Thirty Years After Bill 101: A Contemporary Perspective on Attitudes Towards English and French in Montreal

Oct 15, 2026

This paper analyzes a 2007 study of 147 young Montrealers from anglophone, francophone, and allophone groups to understand attitudes toward English and French in terms of status and solidarity. Using a questionnaire and a matched-guise experiment, results show French receives some status, likely linked to Bill 101 language policy, while English receives substantially more status, likely due to its utilitarian value as a global lingua franca. Solidarity responses suggest positive private attitudes toward English, explained through social identity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages31

Reading Time1 h 18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Montreal’s linguistic context

Research gap in language attitudes

Globalization and policy relevance

Thirty Years After Bill 101: A Contemporary Perspective on Attitudes Towards English and French in Montreal Ruth Kircher Liverpool Hope University Abstract This paper presents a 2007 study that was conducted amongst 147 young anglophone, francophone and allophone Montrealers in order to shed light on their attitudes towards English and French in terms of status and solidarity. The study made use of both a questionnaire and a matched-guise experiment. The findings indicate that while a certain amount of status was attributed to French, most likely as a result of language policy and planning measures such as Bill 101, significantly more status was attributed to English—most likely a result of the utilitarian value that the language holds as the global lingua franca. Regarding the solidarity dimension, it appears that while the respondents recognised the social desirability of having an affective attachment to the French language, at a more private level, they held more positive attitudes towards English. These can tentatively be explained in terms of the respondents’ social identity. Résumé L’article ci-dessous présente une recherche menée en 2007 parmi 147 étudiants montréalais (anglophones, francophones et allophones) qui eut pour objectif d’examiner leurs attitudes envers l’anglais comparé au français en terme de statut et de solidarité . Un questionnaire etune étude des faux-couples furent utilisés comme méthodes de recherche. Les résultatsindiquent qu’un certain statut est attribué au français, ce qui est probablement une conséquence des lois langagières comme la Loi 101. Néanmoins, un statut plus important est attribué à l’anglais, ce qui est probablement une conséquence de sa valeur utilitaire comme lingua franca globale. En ce qui concerne la dimension de la solidarité, bien que les jeunes montréalais semblent conscients de l’importance sociale de se sentir attachés à la langue française, lorsque l’on considère un aspect plus personnel, ils tendent à manifester des attitudes plus positives envers l’anglais. Ces attitudes plus positives envers l’anglais peuvent être expliquées comme résultats de différentes identités sociales. The Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics: 17, 1 (2014): 20-50 CJAL * RCLA Kircher 21 Thirty Years After Bill 101: A Contemporary Perspective on Attitudes Towards English and French in Montreal Introduction Montreal is the urban centre of Quebec, Canada’s only province with a francophone majority. Most of Quebec is, linguistically and ethnically, relatively homogeneous. The French mother tongue concentration ranges from almost 80%, in the Gatineau region, to more than 90% of the population, in Quebec City (Statistics Canada, 2011) . Montreal, on the other hand, is home not only to many francophones but also to comparatively large anglophone and allophone communities (52.1%, 13.5% and 32.9% respectively, as well as 1.5% who have both French and English as their mother tongues [Statistics Canada, 2011]), with allophones being the term used in the Quebec context to describe those individuals whose mother tongue is a language other than English or French.i These allophones are immigrants as well as individuals of immigrant descent, who tend to concentrate in the Montreal metropolitan region because it offers better economic opportunities than the rest of the province (see, e.g., Bourhis, 2001) . While the allophones will here be referred to as a“mother-tongue group”, it should be stressed that this term is used merely for brevity’s sake: these individuals speak a vast variety of mother tongues and thus constitute a very heterogeneous community. Notably, the allophones are the group that has recorded the highest increase in its percentage share of Montreal’s population since the beginning of the 21st century (Statistics Canada, 2001, 2011) . As a consequence of its linguistic and ethnic diversity, Montreal holds a special status within Quebec, and it is assumed by a number of sp

FAQs

What study and participant group does the paper analyze?

The paper reviews a 2007 study involving 147 young anglophone, francophone, and allophone Montrealers.

How were attitudes toward English and French measured?

Attitudes were assessed using a questionnaire and a matched-guise experiment focusing on status and solidarity dimensions.

What do the findings suggest about status and solidarity toward the two languages?

French is attributed some status, likely connected to Bill 101, while English is attributed significantly more status, likely due to its global utilitarian value. For solidarity, respondents recognize social desirability of attachment to French, but hold more positive private attitudes toward English, linked to social identity.

Oct 15, 2026

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