This presentation compares secondary school French curricula in England and Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia) over time. It analyses differences and similarities regarding approaches to communicative competence, vocabulary, grammar, texts and topics and the alignment to the CEFR. Implications for teaching and learning will be discussed.
Different curricula reflect different orientations to language, learning and teaching since any curriculum approach is influenced by the value system of the people involved (White 1988). Clark (1987) points out that the FL curriculum in any particular context can only be understood if one tries to understand how various influences such as socio-political and philosophical matters and educational value systems interrelate. From a second language acquisition (SLA) perspective, N. Ellis (2005:340) suggests that "there must be a balanced learning curriculum that provides opportunities for meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, form-focused learning, and fluency development". Different curriculum types and perspectives are likely to determine the role of, for instance, formal accuracy in L2 teaching. Based on this premise, this paper presents a comparison of current L2 curricula in England and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in Germany, with reference to a comparison study by the author (2012) before the curricula's respective reforms. The curricular requirements and changes for French as a first foreign language are compared (Key Stage 4 in England and Year 10 in NRW).The analysis focuses on systematic differences and similarities regarding approaches to communicative competence, vocabulary size aims, grammar specification, and approaches to texts and topics. The aim is also to identify prevailing key language policies and to investigate the level of alignment to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Possible implications of these developments for MFL teaching and learning in both educational settings will be discussed.
References
Clark, J. 1987. Curriculum Renewal in school foreign language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, N. 2005. At the interface: Dynamic interactions
of explicit and implicit language knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27: 305-352.
White, R. 1988. The ELT Curriculum. Oxford:
Blackwell.
