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The Study of French as a Foreign Language *

1968–1973  

The study investigated factors associated with the learning of French as a foreign language. Tests were developed to assess performance in reading, listening, speaking and writing. Two types of writing tests were used. The first could be reliably scored, being of an objective or quasi-objective nature. The second involved directed composition. The data were collected in 1971.

Target Population

This was 14-year-old students and students in the final grade of the secondary school.

Participating Educational Systems

Chile, England, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Scotland, Sweden, United States.

Key Findings

  1. General proficiency in learning French was strongly related to performance on a word knowledge test in the student’s mother tongue, which was used as a measure of verbal ability.
  2. The student’s aspiration to understand spoken French contributed more to listening achievement than to reading achievement. Aspiration to learn to read French contributed more to reading scores than to listening scores.
  3. In all four field of performance (reading, listening, speaking and writing) there was a strong linear relationship between country mean score and the average number of years the students had studied French.
  4. Time spent on homework had an influence on reading scores, but much less effect on listening scores, which were only indirectly influenced by amount of homework. Classroom activities were much more important for listening. Students achieved higher scores when French was used for a substantial part of the time in the classroom, and when the use of the mother tongue was reduced but not eliminated.
  5. Neither the amount of university training nor the amount of travel or residence in a French-speaking country by the teacher led to any differences in students’ French achievement.

Major Publications

 

Carrol, J.B. (1975).

The Teaching of French as a Foreign Language in Eight Countries.

Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell; New York: John Wiley & Sons.

 

Walker, D.A. (1976).

The IEA Six-Subject Survey: An Empirical Study of Education in Twenty-One Countries.

Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell; New York: John Wiley & Sons.

 

* Part of the Six-Subject Study

 

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