| Summary: | French-English bilingualism is common in the primarily francophone Canadian province of Quebec, though residents here receive no more second language education than more monolingual populations elsewhere in the country. Past work exploring attitudes toward English among the Québécois has alluded to the fact that their bilingualism might develop through engagement with English media, though no existing literature explores this relationship. The present study sought to measure English proficiency and media use, with the hypothesis that both frequency and depth of engagement with media would predict English vocabulary scores. The Vocabulary Size Test was used to measure English proficiency, and a questionnaire was developed to capture media use. 23 participants, who were recruited through social media, completed the test and questionnaire online. A series of multiple linear regressions revealed no relationship between vocabulary score and frequency of engagement with media. Depth of engagement was found to have a negative relationship with vocabulary in the cases of music listening and of overall media use. These results do not support the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between engagement with media and English proficiency. Future research could replicate the present study using a larger sample size or different measures or could explore how media might indirectly affect the learning of English in Quebec.
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