|
English-language teaching under review |
|
|
|
Friday, 16 May 2008 |
Stephanie Zygmunt attends the great TESOL debate in Paris
Controversial issues for teachers of English as a second
language were aired in Paris last month. ‘The Great
Debate’ organised by TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers
of Other Languages) and attended by other academic bodies,
asked: Is the current Concours system the best method of
selecting and preparing future English teachers in France?”
The round-table debate, chaired by Dennis Davy from the
University of London, was in English and French with five
panellists from different backgrounds arguing the pros and
cons of the concours. A short discussion in small groups
followed and then the debate was thrown open to the floor.
Véra-Françoise Dickman, associate professor in Modern
Languages and Culture at Télécom Paris Tech, gave a brief rundown
of what the concours entails. The CAPES and
Agrégation are competitive exams which select public service
teachers. A pass in the written exam, with papers in linguistics,
translation, literature and culture, admits you to the oral. The
next step is a year at an Institut Universitaire de Formation des
Maîtres, with theory and six hours a week teaching practice.
The most telling arguments against the concours system
were that the teaching of English in France is less efficient than
that in other European countries; the system seems hidebound
and elitist; there is little hands-on teaching practice; specialist
languages such as finance and law are not covered; and the
system is out of touch with current society. On the other hand,
the concours system wins hands down when it comes to
training a well rounded teacher with in-depth knowledge of the
language and of English culture, able to respond to students at
all levels, and the rigorous method of training and selection
produces a higher quality of teaching than in the UK and US.
A reliable alternative form of training to teach English as a
foreign language in France is run by the American group
WICE (Women’s Institute for Continuing Education), 20 Bd
du Montparnasse, 75015 Paris, Tel 01 45 66 75 50. They run
eight-month and four-week intensive courses for the Certificate
in TEFL, which is delivered by Rutgers University,
New Jersey.
|
Downtime 
