Je suis huit ans

[meredeux]

The French teacher at my DCs primary school has taught both my children that this is how to say your age in French. Ummm.....

what do you think?

lie ins actually I am a primary school teacher, in the state sector, in having always taught in schools in 'deprived' areas, who for years, has been the teacher responsible for MFL (modern foreign languages).

Under the last government there was a push to introduce MFL into KS2. In fact it was due to become statutory in September 2010. Unfortunately the relevant bill did not get through parliament and the government changed.
My school had spend over £2000 training staff and buying suitabe schemes and resources to support the classteachers to teach German and Spanish, much of this money came from the Lea and central government for the purpose. We were used as an example of how non-specialist teachers can teach mfl, with the right resources.

Unfortunately, in the years since the change in goverment, the push for mfl has gone, as has the funding and much of the teacher support, due to financial cutbacks. Many primary mfl advisors and teachers have been made redundant.
I truly believe, that with the right support, mfl should be no harder for a non-specialist in primary school, than me having to teach all the other zillions of subjects I do not have a degree in!

If the school don't have competent staff or a bought-in IWB package, I really wish they wouldn't bother. I teach secondary and really don't mind whether I am teaching from scratch or teaching kids with a knowledge of basic vocab in year 7. What I really object to is having to undo all the wrong stuff they have picked up at primary.

And it's not fair on primary teachers to expect them to teach a subject they can't do competently! Before introducing primary MFL, it would have been useful to introduce MFL onto primary teaching courses or make a GCSE in a language compulsory to enter teacher training and include some training on how to teach it. Basic vocab would do - colours, numbers, months, days, food, drink, animals etc.

As I say, I am quite happy to teach from scratch in year 7.

"You are pretty lucky to get any foreign language input in a state primary"

I thought it was part of the national curriculum. DD did French at primary school from year 3.

It's wrong and makes no sense. Even in English, you don't say 'I am 8 years', so it's not even a misguided literal translation.

I hardly know any French (only vaguely remembered bits from school) but even I know that's wrong...

A "French" teacher?

Bollocks more like.

We had this problem and I complained to HT, for example the class beinng told that you say lion the same in French as in English, just because it is written the same. They have now moved from teacher reading out of a book to a white board program. It's better, but we still need to correct the pronounciation, as the teachers don't pick up on when they are using the wrong pronounciation. Fortunately FIL is French and we spend 4 weeks a year there.

In many ways I wish they would just leave it untaught, or if they want to teach a language, teach latin. The HT arguement was that it is good for them to get used to other languages from an early age which is fair enough, but not if they learn incorrectly and then can't be understood by native speakers, they then won't want to speak it. At least the Romans won't be offended if they mix up latin words and it is a good basis for other languages to be taught correctly at secondary school.

OK BoattoBolivia, that explains it - you were a kind of 'flagship' and got some funding for a package etc. That is by no means the norm, as I am sure you know. My dd got a little bit of French from a teacher who happened to be fluent, no packages...I too thought MFL was coming into the curriculum, and thought we had just missed it (she is now at secondary) Sorry to learn that is now not happening.

My ds went to a primary school that supposedly taught German from P1 until he left to go to anoher primary in Easter p7. The new primary "taught" French. So he started high school with very little French and now half way through S1 he is better than all teh kids that did it at primary - probably because he had nothing to unlearn. It is a great idea learning languages at primary - but it has to be done properly and certainly ime it is not!

Honestly, we got no more funding than any other schools in the LEA, just really ran with it and had a supportive head. ( and I became slightly obsessed ) Every school in the country had the same information, just some heads didn't get behind it and hoped it would go away!
You can buy good packages with Dvd support for £100 per class.

This is my main argument against moving foreign language teaching into the early years and making it non-compulsory in secondary school: an increasing number of pupils will only ever be exposed to non-French and non-German. I had this happen in my Swedish primary school when they moved the age for English teaching from middle to primary school: even at the age of 10 I knew an awful lot more English than my teacher did and I had only ever spent a week in the country and never actually spoken to a native speaker.

Both my dcs went up to secondary with awful French accents and a general idea of French as something that you simply cannot explain- I don't see the advantage. I started French in secondary and can at least read a novel and hold a sensible conversation- and my accent is considerably better than dd's because I haven't had to unlearn anything.

All children in our primary do French throughout school, ie reception onwards, and are taught by one of the teachers, who is not a fluent speaker herself. She aims to give them a 'flavour' of the language, rather than teaching them to be fluent, and is supported by the feeder secondary school.

I have no problem with this but they then go to said secondary and are mixed in with children who have had little or no French, thus have to repeat all that they have done. It does seem a bit pointless.

Its no mistake. My boys are two years apart at school and they both told me this. (The same teacher takes them for French.)

She is English and she's one of the school staff. Maybe she's a TA, but I am not sure of that.

Worse, they don't even know how to break the sentence down e.g. they don't know that Je is I or suis is am. They have never seen it written down and they just learn by rote.

Very unimpressive though

It is not a new problem though is it? DH talked swedish all the way through his german classes and got top marks for it more than 30 years ago.

A french person would think you are english if you said "je suis 8 ans" and probably good try, well done!, if you are 8. If you are 40 we might look like that .

They should learn on the computer/cd/dvd if the teacher is not competent. ther is plenty of free or cheap learning aids available.

Isn't this sentence one of the first any child gets taught when learning a foreign language? I can understand that she may not have an A Level in French, but has she actually even studied it for a week or did she come up with this sentence by using an English-French dictionary?

Anyway, I am trying to work out how to communicate information that a teacher has got something wrong. I am not sure that there is a way to say that when its such a basic mistake.

Merde alors.

I would complain to the head teacher about this actually, as the teacher has taught the children something that is just plain WRONG.

Meredeux,

If you know some of these boys why don't you buy them a second hand French primer from a charity shop for a few pence and let them take it into school?

"I be eight" would be perfectly correct in some areas of SW England

Not in this part of SW England it wouldn't!

She's trying to be Dahn with the Kids.

"I is 8" innit

I hope OP knows them; they are her DCs. She could always get them to go back in to school and say 'mum said it should be j'ai huit ans'.

I would write a letter in a neutral tone stating that the children are being taught incorrect French. Could they check that the staff have had adequate training? The school will then be able to look into it and improve the training, the teacher involved may be relieved rather than offended.

You could point them in the direction f 'Coffee break French' on itunes which is a free podcast which covers everything a primary teacher could need, with excellent guidance on pronunciation.

My dd has been attending an after school french club at school, titled "En Francis". I am clinging to the forlorn hope that's someone in the office who wrote that, not the person actually teaching the class.

I learned this afternoon that the teacher concerned is semi-retired but works part-time in the school. Get this.... her only job is to teach French!

Given her age and connections within the school, i don't think it will be possible to do anything constructive about this, so i think I'll leave it alone (except to maybe take on my sons' French). It will be confusing for them to be told two different things but its not like its a really crucial subject.