In Ontario, there is a large gap in the availability of French online educational resources. Except for bilingual institutions, our scan of online resources across Ontario institutions showed that only a small fraction of resources are available in French. Of the resources we found to be available in French, most were only in English or French with very few in both languages. The resources that were in both languages had some disagreement between the wording within the resources. This makes it difficult for francophone students to thrive in predominantly English institutions as they cannot learn many essential skills in their native tongue. Similarly, French educators may find it more difficult to incorporate hidden curriculum training because of the lack of French resources or inadequate translation. Our survey of online educational resources showed that even in bilingual institutions, the English version was at times more comprehensive than the French one.
French Translation
Our project was designed to address the gap in French accessibility with regards to online educational resources. All website content was translated to French by certified Canadian French translators at Across Languages Inc. In the process of translation, a glossary was created from key words and phrases to ensure accuracy and consistency with regard to main ideas covered in our website. Our lead content author is bilingual and reviewed all translated materials before publishing to ensure accuracy and consistency across the content and resources.