French Admit English Deficit Needs Attention

"Do you speak English?" ask the advertisements for a private language school all over the Paris Metro.

"Not yet, but ask me in a year or two," might be the answer if the French government has its way.

Fearful of losing influence, not to mention business, in an increasingly anglophone world, French children are to be given "intensive" extra-curricular English lessons during the school holidays.

The country's education minister, Xavier Darcos, said not speaking English was a "handicap" and declared this month: "French youngsters must be bilingual by the time they finish school."

Darcos said that the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had given him a mission to "make France a bilingual nation" and that his proposals redressed a social imbalance.

"Well-off families pay for study sessions abroad. I'm offering them to everyone right here," he said.

The reform has provoked a mixed reaction in France where previous attempts to make youngsters more fluent in English have largely failed.Eric Charbonnier, an education expert from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, said France had woken up to weaknesses in its language teaching.

"Ten years ago people said France's education system was the best in the world and didn't need to be changed at all," he said.

"Now there is a realisation something has to be done because France is falling behind other countries."

Until now France has seemed more concerned about protecting its own language than promoting another. In 1994 legislation forced radio stations to ensure at least 40% of music output was French and fines were imposed on public bodies using anglicisms.

Two years ago in a widely reported public tantrum, the then French president Jacques Chirac stormed out of an EU summit when a French business leader addressed delegates in English. Chirac said he was "deeply shocked".

Now his successor wants pupils at French lyc?es ? secondary schools ? to enrol on three weeks of free "intensive" courses in English during the February and summer holidays.

In addition, all coll?ges (middle schools) and lyc?es with low academic achievements have been instructed to offer pupils two hours of extra "support lessons" a week including English. The government plans to encourage what it calls "e-learning" by offering English courses on the internet.

The extra-curricular courses are voluntary and will start in 2010. Lyc?ens will be invited to apply for places next February.

Lessons will concentrate on oral English, a fundamental change as most of France's official examinations are written tests. Classes will be taught by teachers who volunteer to work during the holidays in return for tax-free overtime or by English students from abroad.

These holiday English courses are part of a package of education reforms ? including the ending of traditional Saturday lessons in most schools ? announced by Darcos.

It is not the first time a French government has tried to close the language gap. In 1989 the education minister, Lionel Jospin, made mandatory two to three hours of English a week for nine- to 11-year-olds. Later legislation introduced 15 minutes a day of English for pupils from six years old.

In 2004 a cross-party parliamentary commission recommended ? without success ? that English should be mandatory in all schools and afforded the same importance as the French language and mathematics.Charbonnier believes the new measures stand a better chance of success than previous reforms.

"The world has changed and France has realized it has to change with it. More and more students are spending a year studying in an anglophone country. They realise it looks good on their CV that they can speak English," he said.