BONJOUR MES ENFANTS

The government has announced it will inject £53m into schools to improve the teaching of modern foreign languages (MFL) in schools.

Apparently this is to counteract a drop in the take-up of language GCSEs since they were made non-compulsory.

Pardonnez-moi? Wouldn’t a £53m cheaper way of solving the problem be to make French and German compulsory again? Er… no, according to schools minister, Jim Knight.

Jim tells the Guardian: “Compulsory French or German GCSE study simply does not motivate pupils. We will generate enthusiasm and confidence for studying languages in secondary school and beyond – far more effective than simple compulsion.”

Ah sod it – lets make Maths and English optional too – it won’t be a problem because we’ll just generate some enthusiasm with a few more millions.

I sort of see where he’s coming from though. Making kids do something is a sure fire way of putting them off – but you’ve got to draw the line somewhere. There’s no reason why we can’t “generate enthusiasm” as well as making French and/or German compulsory.

One of the ways the government want to boost MFL take-up is by introducing it to kids in primary schools. In fact, the one thing they are making compulsory is the teaching of an MFL in primary schools.

I feel obliged to say they shouldn’t make the teaching of languages compulsory – they should just “generate enthusiasm” for the teaching of languages.

I did briefly try teaching a bit of French to my year fives – it went down a treat (see here) – but that’s because I know a some French already and I do a mean impression of Thierry Henry. But I think asking a primary teacher with no specific language knowledge to teach a language is a step too far.

If the government seriously wants to go ahead with this plan then it needs to think very carefully about how it is going to deliver effective MFL lessons to primary school kids. Otherwise, children who would previously have arrived at secondary school with no preconceptions about French or German, will turn up less enthusiastic than ever before.

MY BEST LESSON

Ecoutez, s’il vous plaît! You must be joking? I was an NQT and I had the worst class in school – I was struggling to teach them English, never mind French. I weakly protested to my head but he assured me that teaching a modern foreign language was no longer optional.

Two days later, armed with only a 10-year-old B in GCSE French and a feint recollection of Madame Baker’s tried and trusted ‘ecoutez et repetez’ teaching method, I took a deep breath and began my first ever French lesson.

It was bizarre – like teaching a different class. They looked like my class, they smelt like my class, but they didn’t behave like my class. Maybe it was because, to them, it seemed like they had a different teacher. Gone was the grumpy Mr. Thompson they knew and hated and there, in his place, was the eccentric Monsieur Thompson.

Teaching French allowed me a bit more freedom. I went into character, and there was no need bring back my old irritable self during the lesson because the kids, for the most part, stayed on task… and even if I did lose the odd pupil, I just told them off in French like a mad old professeur.

A lesson that I was dreading teaching became my favourite 20 minutes of the week. An added bonus was that, by occasionally dropping back into character at unexpected moments during the week, I had a new behaviour management technique which kept the kids on their toes.