Intervention Reading Comprehension Programme in French Language

Abstract

One of the priorities of European language policy is to maintain linguistic diversity, cultural identity and, last but not least, to promote effective foreign language learning. French language has a long tradition in the Slovak geographical area, whether in a historical, cultural or economic context. In the educational context over the last decade, however, it has become a second foreign language, which has begun to be reflected in particular in the declining numbers of pupils studying French. Quantitative indicators in the form of statistical yearbooks show a sixty to seventy-five percent decrease in the number of pupils learning French at different levels of education. The lower numbers of lessons, normally allocated for a second foreign language, affects the quality of the knowledge and language skills that the pupil has to acquire in order to be able to communicate at the required level in French. Based on the current position of French language in the Slovak school environment and the requirements that are placed on the language level of students, our goal was to design an effective tool that would take into account the various factors affecting the acquisition of foreign language competence of students in French. The main aim of our contribution is to present to the professional public a tool in the form of an intervention program, which specifically focuses on the development of one of the key language skills included in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, namely reading comprehension in French language. The degree of difficulty of its acquisition depends on several factors. The mastery of the linguistic, sociolingual and intercultural specifics typical for French language plays an important role in this process. In a broader sense, however, it is a much more complex process, which is also conditioned by cognitive, social and personality variables. These variables can also be called predictors or factors that significantly affect the understanding of a foreign language text. The overall concept of the intervention program is based on pre-research associated with measuring the level of reading comprehension and determining the predictors affecting students' comprehension of the text. Considering the pre-research carried out to determine the achieved level of pupils in reading comprehension, the proposed intervention program can be regarded as a preventive, but also a corrective tool for the development of language competence in French language. The compilation of an intervention program in the form of ten model intervention units for the development of reading comprehension in French has a precise structure and takes into account the ontogenetic specifics of the target group (third-year students of secondary education). The ambition of the intervention program is to include various possibilities and ways of working with text in French with regard to the development of the relevant predictor, and thus contribute to improve the quality of language education of students and last but not least to be an inspiration for teachers (as well as future teachers) of French language in a new original way.