There are many bilingual speakers of English and French across the world; and this chapter focuses on the Canadian context. Both English and French are the official languages of Canada and nearly one out of five Canadians speak both languages. Canadian French includes 20 consonants and Canadian English a total of 24. Both languages allow for a variety of consonant clusters in syllable initial and final position that occur in different word positions, and a large vowel inventory including allophonic variation, and a writing system based on the roman alphabet. However, the specific consonants and vowels differ in type and also frequency of occurrence. In addition, Canadian English is a stress-timed language whereas Canadian French is a syllable timed language. There are few studies of children’s bilingual acquisition of Canadian French and English, and fewer studies of children with speech sound disorders. There are no speech assessments specifically designed for these bilingual children.

Key words:
English, French, bilingual, multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
MacLeod, A., Bérubé, D., & Brosseau-Lapré, F. (2025). English + French speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

• MacLeod, A., Bérubé, D., & Brosseau-Lapré, F. (forthcoming). English + French: Multilingual children’s speech development. Charles Sturt University, Australia. https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/languages

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goals