French lessons

The French lessons serve to develop French listening, hearing-sight-understanding, speaking, reading , writing and language mediation skills . At a higher level, he traditionally intends to develop the ability to understand French-language literary texts . As a foreign language lesson , besides dealing with language and literature, it usually also includes regional and intercultural components.

French lessons in schools in Germany

French as a foreign language is learned by 24 percent of German students (English 95 percent). It established itself as a teaching subject in schools and universities in the course of the 19th century. It is mainly taught at grammar schools, where it traditionally competes with Latin and , more recently, with the teaching of other modern foreign languages such as Russian, Spanish or Chinese.

The establishment of French as a subject in Germany

French has been taught in Germany since the Middle Ages , at that time mainly by tutors at courts who prepared the young nobles for their knight tours. A particular boom was recorded in the 17th century ( Louis XIV. ) And in the 18th century ( Enlightenment and French Revolution ). Integration into the university and high schools did not take place until the middle of the 19th century; The background was the economic development and the need for French-speaking representatives of German ideas and products.

At the university, French was initially taught by lecturers and gradually also by professors with a philological training. This led to a scientification of the subject and a removal from practical application. The Romance languages were mainly dealt with in German and abstractly (grammar and historical philology ). At the same time, French continued to be taught in private schools where practice was the focus and the language was learned through speaking (direct method). At the beginning of the 20th century, French was increasingly offered in high schools. The predominant teaching technique in class was the grammar translation method. A first, decisive turning point took place with the reception of behaviorism in the 1960s. The focus was no longer on grammar and translation, but on imitation and repetition (imitation and repetition) with the aim of reflexively handling language structures. In response to this, the communicative turnaround arose , initiated in Germany by Hans-Eberhard Piepho (1974). The emphasis here was on the authenticity of the discourse (communicative competence based on the model of Jürgen Habermas ). This shift in perspective directed the gaze towards the learner and ushered in a movement that has now reached its climax with learner autonomy .

The methodological discussion in the 20th century

Didactics based on educational theory: grammar translation method

The methods used in the classroom are closely related to the objectives that prevail in each historical context. The dominance of the grammar translation method at the end of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century can be understood against the background of neo-humanism: like Greek and Latin , French was taught primarily because of the classical ideal of education. The pupil should become familiar with the cultural productions of France and grow through the encounter with the outstanding cultural goods that have arisen in Romania. The textbooks showed corresponding characteristics:

Contents: narrative texts about important personalities from art, literature and politics
Language level: written language ( passé simple , hypotactic style )
Exercises: translations, insertion exercises for complicated grammatical phenomena
Learning theory background: Strong cognitive orientation
Advantage: The material is penetrated cognitively.
Disadvantage: The speaking skills are hardly practiced.

Learner-oriented didactics: behaviorist turn

Following the learning programs developed in the USA, the learners should be equipped with "sets of habits" and acquire automatic language skills in the language laboratory . In this respect, the focus was no longer on the material, but on the learner. He should be equipped with linguistic reflexes in order to survive in everyday situations in the target country. The teaching programs show corresponding characteristics:

Contents: dialogues about everyday situations
Language level: spoken, dialogue language
Exercises: pattern drills
Advantage: The language structures are automated.
Disadvantage: The content does not challenge the learner.

Communicative didactics

With the communicative turnaround , the learner remained in the center, but no longer as a reflex reaction, but as an active subject who realizes wishes (speech intentions). The textbooks show corresponding characteristics:

Contents: The texts should show conflicts that stimulate the learner to make personal statements.
Language level: priority of language production over language correctness, errors are accepted
Exercises: The learner is asked to give his or her opinion.
Advantage: The learners gain speaking skills and the fear of making mistakes is reduced.
Disadvantage: the quality of the language is neglected; communicative competence quickly reaches its limits.

21st century: Constructivist didactics and learner autonomy

Use of LdL in French lessons : pupil introduces new vocabulary

A radicalization of the learner orientation takes place with the constructivist didactics. From their point of view, knowledge cannot be imparted directly from the outside, but the learner constructs his / her knowledge on the basis of the material found (see learning orientation (foreign language teaching ) . Teachers and textbooks must help the learner to build up his knowledge. An interesting variant of the constructivist Teaching is the method of learning through teaching (LdL), which its representatives (especially Jean-Pol Martin ) understand as an integration of all approaches discussed so far

the learners convey the contents condensed in the textbook to one another in a work-sharing manner. In this way, the content is approached cognitively (cognitivistic component),
the language structures are automated (behavioral component) and
the learners speak authentically to each other (communicative component)
the learners bring in individual knowledge modules and construct their knowledge together (constructivist component).

The entire lesson is transformed into a project in which everyone involved constructs knowledge together. The aim here is to make the findings of brain research useful for teaching by transforming the class into a neural network.

The question of motivation

If it is construction, then the question of content arises. Especially in higher grades it seems that the mere imparting of language structures and technical knowledge is not enough to motivate students in the long term. From the point of view of some didactic specialists, French lessons, which are in crisis in relation to the number of pupils, should be more oriented towards pedagogical-anthropological reflection. All studies indicate that people, including students, need a purpose for their actions that points beyond them. The French subject in particular offers the opportunity to reflect on questions of meaning and to carry out projects that have a European dimension. An intensive preoccupation with the problems and opportunities of globalization as well as the offer of projects that lead to aid (for example in Francophone African countries) could give the subject a new modernity and attractiveness (cf. Martin 2002 - see web link).

International diplomas

To standardize standards and to motivate learners to choose French as a subject, diplomas were introduced which are awarded by a central body (Commission nationale). These are the DELF (Diplôme d'études en langue française) and the DALF (Diplôme approfondi de langue française). The DELF corresponds to around four years of school French. In Germany, for example, all high school and high school students who take French as an optional subject (four years of French) are prepared for the DELF B1-B2. The DALF corresponds to a level that enables students to study in France.

Sociopolitical dimension

French is the first foreign language, but it is mostly offered and learned as a second, third or fourth foreign language; therefore in fact only a few are spoken of ; The cultural exchange with the neighboring country is therefore limited, the cultural influence of the Anglo-American world on Germany on the one hand and France on the other is increasing.

The question of political will also arises when French is learned by 24 percent of students in Germany, but by 33 percent of students on average in the EU (source: White Book Teaching and Learning of the EU Commission, 1995).

Various exchange programs have been taking place since 1963 through the campaign of the Franco-German Youth Office (DFJW / OFAJ).

French lessons in schools in Austria

In the Austrian school system, French lessons were firmly anchored in the second foreign language as a subject and, for example, in modern-language grammar schools , secondary schools and commercial academies from the 9th grade (5th grade grammar school or 1st grade HAK) for at least 10 hours per week, but mostly 12 taught up to 14 hours per week. In the context of school autonomy , French lessons have been replaced in favor of other languages such as Spanish or Italian , or are increasingly offered, with French lessons being offered in some grammar schools from grade 7 (3rd grade grammar school) onwards, displacing traditional Latin lessons there . Since, in contrast to the Realgymnasium, Latin lessons are compulsory in the Gymnasium, this is started from the 9th grade (5th grade Gymnasium).

With the establishment of the New Middle School , French is now also offered as a second foreign language in compulsory schooling, for which French has been taken up as a fourth major (school subject) at universities of teacher education . In the current phase of conversion in the New Middle Schools, French lessons are sometimes offered as optional subjects and also with teachers who have not yet been fully trained.

history

Latin and Greek were taught in the grammar schools of the monarchy , but no living foreign language. This happened for the first time in the Realschulen created in 1805 , whereby this was a language of a common trading partner, mostly Italian, Hungarian or Czech. Little by little, teaching in a living foreign language was introduced in grammar schools and secondary schools (not to be confused with secondary schools); it was still a language of a trading partner, after the First World War also French and occasionally also English, although Latin always had priority and the living foreign language was often only taught in upper school.

During the National Socialist era, English was introduced as a compulsory subject and replaced all other living foreign languages. English was also taught in the upper level of the grammar school, while Latin and Greek continued to predominate in the lower level.

After the Second World War, English and / or the language of the occupying power was taught as a foreign language, and from 1955 to 1962, English was taught as a compulsory subject from the 5th grade of the Hauptschule (A-Zug), the Realgymnasien and the Gymnasien. The second language was Latin.

With the School Organization Act of 1962, a second foreign language was made compulsory in grammar schools, secondary schools and commercial academies, which was to be taught either instead of Latin or in grammar schools in addition to Latin instead of Greek, so that it could only be deselected in favor of ancient languages. Almost without exception, French was used as a living foreign language.

French lessons for French speakers abroad

Many native French speakers, e.g. B. living as migrant children in a non-French country and cannot attend a French-speaking school there, learn French reading and writing via distance learning . a. offered by the state Center National d'Enseignement à Distance (CNED).

French lessons on educational television

literature

Eynar Leupold (2002): Teaching French - Basics, Methods, Suggestions . Seelze: Kallmeyer
Andreas Nieweler (Ed.) (2006): French Subject Didactics. Tradition | innovation | practice . Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Languages

Web links

Wikiversity: History of literature in the advanced French course - LK documentation 2006-2008 (by Jean-Pol Martin) - course materials

DELF / DALF (Diplôme d'études en langue française and Diplôme approfondi de langue française)
French specialist portal on the Baden-Württemberg state education server

Individual evidence

↑ Jean-Pol Martin: To build up didactic partial competences in the student. Foreign language teaching on the theoretical basis of the information processing approach, dissertation. Tübingen: Fool. 1985)
^ Official website of the CNED

[1] Jean-Pol Martin: To build up didactic partial competences in the student. Foreign language teaching on the theoretical basis of the information processing approach, dissertation. Tübingen: Fool. 1985)

[2] Official website of the CNED