French children in Hampshire schools

The data we received from Hampshire schools in 2000 indicated that there were, within the LEA, at least 65 pupils at Key Stages 1-4 from French-speaking families who had been living in Britain for at least 6 months. At this time, just under 45% of these pupils were achieving below the expected National Curriculum levels for English. This was most noticeable in Year 1, where it had been predicted that 6 of the 9 pupils would achieve below Level 2 in their end of Key Stage SATS.

General

Hampshire Hampshire EMA Service bilingual assistants working with French children attribute this, at least in part, to differences between the English and the French education systems.

In France:-

• pupils generally start school at 6 years old.
• there is a different approach to the education of 6 and 7 year olds, who spend more time than English children on handwriting, with great emphasis on presentation.
• French children usually start by using handwriting paper with two lines, progressing to five lines once they have acquired skill in basic letter formation. 'emergent' writing is not encouraged and much of the first year in school is spent on phonology and on learning the alphabet.
• the maths syllabus is quite different, with more time being spent on computation and little on investigative work.Older pupils joining schools in England, may feel that the 'number' element of the curriculum here is too easy.

Implications for schools

• If parents and class teachers meet when the child is admitted to the school, background information can be shared and any differences in expectations can be discussed and clarified.
• Young children may be reassured if they are offered, at least initially, the kind of lined writing paper with which they are familiar.
• Extra support may be needed to ensure that French children understand the purpose of investigations and how to set about them.
• Extension activities in 'number' work, may both help French pupils to maintain their rate of progress and raise their self esteem.

Differences in French which may cause difficulties

Children learning English often make errors through applying some of the syntactical rules of their heritage language. The syntax of French is similar enough to English for most pupils to acquire without any great difficulty. However, phonological differences between the two languages may cause French speakers to have problems in understanding and producing spoken English as well as in making links between spelling and pronunciation.

Sound systems

Words containing vowel sounds which may present difficulty include:-

• sit and seat
• full and fool
• hot and hut
• sank and sunk

Phonemes such as 'th' (as in think), 'th' (as in that) and 'h' do not exist in French.

Implications for schools

• Teachers need to be conscious of the words they use which that can easily be confused by French speaking children so they can ensure that children have understood what has been said.
• French children, like all EAL pupils, will acquire good English more effectively if they are encouraged to work collaboratively with pupils who speak good, clear English.
• It can be fruitless and discouraging to focus too much attention on these phonemes, particularly until a child has acquired a good level of fluency in spoken English.

Grammar and punctuation

Children learning English often make errors through applying some of the syntactical rules of their heritage language. Correct English structures need to be taught, but will be more effectively learned if this is done in meaningful contexts, eg through scaffolding unfamiliar all the genres in every curricular area.

General

The French and English grammatical systems are broadly very similar:-

• word order is similar
• there are singular and plural verb forms, definite and indefinite articles, regular and irregular verbs, auxiliary verbs, active and passive forms and past, present and future tenses.
• French has grammatical gender : nouns, pronouns, adjectives and articles are masculine or feminine.

Adjectives and nouns

In French, adjectives usually follow and, agree with, the noun that they are describing, the feminine generally being formed by adding e to the masculine form e.g. Le livre bleu (The blue book) but La maison bleue (The blue house).

To form the plural of a French noun or adjective, 's' is usually added to the singular e.g. Les livres bleus and Les maisons bleues.

Verbs

There are many minor differences between English and French verbs forms, but if scaffolding is used to teach the correct English constructions, these should not present any great difficulty to French children. Here are a few of the differences, with examples of how they may translate into English, if no models are provided :-

• French uses the verb 'avoir' (to have) to express many ideas which are expressed in English using the verb to be, e.g. 'I have hunger.'
• There is no equivalent in French to the auxiliary do, which we use to form the interrogative, e.g .'You go there every week?'
• In English a question tag must agree with the main verb. This is not the case in French, e.g. 'You've finished, isn't it?'
• In French, the present tense is used to talk about actions that began in the past and are continuing in the present. e.g. 'He is swimming since he was five.'
• French has no present progressive form, e.g. 'Anne can't go out now. She has her lunch.'
• In French, the future is often used for instructions, e.g. 'You will go to the staffroom and you will knock on the door.'
• There is no French equivalent to the English -ing form used in constructions like 'I love to watch children playing'

Word order

In French, an adverb frequently comes between a verb and its object, e.g. 'I forget always the way to do that. '

Implications for Schools

• Correct English structures should be taught, through scaffolding, wherever they are needed to communicate ideas, knowledge or understanding.
• Grammar should not normally be taught in isolation, as the purpose of new constructions will be far more readily grasped where the context is clear and meaningful.
• Decontextualised exercises should generally be avoided, as they are unlikely to equip students to apply new structures appropriately. Writing frames and collaborative activities, where the meaning and the structure of the language conveying them is discussed, as in DARTs (Directed Activities Relating to Texts) will both teach correct grammar and enable the child to understand the curriculum.
• Collaborative learning, where planned peer discussion provides exposure to good models of English, will enable pupils to use and to extend English structures in all curricular areas