A New World Of Words

Worried about your children getting to grips with French in their new classroom in France? There are plenty of easy ways to help them develop their language skills at home, not to mention a life-long love of le français, says educational psychologist Janet Myers

- Janet Myers

Do you remember your first, real encounter learning a foreign language, whether it was a phrase or two to use on holiday, or the first step in a life-long quest to achieve fluency? My first ever French lesson in secondary school opened up a door to a magical world with an atmosphere distinct from anything I’d ever experienced before.

We were impressionable 11-year-old girls, learning in the heart of Liverpool, poised for a slice of glamour and sophistication in the form of Miss Bertin, who arrived from France that term clad in couture. As she read out loud from our 1970s French course book, Jean-Paul, Marie France and Claudette came to life in an exotic alternative universe.

Miss Bertin knew how to generate meaningful connections between us and her home culture. For our first piece of homework, she instructed us to bring in a label from a bottle of wine to glue into our cahier, to analyse and label with care and respect, providing us with essential life skills I still apply on a regular basis.

Now I have two children of my own who are taking their first steps into my French world. A year ago, I bought a holiday cottage on the outskirts of a village in Brittany. As a mum and educational psychologist, I have watched as my children have started to learn the language during our holidays there. In this article, I’d like to share my thoughts on how to support the development of early second language skills, and of course, a love of both France and its people.

BUILDING CONFIDENCE