In a bid to strengthen bilingualism and promote French language education in Canada, the federal government has pledged over $2 million to innovative educational projects. The funds will go to Voilà Community Help, a non-profit organization that focuses on French-language teaching via metaverse technology.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, announced the funding in the company of Arielle Kayabaga, Member of Parliament (London West) on Wednesday.
One of the funded projects, Artificial Intelligence for Official Languages, is a collaborative initiative with more than 35 school boards. The project aims to enhance Voilà Learning, a dynamic virtual platform where students can bolster their language skills through interactive learning experiences. With the integration of artificial intelligence, the platform can now tailor educational content to the unique learning profile of each student, thus improving their learning outcomes and their proficiency in French as a second language.
The MétaLingo project is another beneficiary of the funding. This initiative focuses on early childhood French-language learning, providing preschoolers with a virtual environment where they can interact in French through age-appropriate activities and games.
“It’s truly delightful to see the launch of projects that merge cutting-edge technology with French-language learning in Canada. The pandemic has amplified the need for such innovative learning mechanisms, and it’s heartening to see the high demand for the virtual campus among school boards across Canada,” said Minister Petitpas Taylor.
“We have shown that our virtual campuses can foster a more inclusive and accessible education system for all Canadian students, regardless of their linguistic background,” said Hosni Zaouali, President of Voilà Community Help.
The government’s commitment to these projects is part of a broader strategy to reinforce French-language education and foster bilingualism, starting from early childhood. Who needs to practice speaking and learning French in real life? Let’s just hit up the metaverse, right?
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I’m glad to see governments invest in new education initiatives. It may or may not work, but researchers need to put their theories and methods to the test, and the best and actively useful data is in real world scenarios.
waste of money, they already teach it in school. they’re using it for people who have access to vr and chooses to use meta? good intentions but nah. early optional language classes is the way to go. should be English/french/+optional in school its one of the more useful skills to speak more languages. especially when we are a multicultural country.