Guillaume Gentil studies Professional Bilingualism and Biliteracy

SSHRC Grant 2006 – Research Profile
Guillaume Gentil, Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
Project Title: “Professional Bilingualism and Biliteracy: Contexts and Practices of Bilingual Communication in the Canadian Public Service”

Guillaume Gentil’s research aims to understand the contexts and conditions that advance or impede professional bilingualism and biliteracy in the Canadian Public Service. The results of his research will assist the design of language-training programs and work environments that promote the use of both English and French as languages of work within the federal service.

The project is planned in three stages. Stage 1 will document, through interviews with key informants such as the Commissioner of Official Languages and Heads of Language Schools, the forms and providers of language training within various types of federal institutions.

The second stage will focus on the language learning trajectories of a selected group of public servants. Participants will be recruited from language training programs and, where possible, will be followed for one year after re-integration into their respective administrative units.

The third and last stage will document the communication practices of “bilingual brokers” in their workplace settings. He defines bilingual brokers as federal employees who not only are recognized by the Public Service Commission as demonstrating expert linguistic profiles for bilingual positions but who also self-identify as using English and French on a daily or weekly basis. The rationale for focusing on a selected group of language trainees and bilingual brokers is to identify available resources for, as well as the contexts and challenges of, bilingual communication in specific workplace settings.

“My interest in professional bilingualism partly grew out of my own experience as a bilingual scholar writing in French from English sources (or vice versa) and juggling language communities. Research on professionals who communicate in two languages at work is scant, in part because it falls between established disciplinary divisions of labour between (first-language) professional communication and second-language acquisition studies. Yet, according to the last Canadian Census, 1 in 7 Canadian workers reported they use more than one language at work, but little is known about who uses what language with whom and where, let alone how and why: Much research awaits!”