France to debate introduction of more English-speaking courses
Plans to ease a ban on the use of English in French universities reach parliament from Wednesday with unions threatening to strike in protest at a measure some claim will turn French into a “dead language”.
The French parliament will debate a proposal to introduce more English courses in the country. Photo: ALAMY
2:39PM BST 20 May 2013
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Under a 1994 “Toubon” law defending the French
language, French must be used in classrooms from right through nursery to
university, barring lessons in a foreign language and visits from foreign
guest teachers.
The law also obliges public bodies to find French alternatives to Anglicisms,
such as “mercatique” for “marketing”.
Geneviève Fioraso, the Minister for Higher Education, wants to ramp up courses
in English, warning that otherwise universities will eventually end up with "five
people sitting around a table discussing Proust". The measure, she
said, is aimed at increasing the number of foreign students at French
universities from the current level of 12 percent of the total to 15 percent
by 2020.
But it has ignited a storm of protest from language purists, including the
influential Academie Francaise, set up in 1635 and the official guardian of
the language. Courriel, a French language defence association, even branded
it “linguistic assassination”.
Now several leading unions in the education sector have threatened to strike
on Wednesday, when a parliamentary debate over the proposal opens, with even
some members of the ruling Socialist party opposing the plan.
