The late 1970's saw a rise in the "back to the basicslf movement in education, which was critical of the loss of standards and the permissive program requirements in Ontario's secondary school system. The most recently published Ministry of Education document to promulgate tighter controls over the curriculum is Ontario Schools: Intermediate and Senior Divisions. Because I agree that there has been a need for a more prescriptive curriculum in high schools, more consistent standards in program requirements and tighter controls over courses offered, I applaud the Ministry's attempt in OSIS to bring back a basic common curriculum for most secondary students and tighter prescriptions for a graduation diploma. In this project I have chosen to trace the cycle of the loosening and tightening of the Ministry's control over courses offered in French as a second language in Ontario, and to outline the effects that OSI5 has had and will have on the teaching of French in high school. In order to illustrate the positive and negative effects that 05IS will have on FSL, I have examined a grade 9 basic level French course recently created because of OSIS, and the new Ontario Academic Courses in French which are scheduled to be offered in the 1987-88 academic year. When one weighs the problems in FSL created by OSIS against the overwhelming positive changes that it has initiated in the field of second language learning, one can only conclude that this document will improve the quality of education in Ontario's secondary schools.

Master of Arts (MA)