English taught in French Schools

[nearlychrimbo]

I am conducting some researching into the English language being taught in French nursery and primary schools and was wondering if some native French Mumsnetters could help answering some of these questions:

1. Does the French national curriculam state that English must be taught?

1. Is English taught in nursery or primary schools?

1. If so from what age would a French child start to learn English?

1. How is it currently being taught...from English Resources? By a French Teacher or a Specialist English Teacher?

1. If English is not taught in schools how do parents enable their children to learn the language...are there such things as after school clubs

1. Do the local education authorities have any say so?

Message withdrawn

Also very interested in this topic! Although I teach French in English primaries, so no information to offer.

1. Does the French national curriculam state that English must be taught? Yes

1. Is English taught in nursery or primary schools? Primary

1. If so from what age would a French child start to learn English? Usually age 6

1. How is it currently being taught...from English Resources? By a French Teacher or a Specialist English Teacher? In our school, the usual class teacher who is French. Very few state primaries have the budget for a specialist English teacher

1. If English is not taught in schools how do parents enable their children to learn the language...are there such things as after school clubs

In our area there is a club run by a French woman.

1. Do the local education authorities have any say so?

Q4. They are using Spot books and Biff Chip and Kipper books + English nursery rhymes.

Sounds quite similar to the way French is being taught here.

Is English obligatory though, as my children learn German in the primary school as their second language. Several of my friends have set up their own associations offering English as an after school activity, and they are massively over subscribed. Otherwise it is the class teacher.

many thanks for your comments please keep them coming!

1. A foreign language is compulsory
2. This is introduced in primary and a second picked up at secondary level.
3. 6 or 11
4. In most schools by a French class teacher, in secondary by a french teacher who dud the equivalent of a pgce in English, sometimes with support from and English native speaker assistant
5. There are some things, depending where you are. People often get English au pairs to teach children English.
6. The French system is a but different in that the state dictates what is taught and when and for how long in state schools so the lea can't decide to not teach the foreign language or change the age to a layer start. They could in theory decide which language if taught but that's more likely to be decided by staffing considerations. They could also in theory provide extra curricular activities.

I am in a DOM though so it may be different here.

hey, frakkin!!! How d'you like it? Rainy, I believe.
hijack over, OP

auld v rainy at mo as catching end of some tropical weather system. Will email you!

Sorry OP

bump

In my DC's French primary school the children are taught English on a voluntary basis by an English couple who live in the local town for 30 mins a week when they are aged 7. After that I think the older ones are given an English lesson by the French maternelle teacher who frankly doesn't speak English so well.

They all learn English at secondary level and the LEA employ people like me (English Language Assistants) and we go into schools and give lessons to students. I teach children aged from 11 to 22 and have to come up with a whole variety of tasks to help them learn.

I actually think the standard of English taught in French schools is excellent and the children at 16 speak a much better level of English than I did of French at 16 years old (and to be honest probably now).

You might be interested to know that the legal texts setting out the new modalities for recruiting teachers in France are now out.

The competitive exam for primary (and nursery) school teachers will henceforth involve no testing of English (unlike the current one), although these teachers will be expected to teach English to their classes.

Actually I was speaking to the English couple who volunteered at my DC's school about this last week. They said that school had become really obstructive so they'd decided to walk away (why a school would give a hard time to people who give up their time for free to help is beyond me, but that's probably another story). Anyhow I asked DS who was teaching him English now and he said la maitresse, so that would be the maitresse who can't speak English teaching English, it's bizarre. DS said they have learned how to say hello and goodbye and count to ten in English.

So I'd say the children in my DC's school are probably not going to have that much English until they go to college. It's a shame really because they often come running up to me to try out their English words.

I thought of this thread when I was on a walk with a girl in CE1 on Saturday whose only words of English are 'stamp your foot'. This is from the teacher who, again, doesn't speak English and her accent was pretty terrible. She didn't understand me when I said it in English in a British accent, I had to repeat it in a strange mangled French accent before she understood me

Well, I invigilated a 1st Yr university exam on Friday, and most of the papers handed in were unintelligible. There is a major problem with language teaching here, I fear. There needs to be a better balance between grammar (students have to be taught what a verb, etc. is in their first year at uni) and enjoyable communication in the language.
Though obv I see the worst cases, because the good pupils go to prépa and the ones who are not v good at English study it at university.

Where you are, Franni, there is the added problem of the imperfect grasp many people have of correct, grammatical French. And that includes quite a few professeurs d'école, sadly.

The teaching of English in primary schools is done by the class teacher, who has no training or support, Or by "vacataires", who IME are often people with an English degree but who failed the exams to become a teacher.

And just to top off the gloom, the new reforms are definitely NOT going to improve things, au contraire. In spite of the stated aim to ensure every pupil leaving Terminale is bilingual (dixit Sarkozy the specialist).

P.S.
Frakkin, where did you go?

Trou de Fer

We couldn't see anything and then the mist just lifted and it was fab. And I loved the walk through the forest to get there!

I know it's a bit special here (and I'm still waiting for the Rectorat to get back from holiday....) but I still found it awful that they hadn't even used a CD or something to model correct pronunciation.

sighs heavily

They don't do much work on pronunciation in Metropolitan France eithern, IME. Most of the CAPES students I teach are terrible models for pupils.

My dcs all started learning english in Nursery, I think age 4 or 5. Taught very early on , numbers, colours etc Also many songs, nursry rhymes etc.

In primary school most english taught by normal class teacher, with horrendous accent. Although ds1 had a specialist english teacher for only a year, now back to class teacher.
Quite a few english people I know offer teaching for the french, kids and adults. We live in the country, but there is more access to extra english in the towns, via private schooling or language lessons

DS is learning what a verb is in CE1!

OSOTC, one of the problems I come across often is that somehow all the things that have been learnt seem to get "unlearnt" by many students.

Students often don't know their irregular verbs, and when the staff express alarm, they'll say "but we did that in 5ème (or whenever), and that was ages ago." As if that was a random, distinct chapter in their learning that had once been relevant but had then been replaced by other chapters, IYSWIM.

Perhaps because they don't use the language much to communicate, then they don't retain what they have learnt easily? They just don't seem to see the point of the grammar, somehow, and don't put the theory into practice.

I think French parents are keen to see an overall improvement too. I'm rubbish at teaching (I sing, they laugh) but did 4 years voluntarily at DS1's maternelle (now in CE1) and almost every childs parent made a point of coming to tell me how pleased they were that their DC's were having English at such a young age from a real live English person (they probably knew I was free and a bit of a joke!) I've carried on with DS1, as I would really love him to be able to enjoy a book in either language and really understand it - now and in the future, but he goes to a "proper" teacher now and he is giddy with excitement at having his Burt Reading test tonight

My only access to english being taught in collège, seems to be very american.

Amazingly though my 5 yr old dts, came home last week from Grande Section, (Nursery) telling me the correct pronunciation for the word 'Three'. I thought this was brilliant for a local french teacher. As my older dcs have problems still with 'th' words.