English is one of the world’s most common languages, spoken on every continent. However, there are countries close to home which are still to learn English in a successful way. And now there is an assault battering at the old fashioned and ineffective teaching methods in France led by the country’s president, Nicholas Sarkozy. Now schools and private language institutions are starting teaching English as a foreign language in different ways.
The latter is how many people are choosing to study English once they have left school. In national schools, children are taught English for six years, however the majority are unable to speak the language once they have left. Conversational English is now being taught by private tutors to help people build up their ability to speak the language.
Sarkozy wants this method of teaching to replace the traditional method being used in state schools. Because even though France spends 5.9% of its GDP on education, it is ranked only 69th out of 109 countries in the standardized Test of English as a Foreign language. As one of Britain’s most historical neighbours with a long term economic and political relationship, this is surprising.
It seems however that the resistance to learning any other language than French is coming from within the education system of the country. The Academie Francaise has been purging the French language of foreign words since 1635. There has also been a 25 year struggle to keep English-imported words out of French film and music.
With this in mind some students will not speak English until they have mastered it on paper because they do not want to sacrifice their native French. But private language tuition is growing in France. It will help them immeasurably if they want to get into business, as many firms only use English to correspond.
With new attention being placed on the way languages are taught in France there has never been a better time to start teaching English as a foreign language there. And France is a great location to teach if you do not want to move too far away from home.
