APPRENDRE L’ANGLAIS À L’ÉCOLE JEANNINE MANUEL

par Elisabeth Zéboulon, Directrice générale

Notre école est toujours très attentive à admettre en classes maternelles et CP des enfants qui sont débutants en anglais, avec pour objectif de les rendre capables de travailler en anglais aussi bien qu’en français en fin de scolarité.

Apprendre une langue, c’est long et ce n’est pas simple, même s’il s’agit de sa langue maternelle !

Un enfant de 5 ans maîtrise sa langue maternelle avec un niveau de vocabulaire adapté à son âge. Il a fréquenté cette langue plus de 20 000 heures depuis sa naissance pour en arriver là ! Il va ensuite gagner environ 2 000 mots de voca- bulaire par année scolaire à l’école primaire. Alors rien d’étonnant à ce qu’il faille travailler de nombreuses heures pour acquérir l’anglais et en faire une langue de travail !

Un enfant qui nous rejoint en Moyenne Section travaille l’anglais chaque jour et aura, en fin de CM2 accumulé 1 770 heures de travail dans cette langue (ce sera 1000h de plus lorsque la parité horaire sera déployée). En fin de collège, c’est actuellement plus de 3 700h.

Il aura appris à faire des analyses littéraires, des travaux historiques, scientifiques et mathématiques, acquis le vocabulaire, les structures de la langue et les méthodes nécessaires. Il sera prêt pour aborder le baccalauréat français international

(BFI)* et ses APs* en Section américaine ou le Baccalauréat International (IB).

Atteindre ce niveau aura été un travail long et approfondi, passionnant aussi, cela en vaut vraiment la peine !

L’examen des demandes d’admissions dans notre école montre qu’il est difficile aux familles dont les enfants n’ont pas suivi ce chemin de comprendre que ces acquis ne sont pas rattrapables en quelques cours particuliers ou même un séjour d’un an en boarding school en fin de collège. Nous faisons beaucoup de déçus, par manque de place certes, mais aussi parce qu’il est vraiment difficile, pour des parents monolingues, d’appréhender ce bilinguisme.

English At Ejm

by Kate Freile Hickey English and bilingual projects coordinator, CE2-CM2 & Antony Mcdermott Head of English Department

What does it mean to study English at École Jeannine Manuel as part of a bilingual curriculum? How would our students describe their experience of learning English ?

In MS through CM2, students will spend 50% of their day with their English teacher and the other 50% with their French teacher, benefiting from the complementary pedagogical perspectives of their teachers who are all native speakers of their language of instruction. Students learn together, using language to express ideas across the curriculum, independent of their level in either language. Both teachers work hand in hand to create engaging and hands-on bilingual projects where children:

Enhance their vocabulary and express ideas coherently across subjects;

Appreciate and compare varied perspectives of the world;

Understand contrasting approaches to learning about historical and cultural topics;

Debate themes respectfully from various points of view;

Draw on skills acquired in one classroom, and adapt them to other environments.

Developing the skills to speak, read, and write naturally in English is an ambitious task. Accordingly, students have structured language lessons in addition to times of full language immersion. In the early stages of language acquisition, we focus on developing solid oral language skills, listening comprehension skills, enriching vocabulary, and improving syntax. Students are separated into two groups: mother tongue (EMT) and beginners (EFL), so that all students can work on their language development. Drawing from their wealth of experience, our anglophone teachers devise interactive and fun lessons that favor active engagement and oral participation. The EFL students build their language foundation by familiarizing themselves with everyday vocabulary and expressions; in Moyenne Section through the Cookie and Friends program, followed in Grande Section by the Knock Knock program created by Jeannine Manuel. New vocabulary reappears through various activities until fully integrated by students at the end of a week, and teachers devise games that inspire children to use new vocabulary in context.

Our curriculum for EMT students incorporates best practices from language and literature programs in UK and US schools. In MS, GS, and CP, children build precise vo - cabulary that can be used flexibly across different contexts through meaningful curriculum connections. Students are exposed to authentic language experiences in the form of fictional and personal narratives from stories, discussions, and songs. Through enjoyable learning experiences, students learn new vocabulary, acquire grammatical constructs, and develop key inference skills—all of which are required for deep understanding.

In CE1 and CE2, students continue to develop strong listening and oracy skills, but are also introduced to reading and writing in English. Because the foundation of these skills are already built in French, students can easily apply these previously acquired competencies to early reading acquisition in English. In addition to the Knock Knock read-along activities in EFL classes, all students are exposed to an engaging variety of writing styles and genres, underpinned by the leveled Oxford Reading program which ensures children gain in confidence, develop comprehension skills, and nourish a lifelong love of reading. In CE classes, stories are retold orally, through drama, as well as in writing to teach grammar in context—this encourages students to notice, internalize, and eventually imitate the patterns and structures studied.

By the time students reach CM classes, they have strong speaking and listening skills which continue to be reinforced in immersion classes by multidisciplinary and bilingual class projects.

Students present, debate, and discuss ideas in English. Children are distributed into small reading groups of 4-6 depending on their reading level and, with their teachers’ support, explore carefully selected texts so that they can progress at their own pace. Structured language lessons now focus on building on the foundational writing skills developed in CE classes: students move beyond rewriting stories and are encouraged to creatively manipulate ideas and craft original texts across various fiction and non-fiction genres. Inspiring model texts are chosen to capture students’ imagination and awaken their inner writer’s curiosity as they imitate sentence patterns, text structures, and take risks with new and more complex vocabulary. While all students follow the same mother-tongue program, linguistic needs are supported in ESL and EMT groups generating confidence and the pleasure of writing at each level. Groupings are fluid, and by the end of primary school, all students work together at an English mothertongue level.

When students arrive in collège, they all follow a mother-tongue English program, which has been designed with close reference to equivalent programs and standards in the UK and the USA. At the same time as helping students to perfect their level in reading, writing, speaking and listening, our curriculum instills in students a deep appreciation of literature, and this is achieved by selecting a range of diverse

“We choose literary works that will speak to our culturally diverse population of students, as well as open their eyes to other viewpoints, attitudes, and experiences. Literature is a pathway for students to explore emotions—both the emotions of characters in stories and their own emotional response to a text—and a way for students to throw themselves into strange and unfamiliar situations.” works from both the traditional canon as well as more contemporary literature.

Lessons are built around stimulating topics such as “Studying the Gothic”, “The Fight for Freedom”, and “A Quest for Adventure” - topics that encourage students to develop their critical thinking skills in relation to key themes and ideas.

The English classroom thus becomes a place of discovery and a place where students thrive as creative and curious learners.

As students enter secondary school, they begin to prepare for a variety of examinations. In 3ème and 2nde, students take the Cambridge IGCSEs First Language English and English Literature; in 1ère, BFI students take AP English Literature and Composition or AP English Language and Composition; students who opt for the IB route either study Language and Literature or a pure Literature program. There is a strong focus on guiding students when transferring ideas to the page: we ask students to experiment with different forms of writing, ranging from the formal academic essay and text analysis to more empathetic and creative forms of writing, so that they can develop their own personal style and learn to express themselves with confidence and flair.

It is fundamental for us that the English classroom is a dialogic space where collaborative learning, discussion, and shared knowledge-building thrive. When students graduate at the end of high school, their experience in the English and bilingual immersion classrooms means that they will be taking with them not just the skills and knowledge acquired from our academically rigorous programs, but also key values such as empathy, understanding, and compassion—values that will allow them to live, study, and work successfully anywhere in the world!