French teachers’ Representations in Mexico: relation between learned skills when students and those prioritized in teaching

Abstract

This research compares French as a foreign language teachers’ representations with those held by their prior language teachers, about the importance to be attributed to some communicative skills (listening and speaking, reading and writing) and some linguistic competences (grammar, vocabulary and sociocultural competence). Methodologically, a mixed method was adopted. On the one hand, 142 FLE teachers from various States of Mexico were invited to answer a questionnaire in the Likert response format. The results indicate a statistically significant difference for: reading (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 6.78, p = 0.01); writing (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 9.95, p = 0.02) and sociocultural competence (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 4.28, p = 0.03.). In fact, the results reveal that today teachers would place a greater emphasis on these different skills than those of the past. On the other hand, 4 interviews were conducted with some French teachers from the most represented two states in the questionnaire survey (Mexico and Sonora). In general, the results indicate a high tendency for oral skills as a reaction to a poor learning experience with some past teachers, strongly oriented toward the traditional approach. In a nutshell, it is equally observed that teachers’ language proficiency, their self-efficacy and their students’ motivation may also determine the importance they provide to the communicative skills and linguistic competences compared.