Example linguistics dissertation topic 3:

The extent of bilingualism in the Gaspé Peninsula, Québec.

Nominally, Canada is a bilingual country; yet such bilingualism tends to be confined to major cities such as Montréal and Ottawa. Regions such as Prince Rupert in the western province of British Columbia, however, do not report such wide adoption of national government policy. This paper investigates the converse of Prince Rupert, in the Gaspé Peninsula, in the province of Québec, after a period of decline and stabilisation in the numbers of Anglophones locally. An empirical analysis is undertaken of not only the percentage of Anglophones to Francophones, but the level of fluency in the second language. Additional research is undertaken through interviews with language teachers in the region, as well as surveys sent to twenty non-government employers of ten or more people, to determine their minimum qualification and usage of the secondary language.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Lamy, P. (1979). ‘Language and ethnolinguistic identity: The bilingualism question’, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Vol. 20, pp. 23-36.
• Mougeon, R. (1976). ‘Bilingualism and language maintenance in the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec, Canada’, Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 18(2), pp. 53-69.
• Poplack, S., Walker, J.A. and Malcolmson, R. (2006). ‘An English ”like no other”?: Language contact and change in Quebec’, The Canadian Journal of Linguistics/La revue canadienne de linguistique, Vol. 51(2), pp. 185-213.