Education in the 21st century (II) Growing together in a social, inclusive and digital education system

Literacy in French: growing together

In the Grand Duchy, Luxembourgish, German and French are taught in traditional primary education. This multilingual system is both an advantage and a challenge. In order to provide more equal opportunities for all students with extremely diverse linguistic backgrounds, the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth launched a pilot literacy project in French in September 2022 in four primary schools across the country. The programme is based, more specifically, on the experience gathered in state international schools that follow the European school curriculum. Sarah Scholtes, a teacher in level 2.1 at the Schifflange school, is actively working on this project directly in the field.

For years you have been teaching children to read and write in German. However, this year things are different. You are teaching in French! What is your initial impression after a few weeks of lessons?

My first impressions are extremely positive. In contrast to the German-speaking curricula, with which I have worked in recent years, the French-speaking approach is more ritual-based. Vocabulary is developed through songs, poems and stories that are repeated and then recited by heart by the children after a few days. Overall, I get the impression that I speak much more in French now than I did in German beforehand. Moreover, I no longer need to translate as much for the children. Speaking French in everyday life as well as during extracurricular activities, coupled with the Trampoline programme (an analytical approach to learning), further simplifies the early stages of literacy. At the start of the school year we systematically practised phonological-awareness exercises on a daily basis. Currently, we are working on the grapheme-phoneme correspondence and the fusion of several graphemes. With the help of literary texts, reading comprehension is developed little by little.

What sort of feedback are you getting from the children?

The children adore the different rituals. If I forget one ritual, they immediately remind me.

Do you speak French in every lesson or do you still use other languages?

For pupils who are literate in French, the roles of French and German have been reversed compared to the pupils who are literate in German: French is the main written and spoken language - "Language 1" - and German - "Language 2" - is learned orally. We speak French in French lessons (9 hours) and Maths lessons (6 hours). German is taught for one hour per week. All the other subjects are taught in Luxembourgish. For us, it was important that Luxembourgish remained the common language of communication and the language of integration for all. As we have a mixed group of children from two different classes in level 2.1, in the secondary subjects the pupils write the classwork in the language in which they are literate. This approach reflects the open-minded approach to languages, outlined in the study plan.

How can you introduce children to a language in a fun and entertaining way?

Learning a language is fun when the teaching is varied and the children are actively involved. Hence, the phases of discovering sounds with all the senses are longer than those when we write in school books. Pupils come to level 2.1 in order to learn to read and write, and to stay motivated. Therefore, it is essential that they quickly achieve their goals. They need to see that their efforts are worthwhile. In this regard, books are just as useful as digital media. Literacy in French does not change the academic pathway to secondary education later on.

Many thanks to Sarah Scholtes for this interview. We would like to inform our readers that, due to layout constraints, some parts of the interview have been summarised.