Les défis de l’apprentissage du français langue étrangère à l’école primaire en contexte plurilingue ghanéen

Abstract

This Study aims to examine the challenges of learning French in primary school in a multilingual context in Ghana. Primary school learners in Ghana speak at least two or three languages on the average before they are being enrolled. The practice of French as a foreign language is conducted in an environment well noted for its multilingualism. The learning of French is a medium to help learners practice French outside the classroom, since the learning of French cannot be limited to the classroom only. It is however necessary for one to ask if the practice of French in our primary schools is confronted with possible challenges in a multilingual context such as Ghana? This study is inspired by the constructive, socioconstructive theories and the communicative approach is used as the theoretical approach. The study also used classroom observation and interviews. The observation and interviews constitute the data collection tools. The research also focused on two primary schools in the LA Kwantanang municipality in the Accra metropolis. We worked with these two schools because of the proximity and the fact that they had the opportunity to learn French. The data collected were analyzed and interpreted through the qualitative method. The study also transcribed the data collected at the field for easy interpretation and analyses. Finally, the data collected revealed that the learning of French as a foreign language in our primary schools faced many challenges such as the lack of teaching and learning materials, lack of motivation, lack of proper classroom set up, large number of learners in a classroom and lack of adequate learning hours during teaching. Few learning activities and recommendations were proposed to improve the learning of French in the primary schools.