Why do they......

[Val_2]

employ "english" teachers in Lycée who don't speak it proper like wot I does. Seriously,my son is at the end of his tether with his english teacher for this year and its only October. This teacher previously had spent many years living in the USA and therefore uses american words and phrases instead of correct english ones that french pupils are normally taught here. He marks my son down because his grammar(the teacher that is) is totally different to the correct english version and its printed in the text books too and generally pokes fun at my boy for being english. I am hoping to meet him and tell him a few truths when they have an open evening,wouldn't you?

[YCCMB]

Let's get up a gang and come with you!

Mind you, if it's any consolation, the French teachers they employ in some schools over here aren't much better: when my eldest son started GCSE French, he was sent home with a list of verbs to learn with at least 4 mistakes in it that I could see!!

 

[opas]

I had a siilar siruation last year. Our eldest was in CM2 and had an English lady come in to teach each class for one hour each week, very basic stuff, when our daughter showed us the worksheets Mr O asked if she could be taken out of the class for that hour and do extra French, this was refused.

The English teacher set them some work and at the year end a control was given....but the French teacher (who from my conversation with him couldn`t speak English to even to the beginners level) was left to mark the papers from the answers sheet provided .

Our girl came home with her paper for us to sign , she had  about 17/20 so I took a look through it to see where she had gone wrong......she hadn`t! the teacher had litterally used the sheet and any variation from this was marked incorrectly.  I even contacted our forum word Smith as I wanted to ensure that I was right before I spoke to the teacher (I was....cannot remember what the issues were)   I am affraid I received the Gallic shrug and a smile

She opted to do Spanish this year, so it is up to me to help them further with their English grammar at home.

Mrs O

[Lizzie15]

Aaagh-it's really annoying isn't it? A neighbour came round a few times to ask me to help with her English homework ( I am a teacher)- the questions were awful,they were written in English but some of them just didn't make sense.How on earth was she supposed to get the answers right when we couldn't understand the questions? Needless to say she ditched her English lessons a.s.a.p. -  much as I had my French , zillions of years previously!!

 

 

[Teamedup]

My friends daughter used to get 'Very Well' at the end of her work, rather pathetic really. IF the teacher had known better they should have added a 'done' or just said very good.

 

Another friend went into college when her daughter got a mark of about 12. The teacher said that that was right, so my friend said, right I'll be here for the next lesson and we'll see how many of these marvels can speak english and understand me........... the teacher increased the marks.

I have some doubts about this course of action, but she and I used to get sick of being told how fastoche it would be for our kids doing english at school, much of it being incomprehensible to us the parents and our kids too. Sometimes I used to think it was a disadvantage.

[Mistral]

In reply to the original question; English teachers are supposed to accept both the American and British ways of saying things. The only limit is that a pupil is consistant, using either one form or the other. This is great in theory, but unfortunately a lot of teachers don't know both forms so tend to only accept one.

British English is the basic form taught in collège with an American character usually popping up in books so you can have somebody saying "gee Patty!!" or whatever. In lycée, pupils are supposed to study  American English as well.

Every year I get pupils telling me I write the date wrong (day number month) All the teachers round here write it the American way. That's not a problem, but what is, is that they don't know there is a difference and all assume they are writing it the British way. More annoying was my daughter in CE1 last year who came home a bit confused because the teacher had asked how the "anglais" said père noël and she had been told she was wrong when she said "Father Christmas". The expected answer was santa of course.

If I ever get my hands on the person who has been going round telling primary pupils that "gros" means big  (OK I know it does in certain situations)

 

[Tourangelle]

Frankly, English parents out there, don't send you children to English lessons in French schools, mrs o's daughter has the right idea, opt for something like Spanish. She will not miss out from not having had to work on the difference between, say, should and have to and must. There are some fantastic French teachers of English out there, who speak better English than 50% of the UK population, and then there are the others.

There is absolutely nothing stopping a child from enrolling in English at the baccalaureat as their first foreign language and doing Spanish or whatever as a "second" language (unless they are doing the bac "ES", because the second language is done as an oral). The child will have the major advantage of having studied their "second" language for two years longer than the other pupils. Win-win situation really.

[Mistral]

Frankly, English parents out there, don't send you children to English lessons in French schools, mrs o's daughter has the right idea, opt for something like Spanish.

I quite agree but you've got to be able to. Of the three collèges in my town, only one has a choice of LV1 and the lycée only has English LV1 at the moment. Until this year, the only language taught in the 10 or so primary schools was English. All the LEP's in the area only teach English LV1 (no LV2 at all)

[Wendy]

My 12 year old son had to repeat his first year of College. He was placed the lowest in the class in his English exam results and was failed for the year in that subject. We enquired as to what method they are using, besides the book, to actually teach english but they aren't forthcoming. Rather defensive actually. Quite ridiculous to be english-speaking and failed in your exams. Even stranger as the other kids in his class, french, get higher marks and yet cannot even communicate in spoken english with him !