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BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN
FRANCE
Examples of Bilingual
Education
Bilingual
classes
- first set up in the 1970’s
- additional classes in the collèges (secondary
schools from the age of 11 to 14/15)
- 5 or 6 classes per week in the foreign language
instead of the usual 3 or 4
- teaching of Physical Education and Art partly or
wholly in the foreign language
International streams
- they must include at least 25% foreign or
dual-national pupils
- they differ from the mainstream French schools in
the disciplines of foreign languages and the Humanities (History and Geography)
- their teachers are trained in the country of the
target language
- they provide 6 hours per week in the foreign
language, 2 or 3 in History and Geography through the medium of the foreign language
Joint certification
- Franco-German joint certification programme
- currently a network of 7 French institutions (upper
secondary schools)
- students are either French or dual nationals
(French-German)
- additional classes in German
- 6 hours per week of German language and literature
- 3 hours per week of History and Geography
- either German or bilingual teachers with appropriate
qualifications
- on passing the oral and written examination,
students are awarded a double diploma (French Baccalauréat and the German Abitur)
Case Study: The European
Sections Model
General outline
- created in 1992
- during the first two years of secondary education,
two additional hours of language teaching are provided
- from the third year onwards, a non-language subject
is taught in whole or in part in the target language
- in general, the language of the European Sections is
a European language
- if there is demand, other languages are possible,
e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Japanese (Eastern Language Sections)
- no extra funding, financing is part of the regular
overall budget of the school
- all types of secondary schools (general, technical.
vocational) may open a European Section
- in practice, only a small number of technical and
vocational schools have opened a European Section
- continuity for the pupils not provided
- 1992: 105 European Sections
- 1996: 769 European Sections (617 =lower secondary,
152=upper)
- to take part in a European Section, pupils have to
prove a certain linguistic competence, some schools have entry requirements
Non-language subject
- mostly the combined subject of History and Geography
- to a lesser degree Biology, Physical Education and
Sport, Physics and Chemistry, Mathematics
- in general 1 or 2 additional hours per week
Teachers
- teachers in France generally do not have dual
qualification
- normally non-language subject teachers with
sufficient knowledge of the target language
- in-service training beginning to take place
- teacher training department at Strasbourg University
offers a 20-day course in German for students in their second year, focusing on the
education system in Germany, curriculum and teaching methods in the subject
Click here for information about MBE in France
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