources. At the risk of sounding like a homer, there are fantastic
resources on the ATESL website (atesl.ca), many of which were funded by
the Alberta government. All the provincial organizations, though, and
several individual programs have made significant contributions, many of
which are not on Tutela.ca, the online community for ESL/FSL
professionals, funded by the federal government. It is worthwhile to
keep up with what your neighbours are doing. Some wonderful resources
were developed from the inception of LINC through the next two decades.
I want to come back to the issue of citizenship education, and the
contentious issue of Canadian values. In 2011, Citizenship and
Immigration Canada issued a new study guide for newcomers wanting to
apply for citizenship, Discover Canada. The goal was to provide
newcomers with a sense of Canadian values, although Discover Canada has
been criticized for providing an overly conservative view of the
country. For example, in its first edition, Jason Kenney, the Minister
of Citizenship and Immigration at the time, insisted on the removal of a
section on LGBQT rights (Canadian Press, 2010). Although many highly
regarded Canadians contributed to the development of this guide, it is
unsuitable for the intended audience. First, the average grade level of
the document according to the Flesch-Kinkaid readability test was 12.4,
much higher than a CLB 4. Moreover, at least one section was assessed at
Grade 17 (Sallis, 2013). That far exceeds CLB 4, which is what the
government requires for citizenship. Second, the guide is full of detail
that has nothing to do with being a good Canadian citizen, such as the
architectural styles of the various provincial legislatures. Research
has shown that unnecessary detail has a deleterious effect on
comprehension (Derwing, 1989). When the previous minister of
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), John McCallum, was
appointed in 2016, he indicated that the guide would be revised to be
more readable and with less emphasis on the military (National Post,
2016). A new guide is in preparation (Kelli Fraser, personal
communication). In the meantime, we have heard a lot more from
politicians, especially Conservatives, about the need to ensure that
immigrants know about and share Canadian values. Kellie Leitch, in her
candidacy for leadership of the federal Conservative Party, produced a
video in which she said the following:
There is a second part to my proposal. That is to screen all
immigrants, refugees, and visitors to Canada for their agreement with
Canadian values. Do they support the ideas of hard work, generosity,
freedom, and tolerance? Do they believe men and women are equal? Do
they agree that violence has no place in political disagreements? Do
they agree that all should be left to worship as they see fit? ...
These are the values that are enshrined in our constitution. (City
News, 2017)
To me, this approach to looking for a "quality" immigrant
is backwards; fortunately, it didn't sit well with most Canadians.
In the days of Anderson and Fitzpatrick, the government was on their
side, but our current government has more enlightened policies. And I
think we can agree, as people who have considerable face-to-face contact
with newcomers, most immigrants are hard working (although that is not
writen into the Charter as a requirement); they want to get on with
their lives and have beter lives for their children.
Which leads to the question, what are Canadian values? I don't
think that we as ESL teachers can define this, even though LINC expects
that of us, except to note that Canadian values are the laws. We are not
in a position to generalize beyond that. Of course, we can teach
pragmatics (the culturally determined conventions of language)--and we
should--but it is not up to us to go beyond the laws. Generosity and a
hard-working nature are nice personal qualities, but many Canadian-born
people are not generous and do not work hard. And these values are not
in the Constitution. I will come back to this issue at the end.
To shift gears, I was asked by the conference organizers to talk
about TESL Canada. In the interests of this historical account, I will
say a few things about the association. A steering commitee was struck
in 1977 to write a draft constitution, which was passed in 1978. TESL
Canada didn't become officially incorporated until 1984, but it was
an entity, and the first national conference was held in 1979 (Eddy
& May, 2004). Originally, most of Canada was represented in the TESL
Canada Federation; however, SPEAQ, Quebec's organization, withdrew
in 1988, arguing that the focus on English for newcomers did not fit
with the population of English language learners in Quebec. In 2015,
TESL Ontario and BC TEAL withdrew from the federation for a complex
array of reasons, but in the last couple of years, TESL Canada has
rewriten its bylaws and has developed a strategic plan to go forward
(they appear on the website, tesl.ca). It would be wonderful if TESL
Canada can once again become the organization it was at the outset, and
that appears to be the goal. Let us start with the Six Principles
document (TESL Canada, 1982).
A TESL Canada symposium was held in December 1980 to discuss the
setlement of the Vietnamese "Boat People" who had been
arriving in large numbers. Hundreds of issues and recommendations came
out of the symposium, which fell to an action commitee to pull together.
The commitee produced the Six Principles document, which they presented
to policy makers in response to the inadequacies of ESL provision. This
document is well worth reading; much of it has strong relevance today,
and it is a thoughtful, idealistic, and humane view of ESL provision for
newcomers.
These are the principles taken from the document:
* accessibility to ESL for all newcomers
* flexibility and suficiency
* national, provincial, and local coordination
* support for community agencies
* functional Canadian orientation and citizenship content in ESL
material
* recognition of key roles of the ESL professional and the ESL
profession
(1982, p. 3).
Six Principles makes for sobering reading because it shows that in
2017 we still deal with some of the same issues faced 35 years ago.
However, progress has been made. Let us consider the last of these
principles, the recognition of the key roles of the ESL professional and
the ESL profession. ESL professionals have fought for a long time to be
recognized. In 1994, TESL Nova Scotia decided to do some research on
accreditation of English language instructors. Dianne Keevil-Harrold
(1995) undertook a comparison of two provinces, British Columbia and
Alberta, both of which had already been through an accreditation
process, although they took very different steps to get there. In
response to her extremely clear outlining of the accreditation process,
which is documented in the TESL Canada Journal, Nova Scotia's
members decided to institute an accreditation process themselves, as did
Saskatchewan's. Eventually TESL Canada assumed the role of
accreditation and also developed program standards. Of course there have
been bumps along the way, but we have made significant progress from the
days when this principle was proposed.
I just mentioned the TESL Canada Journal, which is one of the most
outstanding contributions of TESL Canada to its membership. In preparing
for this presentation, I consulted the archives of the journal, which
began in 1984. It is a veritable who's who of people involved in
language learning and teaching in Canada. The TESL Canada Journal is a
refereed publication, and many of its articles have been widely cited in
other international journals. Because it is open access, anyone can go
through the older volumes--and I recommend it--there are some jewels in
there, and it also gives one a sense of shifting priorities over time. I
want to make special note of the fact that all of the editors of the TCJ
have been volunteers, and they all put in a tremendous amount of work
that we should all be grateful for. Since the 1980s TESL Canada has also
published a bulletin with updates on the association and the provincial
affiliates.
As previously mentioned, the national conferences began in 1979,
and were cohosted with a provincial association. In fact this is the
first standalone TESL Canada conference. It behooves us to ask ourselves
what the differences should be between national and provincial
conferences. If it were just a mater of professional development, then
why come to a national conference when provincial conferences are
usually very satisfying, comprehensive, and collegial events? They tend
to offer both opportunities to learn practical tips for the classroom
and presentations on current research. Given that, why would a member of
a provincial organization come to a national conference? There are good
reasons to meet nationally, and we should try to capitalize on them to a
greater extent. For instance, TESL Canada has introduced a 50-hour
practicum requirement for TESL program recognition. Why not bring
together a forum for accredited programs on how to cope with this new
requirement, which for many represents a serious capacity problem? The
national conference could be used to consult with members, not only at
the AGM, where people may be reluctant to talk in the interests of time,
but over the course of the two days, with special sessions dealing with
issues that face providers across the country. TESL Canada has generally
been an excellent forum for federal funders to present what their
current projects are and what is planned for the future. Whenever I have
gone to a federal presentation, it has always been standing room only.
In future, TESL Canada might consider giving our federal partners a
plenary slot, so that everyone can hear the directions that the
government is considering. Moreover I think we might all consider two
things that are listed on the TESL Canada website as part of our
mandate--(a) excellence in language, setlement, and refugee programs and
(b) linguistic rights for individuals and communities. To me, these
sound like advocacy. The Six Principles document was a fine example of
TESL Canada advocacy on behalf of immigrant learners. It came from the
ground up. We might want to contemplate TESL Canada taking on some
issues that the majority of the membership see as important. For
instance, the immigrant transportation loan is a severe barrier to
setlement for refugees, as a review by the government itself
demonstrated (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2015). Not only that,
we have witnessed inequitable treatment of refugees; some Syrians have
had their travel costs waived while other refugees, including Syrians,
did not. The loan program costs approximately $13 million a year. That
may seem like a lot of money to you and me, but for a federal budget it
is a drop in the bucket. There is an appetite for leadership on this
type of issue. When ATESL decided in January 2017 to ask its members to
sign a petition to abolish the transportation loan, it wrote to other
provincial associations and suggested that they do the same. The numbers
of signatures from across the country rose immediately. So perhaps TESL
Canada could survey its members to get a sense of their priorities.
Nearly every week there is something in the news about issues that we as
an association may want to weigh in on. Importantly, we as a group could
have our voices heard much louder if we are together than if we stand
alone.
English language instruction in Canada has come a long way. We have
many accredited teachers who provide effective and efficient language
training and excellent programs across the country. We have a strong
research base on which to rely; Canada is recognized internationally for
superb research focused on second language acquisition. We, as teachers,
realize that learning is not all about language, and we can be
responsive to the needs of the students. We know that one size does not
fit all. But we as a collective still have issues to address; we need
increased expertise as contexts shift. Our field would benefit from more
collaborations across programs and sectors; ongoing, sustainable funding
for successful pilot projects; shorter waiting lists; and a long list of
other concerns--insert your own priority here.
I want to return to the issue of citizenship education. In a survey
of LINC instructors carried out several years ago (Thomson &
Derwing, 2004), ESL teachers reported that they can't prepare
learners for citizenship because of the low proficiency levels of their
students; certainly many of the students are not at a level where they
could read and process Discover Canada. However, the content in a study
guide is not necessarily the approach to take. Teachers can still
incorporate citizenship into their lessons, even at low proficiency
levels. For example, Bonnie Nicholas from NorQuest in Edmonton routinely
starts each course with the development of a class charter that she ties
in with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The class decides together
what the expectations of the classroom will be for students and
instructor alike. This is the sort of innovative approach to
"values" using the uppermost law of the land as a starting
point. We can do this, and, in fact, we can take inspiration from a
citizenship class offered in 1913. John Ralston Saul, in his book titled
Reflections of a Siamese Twin (1997), shared a photo of a blackboard
from a citizenship class for immigrants. On it were these duties of a
citizen: "understand our government, take active part in politics,
assist all good causes, lessen intemperance, and work for others"
(p. 130). This is not a bad list. Perhaps we should be thinking about
how we could encourage this in our classes as well as in our own
association.
PostScript
On October 18, 2017, the TESL Canada Federation notified its
members that it would be suspending services immediately due to a lack
of funds and a resistance on the part of the membership to raise fees,
although it hoped to maintain the organization itself. The past several
years were very difficult for the Federation, so the possible demise of
the association did not come as a complete surprise. However, it leaves
several questions that we as ESL professionals must address. The
immediate impact on programs and instructors has to do with issues of
accreditation. Some provinces (e.g., ATESL) gave up their own
accreditation procedures and must now consider reinstituting provincial
accreditation or investigating private companies such as Orion. The
future of the TESL Canada Journal is another major concern. The journal
still has SSHRC funding, but it is unclear what will happen after this
year. It is a fine resource, and it would be a shame to lose it. Most
importantly, we now lack a national body to advocate on our behalf and
on behalf of our students. This is all at a time when IRCC has decided
to offer separate conferences for LINC instructors, thus further
fragmenting our field. Of course, it is their right to do this, but it
means that LINC and other ESL providers will have less contact and fewer
opportunities to learn from each other. Our provincial organizations are
now more important than ever, and yet some of them are struggling too. I
know that everyone has a very busy life, and that teaching newcomers is
demanding and emotion-filled. However, I encourage you to think about
what you can do to ensure that the progress we in the ESL field have
achieved in Canada is not lost. Many of the provincial associations are
in touch with each other, but now it is time for them to talk and listen
to all of us. And, at the time that this postscript is being writen, the
TESL Canada Board is hopeful that the organization will continue.
Whether it does or not, we must come together to reimagine the best
possible outcomes for our students and for ESL professionals.
The Author
Tracey Derwing has long had an interest in ESL, particularly
factors that affect communication such as pronunciation and fluency. She
was a Co-Director of the Prairie Metropolis Centre for 11 years, and
undertook several studies of immigration and integration.
Acknowledgements
Several colleagues and friends have had a profound influence on my
views of ESL, including Murray Munro, Marian Rossiter, Ron Thomson,
Jennifer Foote, Erin Waugh, Jeff Bullard, Judy Cameron, Pati Dunne, Ron
Smyth, Anna DeLuca, Carolyn Dieleman, and Martha Justus. I thank them
all for their wisdom.
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