All it took was a great memory and a little rock 'n' roll for French immersion student Paige Mader to secure a gold medal in the Provincial Concours Oratoire, or PCO, (French Public Speaking Contest) recently held at Simon Fraser University.
The Grade 6 student from École Mamquam School drew from her family's extensive knowledge of music to compose her three-minute oration, and credits her dad for helping her complete the task.
"Music is a big thing in our family. I chose rock 'n' roll, the subject that my dad knows all about, so it was a really easy thing to find research on," said the 11-year-old.
"I was kind of unprepared at first, I got my first draft in kind of late, but I tried to memorize it in one day and it workedI guess I was just really, really, really lucky."
Mader said winning the contest made her even more confident in her French skills, improved her vocabulary, and taught her a little bit more about a cool subject.
"My dad taught me more about the history of rock 'n' roll, it's pretty cool," she said. "You can say what you want and no one will care. It's very free."
Finalists in the PCO made it to the last round by working their way through a series of in-school competitions that started in the classroom and ended with the entire school picking the top candidates to go to the PCO.
Mader was top pick through the various divisions, and finally won the gold medal in the Grade 6 Late Immersion category. The school couldn't be more proud, said administrator Janet Smillie, adding that all participating students benefited tremendously.
"They learn research for one thing, and how to find it in French as well," said Smillie. "They have to have proper structure and they have to present it well. They have to be understood in another language."
French schooling is growing in popularity, and every year numerous Squamish parents line up to sign their child up to the Mamquam immersion program.
And the trend is repeated nationwide. There are currently 305,000 students enrolled in French immersion programs across Canada, compared to 75,000 in 1980 - 1981.
More than two million English speaking students are studying French as a subject in school, and nearly 25 per cent of the population aged 18 to 29 are bilingual.
