The Normalization Of French Chinese Teaching

France has the longest history of Chinese teaching in all European countries andother Western countries and has a great influence among them. With all due modesty,the methods for teaching Chinese in France are one of the most advanced in the world.This is because of a long history of teaching Chinese in France but also because of thesavoir-faire and creativity of French Chinese teachers. In less than a century, FrenchChinese teaching has seen an absolutely amazing development and produced numbersof theories and methods for teaching Chinese.For instance, the method of pronouncing Chinese characters while writing themdeveloped by Paris VII university Professor Lyssenko or the mnemotechnic method tolearn characters developed by Professor Bellasen of the School of Oriental languagesare symbols of French Chinese teaching. The french chinese teaching benefits from ahuge experience in secondary school teaching which is also very systematic. France isthe first western country to have instituted Chinese teaching in Primary SchoolSecondary School and High School, and did this as early as1953. The FrenchMinistry of Education publishes very complete teaching programs for every level ofChinese learning, which also includes the “Chinese characters porches” of ProfessorBellasen.At the same time, the increase in the number of Chinese learners, and ofsino-french exchanges is a real challenge for French Chinese teaching specialists.From a “small” language, as it was seen during the80’s, Chinese now ranks fifth forforeign languages taught in France. The number of Chinese learners is on the riseevery year, but there is a shortage of the French Chinese teachers whose training hasalso become a serious problem.The reform of Chinese teaching in France is part of the reform of foreignlanguages teaching as a whole. If we focus on the major reform that has been carriedout in the European Union to establish the Common Reference Framework forEuropean Languages, French Chinese teaching reform is directly influenced by thisenvironment. This reform was launched ten years ago. It is based on the research undertaken by linguists and foreign languages teaching specialists for the CommonReference Framework for European Languages and has already led to a sweepingchange in the French foreign languages methods of teaching or didactics. And ithelped reform the French High School Degree also. As the French General Inspectorfor Chinese said:“the High School Degree reform will change a lot of things, therewill be a before and an after.” And, as could be expected, this reform has had aprofound influence on French Chinese teaching methods.One of its most direct effects concerns textbooks. A textbook is a way to reflect atheory in didactics and the requirements for teaching. In two hundred years of FrenchChinese teaching history, lots of Chinese textbooks have been published in France.But what is most noteworthy is that, since the end of the Second World War, FrenchChinese textbooks have had a lot of opportunities to improve their methods andtheories. Since the40’s France has seen more than ten Chinese textbooks published.For a language that was considered as a “minority language” during the80’s, it isalready a large figure. These textbooks develop different theories about Chineseteaching and French sinologists’ new approaches about Chinese teaching methods.French Chinese textbooks are a real reflection of the French way of teaching Chineseand also a very interesting research material. The question one might ask is whyFrench Chinese textbooks do not include every level of Chinese teaching. Thisphenomenon is directly linked with the state of Chinese teaching in France today.The problems mentioned above, namely, the reform of foreign language in Francewithin the European Union foreign languages reforms, the long history of FrenchChinese teaching, how France Chinese teaching is normalized, what the reform isbased on, what kind of difficulties it will encounter, the characteristics of theory andmethods of Chinese teaching in France are the problems that this dissertation willattempt to explain.