I’ve been working on a problem raised with me by the Head of Modern Languages at MMHS. He is using the Michel Thomas teaching programme, which has transformed the take-up and the success of Modern Languages learning in the school.

The more advanced part of the GCSE reading exam consists of passages in French with True/False answers in English, thus ensuring that reading comprehension is not confused with writing skills. The teacher had been disappointed that his pupils had been unable to guess unknown words from (a) the context and (b) the fact that the words are cognate with English. He gave as an example climatisation, which means air-conditioning, which they could not guess (a) from the context of amenities in a hotel and (b) its relation with English climate/acclimatization.He sent me a sample exam paper and, after discussing it with some friends, I realized that there was something very odd about the passages in what claimed to be French. Once again (as with the Science papers) Michael Hoey’s early work on discourse structures proved a powerful tool in analyzing what was missing from these so-called texts. Here is one of them translated into English:

6 Mother’s Day

For several years we have had a special day for grandmothers in France. It is a way of showing them that we love them. It is much the same for mothers. There is a special day to thank them for all that they do for us. It is far from being a modern day. The Greeks and Romans had a ceremony every spring to honour the mothers of their gods.

In the nineteenth century the Emperor Napoleon had the idea of honouring mothers who had a lot of children. It is only after his death that his idea became a reality and that these mothers have been given a medal. During the second world war France suffered greatly and lost a great many of its young men. That is why Mother’s Day as we know it was set up. Mother’s Day is always on the fourth Sunday in May.

In the United States it is on the second Sunday in May, and in England they celebrate Mother’s Day in mid March. In Germany mothers do not work on that day, so fathers and children do all the housework. In restaurants in Spain they give mothers a flower. In Canada it is a tradition for little children to give their mother a present they have made themselves.

(blog to be continued)