What’s it like to teach English in France?

Steffanie Zazulak
A teacher stood by a long wooden desk where her students are sat smiling at her
Reading time: 3 minutes

Kirsty Murray taught English for a year at a collège (the French equivalent of a secondary school) in Villers-Cotterêts: a town in the north of France known for being the birthplace of Alexandre Dumas. She taught mixed-ability groups of 11- to 16-year-olds, with classes ranging in size from 10 to 35 students. Here, she shares the five lessons she learned from the experience.

What is it like teaching English in France?
Play
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree ɫèAV can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

1. Go with the flow

“I spent hours preparing materials for some classes only to feel disappointed when the students didn’t enjoy it. You’ll have days that are good and others when you think you’ve failed. Sometimes you’ll spend an hour planning a lesson and at other times just two minutes – but keep trying.

“One of the best lessons I ever taught was on the theme of animals, with my SEN group. I’d thrown together some flash cards at the last minute and the students spent the whole lesson learning names and making animal noises. Afterwards, they said it was the best English lesson they had ever had.”

2. Appreciating English culture is a motivating factor

“I don’t mean afternoon tea and bowler hats (although it helps), but the important thing is to give students an idea of what it’s like to be English. I brought in English food and encouraged students to talk about their favourite English-language music (it was particularly enjoyable to see students singing along to The Beatles’ 'She’s Leaving Home'), sporting heroes and even the royal family. I wanted my students to get excited about learning English and the best way to do that was to give them a real idea of English culture.”

3. Learn from your students

“When I started teaching, I thought I had a good idea of how students would learn the language. How wrong I was. Listen to your students and you will learn how to create lessons that they will benefit from the most.”

4. Tailor to your audience

“I tried to make the lessons as relevant to the age group as possible. One of the most popular lessons I taught was on texting, as mobile phones were relatively new at the time, and students were really excited to learn that ‘C U L8R’ meant ‘see you later’.

“Some of the teachers suggested teaching weighty topics like politics, so I made it more fun by introducing debates so that the students could learn how to express themselves in English.”

5. It is truly a life-changing experience

“Teaching English can be extremely rewarding but it is also hard work. One of the biggest lessons I learned was confidence. If you can stand in front of groups of restless students every day and come through it unscathed, you can do anything! There were days when I wanted to give up, but I met many interesting people and the students taught me so much about France and French culture. I wouldn’t change the experience for the world.”

Read our posts 'What’s it like to teach English in Spain?' and 'Preparing your learners for university study abroad'.

Explore our professional development

More blogs from ɫèAV

  • A teacher leaning on a table where students are working on various activities

    6 tips for planning your first English classes

    By Nicole Kyriacou

    You are nervous, yet excited. You want to appear relaxed and fun, but still be taken seriously. Most of all, you are keen to make an excellent first impression.

    With all that in mind - planning your first English classes of the year can be a daunting experience.

    Here are six things to consider when planning your first classes:

    1. Set clear aims

    Whether you are teaching young learners, teenagers or adults, it’s important you discuss the aims and objectives of the course from day one. You’ll need to learn more about your students' needs to do this. Why are they learning English? Do they want to prepare for an official exam? What activities do they enjoy? What things do they need to improve the most?

    The way you do this will depend on the age of your learners. For example, with adults and teens, you could get them to interview each other and write a report about what they found out. With younger children, do a survey they can complete using smiley faces.

    2. Find out students’ interests

    Although you should understand your students' needs and why they want to learn English - to help make your classes relevant and engaging - you should also discover what they enjoy doing outside of class.

    To do this, get students to write mini bios you can stick around the classroom. Or have them prepare presentations where they share something they are passionate about with the rest of the class - using coursebooks. As a class, go through the contents page, vote on which topics students find most interesting, and start with those.

    3. Break the ice

    You want your first class to be fun so that students are motivated, and associate English language learning with something they can enjoy. Ice-breakers can also be an excellent way to get to know each other and learn about your students' current level of English.

    Activities where students have to ask each other questions work well.

    4. Provide a comfortable environment

    Young learners and teenagers tend to be shy at the start of a course - especially if they don’t know each other. Develop a rapport and break down boundaries by including team-building activities in your first class.Your aim is to have all the students feeling more comfortable with each other before the end of the lesson so that there are no awkward silences in future lessons.

    5. Manage expectations

    Managing expectations is an essential part of a teacher's job. Make sure in the first class you are clear about what you expect from your students and what they can expect from you.

    Have students brainstorm the rules for the class and then make a big poster or ‘class contract’ which all students have to sign. Display the poster on the wall so you can always refer to it if someone misbehaves.

    Try to keep the rules as positive as possible. Instead of writing: 'Don’t speak your first language', write: 'Try to always speak English and ask if you don’t know a word'. If you are feeling really brave, you can even get your students to devise a list of rules for you which you can display on the wall next to theirs.

    6. Make it challenging

    It’s great making your first lesson fun - but there’s nothing more motivating than leaving a new class and feeling like you’ve made a good decision and you are going to learn lots (and you aren’t wasting your time or money). This is especially important for adult learners.

    So, as well as getting to know each other and finding out their needs, teach them something new. This could be 10 new pieces of vocabulary, how to structure a letter or report, or a list of resources they can use at home to practice their English.