ABSTRACT
It has been observed that the teaching of French in primary schools is not just beset with problems of educational theory. This chapter reports and comments on the situation of French teaching in twelve schools in which teachers and children kindly co-operated in the inquiry. The inquiry reflects two broad concerns. First, the effectiveness of the French teaching in its own terms and secondly its relationship to other aspects of the work of the schools, particularly as seen by the staff. Teachers varied in their level of academic and professional qualification for teaching French and in the length of their experience. Yet the head-teachers had very few reservations about qualifications, though one or two did consider individual specialists to be not at that time capable of being good class-teachers. The reality of teaching French requires knowledge of potential courses of action and discernment of their merits in particular cases.
