
Help ! My child is losing their native French!




Hi, I'm Chris. Head teacher at OuiCommunicate.
We're home to speakers of English who wish for a step up from traditional French classes by means of bilingual learning.
In this article, I will provide suggestions if your child is losing their native French.
I am bilingual and I have been in this situation myself. May my experience serve you also!
Understanding and addressing the issue
My mum raised my brother and I as bilinguals. We lived in French-speaking Belgium but spoke English at home. The first ever words I ever spoke until 4 or 5 were English which technically makes me a native speaker. When school started in French, we still spoke English at home but used French 90% of the time.
Luckily for us, my mum had done a great job and really “planted” English into our heads, both as a language and a culture. We watched BBC cartoons, made expat friends, went to the boy scouts in English…to this day I never took an English class in my life. I have the logic of English in me as a native does.
But acquiring a language as a native is not a victory that is won once and for all. During my teen years my development was not as good as a kid who lived in the UK or the US. I did not have the same vocabulary to describe the realities of life andf I did not know the latest expressions.
It was hard for me to sound “formal”. It would have been impossible for me to write an essay to the same standards as other kids. Even my speaking didn’t come out as quickly as I would have liked. Simple lack of practice. I was stagnating in my development.
My hearing skills were still as good as anyone else’s but it was my productive skills that were lacking. I could not produce English as well as people from English-speaking countries.
I later found that it was entirely possible to catch up. I had the roadmap of English in me as a native so it was just a matter of training those muscles. When I moved to England to live, it was a seamless transition. No English person ever considered for a second that I was anything else than English. Thanks mum!
Why was this situation allowed to happen in the first place? Why didn’t my mum notice the problem and why didn’t she react to it?
The fact is that my mum is not a teacher of languages and doesn’t think in those terms. She must have noticed that my brother and I were not as good as “real” speakers of English from the UK but could not have explained why or how.
It takes the trained ear of a linguist to explain exactly where a kid is lacking in a language. A professional can make this diagnosis.
Depending on how much French your child has lost, they might have to study certain parts of the grammar as second-language users. A teacher might have to explain parts of the pronunciation or sentence constructions.
One thing is for certain, the parents must chose carefully. Very often, schools that advertise themselves as “bilingual” are not specialized in this sort of thing. It sometimes takes a specialized private teacher to provide a precise diagnosis and plan of action.
"My kid goes to a bilingual school but is still losing their French!"
How can this be?
The problem stated above is a very common one. In good faith, bilingual schools promise a 50/50 education that will deliver equal knowledge in French and in English.
This can be compared to going to a general practician for a medical problem that requires ophtalmology. It is simply not the same skill.
Firstly, the schools don’t have the structure in place to monitor your child individually and examine in the slightest detail what they can and cannot do in French.
Second, the French teachers might be “general” teachers of French who are not specialized in linguistics or in the training of individual speakers. Even though it might seem all the same to the parents, it would be like saying that a speech therapist is a bit the same as a language teacher. Not true at all.
Third, because the school is located in the US or the UK, the child will use English with their classmates. French will become “foreign” to them over time.
Fourth, there is the ugly reality that admitting to the problem goes against the business interest of the bilingual school.
As a parent reading this, you might have seen the level of French of your child go down. But you are not a specialized teacher and don’t quite know what causes this. You trust the word “bilingual” and you interpret it as you can, with common sense.
But the word “bilingual” can mean many things. The more we look at it, the more we realize we can use it in different ways. In the context of a school it might mean that there is a 50/50 split between classes in French and in English.
Very often, the school must look away from the fact that the standards of their education are not quite as good as a child would get in France. There is a certain pretense that is going on. They forgive the weaker level of French of the children.
Even though the bilingual education might be overall “good”, it doesn’t mean that it leads to becoming very good at French.
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How does it work?
Become our next "success story"!
The lady in this video is from Jackson Heights and wished for us to help prepare her move to France.
Today, she is fluent and happily lives in France where she meets new people and uses French daily.
The “secret” to her success is nothing more than what we offer you: the same learning material and the same approach.
But don’t take our word for it: read the review she wrote for our Google Business page!
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Wish to know more? Phone Chris now or send a Whatsapp message to +1 860-339-6480.
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