FRENCH IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS
SIR,—The writer of the article entitled "What Education Is" in your issue of May 28th is much out of date in his remarks about the teaching of French today. In 5912 the Board of Education issued a Report on the subject (Circular 797. Modern Languages). They noted "the signal improvements effected in many directions during the last twenty years by the advocacy and application of newel methods of modern language teaching." That circular gave a great impetus to the adoption of those methods and they spread very rapidly to almost every school recognised as secondary by the Board.
Previously French was taught mainly by form masters and mistresses with no -special qualifications, and their aims were limited to a passive knowledge only of the written language and little or no skill in its oral use. Now, it is taught mainly by specialists who hold good Honours degrees in French, have had residence in France, often in a French uni- versity, and thorough trainng in phonetics and in the modern methods. They aim first at establishing a correct pronunciation and skill in the use of spoken and written French w:thin a definite limi,ed range of vocabu- lary and then extending that skill to a wider sphere of the language, literature, history and the social and physical background of France.
The result is that all normal pupils who have displayed reasonable industry can attain those aims. The cultural value of the attainment is far greater than that obtained under the old method, and, in addition, it is thoroughly utilitarian in every sense of the word.
Between the two wars, it was quite a commonplace for pupils to go on cycle tours in France and meet with no difficulty, and many boys and girls of z6 and upwards acted as interpreters "in hotels and railway stations" to their parents whose French, if they had any, was of the "gardener' pig" order.
Anyone can get corroboration of the above statements by visiting a secondary school where these methods are used, or getting a copy of the tex:-books in use today. They can get complete information on the methods and the Board's high opinion of the results by a perusal of the Circular 797.—Yours faithfully, S. HEMSLEY B.A, B.-es-L. (Formerly Senior French Master at Louth Grammar Schoqt)
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