During school holidays, students often choose to improve their foreign language skills through a language stay abroad. Example of Brighton in England. The report follows a group of young people of about fifteen years old first in a classroom, then in cultural ite at the Palais Oriental in Brighton and in the city where they try to make themselves understood by shopkeepers and passers-by. Their teacher, Allison GOLD, says there is worse than the French accent ... the Japanese accent! and continues "We English like the French accent, we find it charming."
The results of the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) show that the French rank 69th in the world in the mastery of the English language. Micro-sidewalk in the streets of the capital and explanations... Interviews with Valérie GAUTHIER, professor at HEC stating that in France language learning begins too late and that teachers are not sufficiently trained and Philippe INCAGNOLI, marketing director "Wall Street Institut", stating that the French are afraid to speak English.
In a company and at the University Paris X-Dauphine, this report investigates the level in foreign languages of the French. Bernard DECONINCK, CEO of the international group Sommer-Allibert, testifies to his difficulty in recruiting young French executives who speak fluent English "we French, we do not have the necessary openness in languages". At the faculty of Paris X-Dauphine, interview with Michel POIX, director of UER, on the teaching of foreign languages in Dauphine, the only faculty in Paris that has an intensive and specialized language teaching based on exchange and immersion in a foreign country.
School holidays are an opportunity for French students to learn a foreign language in immersion. On the quays of Victoria Station, London, meet young people from Vitry sur Seine who came to England thanks to a twinning of their city with the city of Burnley, near Manchester.
Testimony of Patricia, French au pair in England. It evokes the bad reputation of young French in the region and the not always easy relations between French and English. Interview with Patrick DUCRET, university and school assistant, on the easy social background of students going on a language stay abroad.
Experience of learning the English language at the Edouard Herriot kindergarten in Limoges. Interview with the English mother tongue teacher explaining her teaching methods, in particular motor exercise.
The Artificial Intelligence Group of the University of Luminy tries an experiment with the presentation of an automatic method of teaching English by laser video disc: a first in France. Interview with Professor Thomas: "Through this process, we get to know in depth the personality and possibilities of the students tested. The computer can analyse a student’s knowledge and make it possible to perfect and complete it".