Language Awareness and/or Language Learning in French Primary Schools Today

Abstract

The paper presents the language policies being implemented in French primary schools under the present educational reform and considers how they tackle the question of sociocultural and linguistic pluralism. It questions the choice of teaching one foreign language from a very early age at kindergarten rather than opting for a model of language awareness which takes into account the various languages spoken outside school by a growing number of children whose bilingualism and biculturalism remains ignored and unexploited. The different possible translations of the term 'language awareness' in French are discussed and one language awareness project being carried out over three years in a primary school in Alsace are presented in order to illustrate how languages of different status can be legitimised early on in primary school and how language awareness can be complementary to language learning.

Keywords:

• LANGUAGE
• EDUCATION
• AWARENESS
• CULTURE
• DIVERSITY
• MINORITY