1996/97 PCERII Funded Research Abstract

Research Title: Integration and Language Proficiency

Research Team: Dr. John Archibald (University of Calgary) - Principal Investigator

Research Domain(s): Education

Immigrants to Canada are not always successful in finding well-paying jobs in their new country. They are also much more likely to drop out of the Canadian education system than are native speakers (Watt & Roessingh, 1994). In other words, their social outcomes and integration patterns are quite varied.

Similarly, second language learners tend to vary considerably in their proficiency in both of their languages. What this project seeks to address is the extent to which level of language proficiency in both languages affects patterns of acculturation.

One of the major issues to be addressed in the field of immigration is the notion of acculturation. Individuals arriving in Canada - speaking another language, belonging to another culture - have a number of options available to them with respect to language and culture. Researchers have noticed that immigrants can behave in one of the following four ways:

Accept Target Culture and Reject Home Culture

Accept Home Culture and Reject Target Culture

Accept Target Culture and Accept Home Culture

Reject Target Culture and Reject Home Culture

Lambert (1967) has argued that the most desirable combination is the third one which he refers to as maintaining a Dual Heritage. Accepting the Target Culture usually results in advanced proficiency in English (the Target Language). Accepting the Home Culture usually results in maintaining the first language. Retaining the first language has the advantage of allowing the children to still be influenced by their family members. If they cannot speak the same language as their parents and grandparents, then they cannot be guided by them.

What I would like to look at in this project is the causal connection of how proficiency affects integration. I would like to see the connections between level of proficiency - in the L1 and the L2 - and such social factors as: job income, education, etc. Overall, I would collect information on the independent factors of: education, income, age of arrival, length of study, and see what correlations there are. My prediction would be that subjects who had higher levels of proficiency would be more likely to have higher incomes, better jobs, etc.

Other advantages to being bilingual include such things as greater cognitive flexibility and greater sensitivity to the needs of the listener (Cummins, 1981). These qualities may well benefit the bilingual subjects in the workplace.

Cummins' basic model predicts that there are a number of differing profiles that may emerge with respect to differing degrees of bilingualism, as shown below:

Advanced Proficiency in L1 and L2 --> Cognitive Advantages

Advanced Proficiency in either L1 or L2 --> Normal

Advanced Proficiency in neither L1 nor L2 --> Cognitive Deficits

By testing the subjects' proficiency in both languages we will be able to place them on this chart, and run correlations on things like academic achievement, job placements, etc. It may also provide the opportunity to provide an empirical basis to Cummins' dual threshold hypothesis. In short, the hypothesis is that people who have higher levels of proficiency in both languages are more likely to maintain a dual heritage and more likely to integrate into the Canadian fabric productively.