Le manuel de langue : besoins et attentes des enseignants de FLE

Abstract

The design of books for teaching French turns out, for publishing houses, to be a process of pedagogical, didactic, editorial and commercial reflection resulting from market re- search. The language manual as an educational tool is subject to issues, constraints, expecta- tions, needs, modifications, improvements or obsolescence. Despite the intention of publish- ing houses to design methods with an action-oriented perspective, it would seem that a minor- ity of these textbooks offer communicative tasks that can be transposed into the daily life of a learner in a situation of immersion in France. This is why we are wondering about the needs and expectations that French (as a foreign language teachers) who are based in in France have regarding tasks anchored in the daily life of French people for A1 level of the CEFR. During this research, we were led to set up a needs analysis process in order to identify three types of needs (gaps, dysfunctions and expectations) and to try to translate them in the form of 'an explicit request detailed by orientations and avenues for the design of textbooks or FLE lan- guage methods at Éditions Maison des Langues. Among the main results, FLE teachers in France wish to promote the Action Perspective through the integration of communicative tasks making it possible to put the learner in the position of a social actor and to approach him / her in the daily life of French society.