Article
French
ID: <
10.4000/histoire-education.1076>
·
DOI: <
10.4000/histoire-education.1076>
Abstract
The introduction of German and English to the Royal Colleges in 1829 marks the beginning of modern language teaching in French schools. The Regnier/ Le Bas Cours complet was the first set of textbooks written in this context and was a great success, influencing these subjects for generations. The French-speaking authors had extensive knowledge of schooling and vast experience of teaching the classics, which explains the main characteristics of their work: the preponderance of grammar and translation as well as the reliance on notions already acquired in the study of Latin and Greek. The evolution of the successive editions highlights the amount of work done to give a systematic structure to the teaching of a foreign language while, at the same time, incorporating the necessarily practical and oral dimensions. However, the creation of textbooks soon became a commercial and social issue, capable of creating rivalry between French and Germans and even between Germans whose varying integration into French society and education depended on such criteria as experience, success at the recruitment exams and naturalisation.