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The Teaching of English in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

William F. Aggeler
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Extract

The methods used to teach foreign languages in France were chosen to suit the French school system. They cannot be properly appreciated unless one has some idea of the organization of that system. The following brief description is intended to give a general idea of the educational system in France.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 73 , Issue 4-Part2 , September 1958 , pp. 7 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1958

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Footnotes

∗

Fourth of a series of articles commissioned by the editor of PMLA on foreign language teaching in other nations.

References

1 A lycée is state supported. When the same type of school is supported by the municipality it is known as a collège. They do not differ in any other respect.

2 The Cours complémentaires are the first 4 years of secondary education (the 6th through the 3rd form), when they are given at an establishment for primary education. The teachers are selected from the best of the primary school teachers at the institution. Their training in foreign languages is inferior to that of lycée teachers, many of whom are agrégés.

3 The word form will be used to designate the school years in the French system in order not_to_confuse them with the grades in American schools.

4 Of the 600,000 students taking modern languages in the lycées and collèges in 1954, 61% were studying English, 21% German, 12% Spanish, 5% Italian, and 0.3% Russian. Of the students taking English, 90% chose it as their first foreign language. The number of students in the English courses was about evenly divided between boys and girls (Cahiers pédagogiques pour l'enseignement du second degré, pub. by Le Comité Universitaire d'Information Pédagogique, Nos. 4-5, Paris, 15 Jan. 1956, pp. 349-350).

5 Chapitre 100 Sd: Horaires, Programmes, Méthodes de l'Enseignement du Second Degré, pub. by Le Bulletin Officiel du Ministère de l'Education Nationale, Paris, Jan. 1956, p. 163.

6 Résumé of the directives issued by the Ministry of National Education for the teaching of foreign languages (ibid., pp. 163-169).

7 I wish to express my appreciation to the numerous teachers of English, lycée administrators, and officials of the Ministry of National Education, whose splendid cooperation and helpful advice made this study possible; above all I wish to thank M. Marcel Leherpeux, Délégué Académique à la Documentation Pédagogique pour l'Académie de Paris, who gave so generously of his time in arranging visits to classes in various lycées.