Canada: Quebec aims to end students sloppy French with language education overhaul

[Harold Schiffman]

Quebec aims to end students sloppy French with language education overhaul
12 hours ago

QUEBEC - Quebec's education minister has promised to correct the
sloppy, mistaken-ridden French of students with an extensive overhaul
of the way the language is taught in the province's elementary and
high schools. Michelle Courchesne announced 22 measures on Wednesday
that she says will help raise the quality of French being used in the
province. The measures include more time daily for reading and weekly
spelling or writing tests. The plan also calls for the province to
hire 150 more curriculum advisers.

"The secret, the essential element, is a revision of program content
and the training of teachers," Courchesne told reporters Wednesday.
Courchesne's reforms, which take effect in September, represent
something of a return to old-school teaching methods.
The changes aim to shift the emphasis from acquiring general
competency in the language to mastering the such basics as spelling,
syntax and grammar. Calling French "the soul of Quebec," Courchesne
acknowledged she was setting the bar high.

But her reforms will also remove much of the latitude Quebec's French
teachers have had in their classrooms. The government will now
establish the knowledge level students should achieve by the end of
the school year. Furthermore, provincial exams will be added in Grade
4 and in Grade 8. Courchesne and her fellow Quebec Liberals have been
under fire recently from the Parti Quebecois and the Action
democratique du Quebec to do more to protect the French language in
Quebec.

Part of her plan calls for the strengthening of local school boards,
which is being seen as a dig against the ADQ's policy of abolishing
them completely. She called on school boards to take a more active
role in French education by setting targets for exam results and
coming up with their own language policy. The Quebec government
estimates the changes will cost $22 million annually.


http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gGp7T_OKp_S7E2bFxQhjff8y0CKg


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