{"id":48524,"date":"2019-07-04T13:28:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T20:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=48524"},"modified":"2019-07-04T13:28:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T20:28:31","slug":"foreign-languages-what-is-a-good-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/foreign-languages-what-is-a-good-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign languages: what is a good teacher?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At a time when the training and recruitment of teachers is about to undergo a new reform, we ask the question of what is a good language teacher.\u00a0Indeed, if the shortcomings of French students in this area continue to be pointed out (\u00a0CNESCO 2019<\/a>\u00a0), they are often put in parallel with the training of teachers, considered inappropriate, in a link of cause and effect that would be obvious.<\/p>\n

What is it really ?\u00a0What are the essential skills and how to develop them effectively?\u00a0It goes without saying that fluency in the language at a high level is an essential prerequisite.\u00a0Oddly enough, however, the level targeted by future teachers is never mentioned in the official instructions of the Ministry of Education.<\/p>\n

Bearing in mind that some high school courses (in terminology L, advanced living language) are aimed at level C1 of the\u00a0Common European Framework of Reference for Languages<\/em>\u00a0(\u00a0CEFR 2001<\/a>\u00a0), we would therefore be entitled to expect teachers at least an immediate higher level, ie a level C2 (the highest level on the skill scale).<\/p>\n

The question is whether this level is a realistic goal to achieve as licenses specialize more and more\u00a0late<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0Indeed, it is important to note the very special status of languages: these are the only disciplines that need to be used for their teaching, the object to be taught (language-object) being the same as the teaching medium ( language tool).<\/p>\n

Class dynamics<\/h4>\n

Updating the knowledge of the language teacher is therefore a real challenge in that it does not only teach facts (linguistic, cultural, etc.) that could be learned in books, but where it is brought to communicate in the language to teach his students to communicate, which requires maintaining a regular practice.<\/p>\n

One of the objectives of the main recruitment competition for secondary language teachers (CAPES) is precisely to check the level of proficiency in the language: from this point of view, the current balance between disciplinary tests and tests professional seems to be very relevant.\u00a0However, it risks being undermined in the announced changes to CAPES, which is intended to be more professional (see\u00a0Ronzeau report and Saint-Girons 2019<\/a>\u00a0).<\/p>\n

Beyond this specificity of the discipline itself, researchers (\u00a0Borg 2006<\/a>\u00a0) have been able to identify certain characteristics specific to language teaching, corresponding to as many skills to be developed by future teachers.<\/p>\n

:<\/p>\n