Explore, Destination Clic, and Odyssey are three educational exchange programs administered by the

Council of Ministers of Education, Canada This is a list of higher education associations and organizations in Canada. These are groups relevant to the structure of higher education in Canada. It includes those that support teachers, staff, students, institutions, research, and related gr ...

(CMEC) and funded by the

Department of Canadian Heritage The Department of Canadian Heritage, or simply Canadian Heritage (french: Patrimoine canadien), is the department of the Government of Canada that has roles and responsibilities related to initiatives that promote and support "Canadian identity ...

to promote

bilingualism in Canada The official languages of Canada are English and French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada," according to Canada's constitution. "Official ...

. CMEC is a coordinating body for the various provincial education ministries. It operates these educational exchange programs with funding assistance from the federal Department of Canadian Heritage.

Bursary programs

The Summer Language Bursary Program (later Explore) was created in 1971 by the Government of Canada and funded by the Secretary of State on the advice of the first

Official Languages Commissioner The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of the Canadian government is responsible for achieving the objectives of, and promoting, Canada's Official Languages Act. Canada has two official languages: English and French. The 1988 Offi ...

, Keith Spicer. This was joined by Official Language Monitor Program (now Odyssy) in 1973 and the ''Programme de bourses d’été pour francophones hors Québec'' (PBEFHQ; meaning "Summer bursary program for French-speakers outside of Quebec"; now Destination Clic) in 1977. By 1983, the Summer Language Bursary Program had a budget of $13 million per year, which the then-languages commission Max Yalden thought was a better investment than the "bilingual bonus" being paid to federal civil servants; at the time the SLBP was turning away two out of every three applicants. Explore provides

bursaries A bursary is a monetary award made by any educational institution or funding authority to individuals or groups. It is usually awarded to enable a student to attend school, university or college when they might not be able to, otherwise. Some aw ...

for students to travel for 5 weeks to another province and immerse themselves in one of Canada's two official languages (English and French). Summer programs for language learning predate the bursaries but are now considered the main source for most students who attend them. Explore is offered during the spring or summer for people with any skill level in their second language. Explore participants are awarded a bursary that covers tuition fees for the course, instructional materials, meals, and accommodation. They will discover another region of Canada while learning French (or English) in classes adapted to their language level. Through classroom instructions, workshops, sociocultural activities, and

field trips A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the United Kingdom, UK, Australia, ...

, they will not only improve their language skills, but discover the culture of a new region as well, all while exploring, meeting new people from across the country, and exchanging ideas in a stimulating environment perfect for learning their second language. Destination Clic provides

for francophone youth (grades 8 and 9) to practice their French in another region of Canada. Odyssey provides a salary for Canadians to work as a language assistant working in a school. Members of the program teach their first (or stronger) language to learners from another language group. Under the supervision of a teacher, they will use games and other activities on a daily basis to motivate students to learn more about their second language. Language assistants will have the opportunity to share their culture, drawing from personal experiences.

Receiving organizations

The ''Association québécoise des écoles de français langue étrangère''

The ''Association québécoise des écoles de français langue étrangère'' ("Quebec Association of French as a Foreign Language Schools", or AQEFLE, founded in 1980) is the grouping for many the institutions that receive funding from Explore. Member schools are the Centre linguistique at the Collège de Jonquière, the Ateliers de langues at Collège Saint-Charles-Garnier, the French school at the Collège de Rivière-du-Loup, the École de langues at

Université Laval Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montmo ...

, the École de français at the Collège de Trois-Rivières, the École de français de Trois-Pistoles (part of

the University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames Ri ...

), the École de français at

Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

, and the French language school at

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...

. The oldest among these is the school at Trois Pistoles which was founded in 1932, and hosts over 600 learners per summer (two five-week cohorts of 250 students plus other short-stay learners) into the small town of just 3,500 residents. It is considered a major economic driver in the town and federal cuts in 2010 were perceived as a threat.http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/quebeccanada/archives/2010/07/20100727-213009.html

In popular culture

The 2011 film '' French Immersion'' is a parody of the kind of intensive french immersion course for adults funded by Explore.

References

{{reflist Hayday, Mathew. ''So they want us to learn French: Promoting and Opposing Bilingualism in English-Speaking Canada''. UBC Press. 2015.

External links