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This research compares French as a foreign language teachers’ representations with those held by their prior language teachers, about the importance to be attributed to some communicative skills (listening and speaking, reading and writing) and some linguistic competences (grammar, vocabulary and sociocultural competence). Methodologically, a mixed method was adopted. On the one hand, 142 FLE teachers from various States of Mexico were invited to answer a questionnaire in the Likert response format. The results indicate a statistically significant difference for: reading (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 6.78, p = 0.01); writing (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 9.95, p = 0.02) and sociocultural competence (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 4.28, p = 0.03.). In fact, the results reveal that today teachers would place a greater emphasis on these different skills than those of the past. On the other hand, 4 interviews were conducted with some French teachers from the most represented two states in the questionnaire survey (Mexico and Sonora). In general, the results indicate a high tendency for oral skills as a reaction to a poor learning experience with some past teachers, strongly oriented toward the traditional approach. In a nutshell, it is equally observed that teachers’ language proficiency, their self-efficacy and their students’ motivation may also determine the importance they provide to the communicative skills and linguistic competences compared.
This study addresses the representations of the importance French as a Foreign Language (FFL, The French acronym FLE will be preferred in this work for is greater international renown) teachers attach to certain language skills and components. It compares French teacher's representation of the importance given to certain language skills and components with the representations of their former language teachers about these same skills and components. The language skills considered here are listening, writing, reading, and speaking, as well as socio-cultural skills. The linguistic components refer to grammar and vocabulary. Methodologically, a mixed method was adopted. On the one hand, 142 FLE teachers from various States of Mexico were invited to answer a questionnaire in the Likert response format. The results indicate a statistically significant difference for: reading (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 6.78, p = 0.01); writing (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 9.95, p = 0.02) and sociocultural skill (χ2 (1, N = 142) = 4.28, p = 0.03.). In fact, the results reveal that today teachers would place a greater emphasis on these different skills than those of the past. On the other hand, 4 interviews were conducted with some FLE teachers from the most represented two states in the questionnaire survey (Mexico and Sonora). In general, the results indicate a high tendency for oral skills as a reaction to a poor learning experience with some past teachers, strongly oriented toward the traditional approach. In a nutshell, it is equally observed that teachers’ language proficiency, their self-efficacy and their students’ motivation may also determine the importance they provide to certain language skills and components in their class.
