English is one of the world’s most common languages, spoken on every continent. However there are places in Europe where the English taught in schools is not good enough for students to be able to speak fluently. 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.
Now school leavers are taking their learning of English to the next step by paying for lessons in private colleges. In national schools, children are taught English for six years, however the majority are unable to speak the language once they have left. So they are hiring private tutors at expensive costs to teach them English which they can use in conversation.
Now the President wants this method to be used in state schools instead of the traditional way. 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 Britain’s closest neighbour with a long history of political and economic relationships, this is a poor result.
And it is no surprise that resistance to learning English to a higher level is coming from within France. For nearly 400 years the Academie Francaise has been purging the French language of foreign words. And for 25 years French film and music has been kept French by excluding English imported words.
This has made many students wary of speaking English before they have perfected the language on paper, for fear of adding to the demise of the French language. However there are those pupils who are willing to pay the expensive fees for private tuition. In terms of business, no CV is complete without the ability to speak English detailed on it.
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. It is the perfect destination for those TEFL teachers who would prefer to stay a little nearer home whilst still enjoying a more relaxing way of life.