Teaching toddlers English dropped

EDUCATION Minister Luc Chatel has climbed down over his controversial assertion last month that he wanted children to learn English from three years old.

Speaking at a languages conference in Paris, he said he had only been talking about "raising children’s awareness" of English (sensibilisation), not actual "teaching".

At present, language teaching is supposed to begin at seven; however, many schools reportedly have little real language teaching at this age.

Some critics have said it would be better for the ministry to make sure its current rules are followed before introducing stricter ones.

Specialists are divided over a French government plan to introduce the language of Shakespeare to three-year-old children Mr Chatel's earlier announcement left specialists in the field perplexed.

Some such initiatives already exist, primarily in big cities and in bilingual and private schools, with innovative teaching techniques, such as Montessori.

At the Saint-Jean-de-Passy kindergarten in Paris, children currently benefit from one hour of English per week provided by a mother tongue instructor, paid for by the parents.

Such examples amuse Michel Morel, a member of the Association of Professors of Living Languages.

"These schools are putting aside substantial funds for the learning of languages, even though few parents can afford to pay. How can one imagine teaching English to three-year-olds who already have enormous deficiencies in their own language?"

Morel says. "At that age, levels of vocabulary vary greatly," he said. "Children can get confused."

Sebastian Sihr, secretary-general of the teachers union SNUipp, rejects Chatel’s proposal that teachers could be replaced with remote learning programmes.

"The idea they could replace teachers is unthinkable."

For the past dozen years, primary school teachers are supposed to teach a foreign language. Since 2006, recruitment exams have included a foreign-language component.

But although younger teachers have benefited from more language training than their older colleagues, many are not at ease with languages, especially speaking them.

This is the result of a lack of training, not just in the subject itself, but also how to teach it. Some teachers have had as little as nine hours of foreign-language training.

Many teachers have only studied written English. Some have studied no English since taking the Bac. "I know English grammar, but am totally incapable of speaking English," said Justine, a schoolteacher in Nice.

"I’d be too afraid of making pronunciation mistakes and so on."

Yet according to the national curriculum, primary students should have an hour and a half of foreign language teaching per week. In reality, it is hardly an hour.

Part of the reason is the reduction in primary school hours to 24 hours a week in 2007, which meant teachers had to focus on the basics, such as French and mathematics, and cut back on other subjects considered less of a priority.