4. Conclusion

Lastly, we can see that in 2001, the majority of workers of French mother tongue were working in French, although there was also a considerable percentage (52 %) working in English in Montreal. Workers with English as a mother tongue found it harder to progress in a professional context without the use of a second language: 63 % of them worked in French whilst also using English.

Those of tertiary mother language, on the other hand, are split between the use of French and English at work. In addition, we have observed that recent immigrants (1991-2001) tend to use French to a lesser extent than their predecessors who arrived between 1971 and 1990.

The francisation process of companies which has been in force for almost 30 years now has borne its fruits: the use of French is now generally more widespread in certified companies than in those which are not certified. Moreover, the near totality of native French speaking workers use French in the workplace, to a greater or lesser extent, although English is gaining importance in the Montréal working environment due not only to the characteristic of the business (language of owning entity, location of the headquarters) but also as a result of the globalisation of communications which is now imposing certain constraints on various areas of finance which are legitimating the current linguistic policies in force in Quebec after almost 30 years of enforcement..

5. References

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BOUCHARD, P. The stakes of the francisation of Quebec businesses (1977-1984), Coll. Languages and companies, Montréal, Office of the French language 1991.

INTERMINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON THE SITUATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE, French as a common language. Issues for the Quebec society, [Québec], ministry for Culture and Communications, [12], 1996.

COUNCIL FOR THE FRENCH LANGUAGE, Indicators of language on the workplace in Quebec 1994 Edition, Québec, Council for the French language [4], 1995.

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RAYNAULD, A. and F. VAILLANCOURT. The ownership of businesses: the situation of Quebec in 1978, Files of the Council for the French language, Studies and research into the French language, Studies and research no 19, Official publisher of Québec, Québec, 1984.

VAILLANCOURT, F. ET L. VAILLANCOURT. The property of employers in Quebec in 2003 according to the group of French linguistic belonging Québec, 2005.

Virginie Moffet
Pierre Bouchard
Quebec office of the French Language
Pierre.Bouchard@oqlf.gouv.qc.ca