Teaching German in Alsace

During the last couple of years I have been confronted with a strange situation, namely to teach German in French. Why do I call it strange? Well it’s extremely tricky to teach a language when the medium of instruction (in my case French) happens to be the last of the five languages that I learned. French like all other languages, has it’s own rules and several exceptions. Added complications arise due to the languge teaching system in lycée (10+2) and collège ( secondary level). Entire grammar is taught almost always by a comparitive method i.e almost each text and corresponding grammatical units require equivalent French structure. It’s not funny at all when the “konjuktiv” in German becomes “subjontictif” in French. Another surprising feature of many Lycées happens to be the absence of regular reference books . Even if there are text and work books, the teachers prefer to follow a global method. Hence one can never anticipate the forthcoming unit.

Teaching German in Alsace is yet another story due to the geoplitical situation and history of the region. The local dialect “alsacien” uses both German and French language syntaxes and is spoken mostly by the immediate post war generation. Todays school or college going youngsters do not use it in their daily life. Many schools including the ones following a bilingual mode of instruction employ native German teachers and on the othe side of the border French natives. In this given social context , teaching German to French students (as an Indian if I may add) has been a very rich linguistic experience for me.