High-quality instruction in teaching French. Multilingual teaching and competence development at primary school level

Abstract

How can we describe high-quality instruction and competence development in the French classroom more profoundly? In order to answer this question, the article first presents theoretical models and a selection of empirical findings from research into instructional quality and foreign language education. Out of an 8-teacher sample the study describes the descriptive-interpretive analysis of two cases in which teachers follow the principles of multilingual teaching. In these cases the pupils work on the same topic in a whole-class setting, but do not derive the same benefit from the learning opportunities offered to them. Based on a comparison between the two cases, the concluding section infers some empirically substantiated suggestions for teaching that fosters competence development in French lessons at the primary school level.