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It all started with one language
I was born in France, to a French mum and a French dad who only spoke French… French became my mother tongue and I grew up in a monolingual environment in a small French town. Nothing could really predict what would happen later on… -
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growing up monolingual…
I spent the first 10 years of my life only speaking French. I don't even remember watching a TV show or a movie in any other language than French. There was no foreign language taught in my Elementary School and as far as I remember, every child around me was monolingual. I probably would have heard some English songs but, when it comes to understanding and singing the lyrics, I would have been "chanter en yaourt" ("singing in yoghurt" as we say in French when you pretend to know the lyrics!) -
And then English made its apparition at school!
After reading "Autobiographies: A tool to depict English language learning experience" (Posada-Ortiz & Garzón-Duarte, E., 2019), I can empathize with how my Grade 5 teacher (CM2 in France) must have felt when she was told that she now needed to teach English. I'm actually not sure she could speak English… but I do remember watching "Muzzy" (a BBC program created in 1986 to teach English as a second language). The good thing is that I remember loving those English lessons! -
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and then there were 3 languages...
After a successful introduction to English, I joined what was called "classes Européenne" in Grade 6. This meant that I was going to learn two foreign languages at once (English and German) compared to the traditional curriculum where you would usually start with 1 foreign language in Grade 6 (called LV1 for Langue Vivante 1) and a second foreign language in Grade 8 (called LV2). In addition to those "living languages", I started studying Latin in Grade 7 which was a compulsory subject. -
And then there were 4 languages
When I joined High School, I continued with the “European section” and started learning Italian as my LV3 (3rd living language). Languages were my things and by that time, I had two career options in mind, English teacher or interpreter. I also knew that the following year I would get to go on a school trip to Australia and now had an Australian pen pal… I had always loved learning English, but it now had a real purpose and my motivation kept growing. -
I want to teach my mother tongue
By the time I reached Grade 11, I had chosen the “language and literature pathway” meaning that languages were a big part of my Baccalauréat (G12 exam)! By then, my English teachers were all native speakers. This is when I decided: I WANT TO BECOME A FRENCH TEACHER AND TEACH IN AUSTRALIA -
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Was this CLIL already???
In G11 and G12, I remember that my history and geography teacher could speak English and she would deliver some of her content classes in English. I guess this was my first experience of CLIL! Although it was not a regular class and therefore not fully integrated, now that I think about it, it was quite innovative at that time in the context of French schools. -
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YES… you still need to have proper training to teach your mother tongue!
Being determined to teach French in Australia, I went to university to study English language, literature, and civilization and then completed a Master's degree in teaching French as a foreign language (FLE) as well a Post Graduate Certificate of Education in Modern Foreign Languages. And guess what, I became a teacher of French as a foreign language in England and two years later… -
Learning in immersion
During my 2nd year at university, I received a scholarship for an exchange in Edinburgh and went to study there for a year. As you can guess, being immersed in the English language and having no other choice than to speak English for everything meant that I quickly became fluent. As I often tell my students, being immersed in the language is the best way to become fluent… It is so hard for our students to develop fluency by only being exposed to the target language for a couple of hours a week -
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Teaching French in Australia
For 9 years, I taught my mother tongue to mainly monolingual English speakers. I have heard countless times “Why do I need to learn a foreign language, everybody speaks English!”. I am also fully aware that being a native speaker doesn’t make you a language teacher (and I still get annoyed when native English speakers tell me they can just go overseas and teach English without any teacher training!). -
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Raising a bilingual child
My husband only speaks English, but we are committed to raising our child bilingually. He is now 7, living in China and learning Chinese as a foreign language, studying in English and speaking French with me at home. He is my biggest teacher when it comes to understanding what it’s like to grow up bilingual and I’m now facing the challenge of ensuring he can be literate in both languages without French becoming a chore… -
the multilingual world of International Schools.
I moved to China to teach French as a foreign language and guess what, to teach French here you must be French (yep, only French…), and to teach English, you must come from “one of the 8 countries in the world that speak English”. Very narrow-minded indeed! Seeing our mutlilingual students learning English in context and progressing so fast is inspiring and this is one of the reasons why I now also want to become an EAL teacher ! -
Final reflection
From my experience, the three big beliefs I have about teaching and learning languages are…
- Learning a language in context is easier. We need to make the language meaningful and relevant.
- The more languages you speak, the easier it is to learn a new language. Being multilingual is never a deficit!
- Being a native speaker doesn’t make you a language teacher. You can successfully teach your mother tongue and a foreign language as long as you train yourself.