English to Enter Official French Education System

Last month the French parliament introduced a new bill that would allow teaching courses in English at French universities.  The aim of this measure is to motivate a larger number of foreign students to study in France.  Parliament expects the plan to result in a rise in this number anywhere from 12 to 15% by the year 2020.

SEE ALSO: English Pronunciation for French Speakers

Naturally, the debate in France over introducing English courses has been heated for the past several weeks.  Considering France’s general antagonism towards the English culture, it’s not surprising that this piece of news was shocking to the general public.  Students participated in a protest walk toward the National Assembly, and the Academie Francaise, the guardian of French culture and heritage, stated that the adoption of the bill would lead to the eventual marginalization of the French language.

The histories of England and France have been interrelated for centuries.  The turbulence of this history has awakened and sustained the French people’s strong sense of their own identity, and to a significant degree engendered a negative attitude towards English culture.  Or at least that’s the well known stereotype.  It is often said that the French generally refuse to learn and speak English, despite the fact that millions of foreign tourists visit their country every year.

However, the plan to introduce English courses shows a different side of France.  Certainly, such a decision doesn’t have so much to do with nationalist principles; in its deference to economy and politics, it signifies the country’s readiness to participate in achieving common European goals.

Higher education in Europe has gone through significant reforms in the past several years.  In the European Union, while member countries seek to maintain their cultural diversity, they also aim at achieving uniformity regarding professional and academic opportunities.  Education has always been an important manifestation of European integration, and many countries have opened the doors of their educational institutions to foreign students.  Apparently, however, French universities haven’t attracted a significant number of international students, most probably because of the fact that the courses have been available in French only.

With the internationalization of education in Europe, plenty of universities have created English language study programs.  As a result, for speakers of English, there are no language barriers to studying in a great many countries, as English has spread across the globe.  French, on the other hand, the ‘lingua franca’ of the 17^th and 18^th century, has remained the official language in only a small number of countries other than France.  With the development of the Internet, English has become the new ‘lingua franca’ and is introduced in many primary and secondary schools worldwide.

Therefore, though it may appear to signal a “national defeat”, France’s decision to establish English courses should be seen as a great victory as it indicates France’s open-mindedness and readiness for progress and innovation.

Still, attempts to introduce English may encounter other problems in France besides legislative ones.  Due to the fact that the country was for years closed to the English language, there may be difficulty reintroducing it into the educational system.  Most of the French TV channels synchronize rather than subtitle foreign movies, so the audience doesn’t actually have many opportunities to get used to real-life English.  It is a well-known fact that French people generally retain plenty of their native accent when speaking English.  This “variety” is sometimes called Franglais and is frequently a subject of parody.

Speaking to the Huffington Post, Michelle Lauton of the SNESUP professors’ union remarked, “The French speak living languages badly – notably English.  First we need to improve the level of English for those students who learn it already, rather than teach it poorly more broadly.”

In order to eliminate the problems associated with Franglais, plenty of French people, scholars included, would have to go through a long process as the English language is properly instituted at all levels.  The adoption of the new bill would certainly signify a good start on this.