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FRANCE EXPLAINED

Worst in the EU? Just how well (or badly) do the French speak English?

France has been ranked the worst in English proficiency out all all EU countries in a new international ranking, but the real picture is a bit more complicated depending on where you are in France.

Worst in the EU? Just how well (or badly) do the French speak English?
A Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary is displayed in a bookstore (Photo by Tim Boyle / Getty Images North America / Getty Images via AFP)

If you are looking to take a holiday in France sometime soon, and you feel less than confident about your French, you might be a bit shaken by France’s ranking as the least English proficient country in the EU. 

The global scores for the Education First English Language Proficiency test  have been released, and they showed that France remained in the “moderate” grouping, though with lower scores than many of its European counterparts, including Spain and Italy – countries it has outperformed in previous years.

But the real picture is more complex, as some French cities faired better than others. Paris, for instance, had a higher English proficiency score than both Madrid and Rome. 

READ ALSO: ‘I feel ridiculous’ – Why the French dread speaking English

And within France, there were some interesting trends. Bordeaux came out on top in terms of English ability – three points higher than Paris, in fact, who ranked third. It was the city of Toulouse that came in second place.

EF EPI Factsheet France 2022

Six French regions ranked “high” instead of moderate on the test, and the best scores (in order) were from Île-de-France (the Paris region), Pays de la Loire, Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azure, Grand Est and Centre-Val de Loire.

While most cities scored “high” instead of “moderate,” two trailed behind the others with the lowest scores – those were Marseille (in second-to-last place) and Montpellier, who performed the worst out of all French cities. 

Regionally, the regions with the lowest English levels in mainland France were Burgundy, Brittany, and Hauts-de-France.

And if you go up to anyone on the streets of France, hoping they speak a little English, the study also found that those aged 26 to 40 were most likely to score “high” instead of “moderate.”

EP EPI Factsheet France 2022

Overall, France did see a slight decrease in its general English proficiency – last year the country came in 31st place internationally, but this year it fell to 34th. The national average dropped about ten points on index, while in comparison, France’s neighbour, Italy, gained 13 points and moved up from 35th to 32nd on the global ranking. 

When taking a more detailed look at France’s score, a representative from the EF EPI organisation told The Local that French scores specifically “went down in the 18-20 and the 21-25 age groups.”

The representative added that this could be related to the pandemic, though the organisation does not collect specific data on why language proficiency might be changing.

READ ALSO: Why the French struggle at English so much

“This decline in the youngest adults was already visible last year (France’s overall score also dropped last year). A decline for 2 consecutive years in only the youngest age groups which were previously either stable or improving seems to point to a pandemic effect,” said the representative.

Out of all European countries – not just members of the EU – France came in 26th place, right ahead of Ukraine and behind Spain, meanwhile the Netherlands topped the charts coming in first place for the fourth year in a row.

A colour-coded map of Europe based on English proficiency, with blue being “highly” proficient and green being “moderate” proficiency (credit: EF EPI)

Why are the French so poor at English compared to other countries?

Native English speakers can hardly criticise the French for being bad at a foreign language but there are reasons why the French struggle compared to other countries.

Speaking to The Local previously Education First’s Adeline Prevost said: “There are a few reasons we struggle to learn English, and I think one of the main ones is that we lack exposure to English here in France. For example we don’t get many films in VO – because French is a widely spoken language, we get translations without a problem.

“In other countries, for example Sweden, where the language is not spoken around the world, translations from English are not available so easily so people have more exposure to English.”

Teachers have also criticised the quality of English language teaching in French schools.

But Francette Popineau, Co-General Secretary and spokesperson of the largest teacher’s union FSU-Snuipp suggested to The Local that perhaps children in France should be learning less English.

“This English hegemony bothers me a little bit,” she said.

“It’s a very practical language, but it’s not necessarily the language the children are speaking.”

Rather than pushing for a reinforced universal English training, Popineau believed the government should reinforce the languages children in France already spoke at home.

“It could be Chinese, Arabic or Spanish. No language should be set aside to make room for another,” she said.

“Besides, after Brexit, perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves to reconsider the place we are giving English in Europe.

“Is the European language really going to be that one of a country that is no longer there?”

Member comments

  1. Visiting a local doctor in France (displaced hip joint, thank you for asking – it’s fine now), and he complimented me on my French, which is at a reasonable conversational level.
    He then asked, ‘Do you know what the French is for someone who speaks two languages?’ And of course, I responded, ‘Someone who is bilingual – Une personne bilingue’.
    ‘And do you know what the French is for someone who speaks one language.?’
    I essayed, ‘Une personne monolingue?’
    ‘No’ he said, dryly. ‘A Frenchman.’

  2. Francette Popineau should do her homework. The Republic of Ireland has always had English as its main language. Even in the Gaeltacht few people speak only Gaelic.

  3. Just a quick reminder that English is an official language of 2 EU countries – Ireland and Malta – so I’m not sure Popineau’s last question is terribly pertinent.

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ELECTIONS

Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

The polling is not looking good for president Emmanuel Macron's party in the snap elections that he called just two weeks ago. So will he resign if it all goes wrong?

Will Macron resign in case of a French election disaster?

On Sunday, June 9th, the French president stunned Europe when he called snap parliamentary elections in France, in the wake of humiliating results for his centrist group in the European elections.

The French president has the power to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections – but this power is rarely used and in recent decades French parliaments have run on fixed terms. Very few people predicted Macron’s move.

But polling for the fresh elections (held over two rounds on June 30th and July 7th) is looking very bad for the president’s centrist Renaissance party – currently trailing third behind Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National and the combined leftist group Nouveau Front Populaire.

Listen to the team from The Local discussing all the election latest in the new episode of the Talking France podcast. Download here or listen on the link below

The election was a gamble for Macron – but if his gamble fails will he resign?

What does the law and the constitution say?

Legally, Macron does not need to resign. In France the presidential and the parliamentary elections are separate – Macron himself was re-elected in 2022 with a five-year mandate (until May 2027).

His party failing to gain a parliamentary majority does not change that – in fact the centrists failed to gain a overall majority in the 2022 parliamentary elections too (although they remained the largest party). Since then, the government has limped on, managing to pass some legislation by using constitutional powers.

The constitution also offers no compulsion or even a suggestion that the president should resign if he fails to form a government.

In fact the current constitution (France has had five) gives a significant amount of power to the president at the expense of parliament – the president has the power to dissolve parliament (as Macron has demonstrated), to set policy on areas including defence and diplomacy and to bypass parliament entirely and force through legislation (through the tool known as Article 49.3). 

In fact there are only three reasons in the constitution that a president would finish their term of office early; resigning, dying in office or being the subject of impeachment proceedings.

Since 1958, only one president has resigned – Charles de Gaulle quit in 1969 after the failure of a referendum that he had backed. He died 18 months later, at the age of 79.  

OK, but is he likely to resign?

He says not. In an open letter to the French people published over the weekend, Macron wrote: “You can trust me to act until May 2027 as your president, protector at every moment of our republic, our values, respectful of pluralism and your choices, at your service and that of the nation.”

He insisted that the coming vote was “neither a presidential election, nor a vote of confidence in the president of the republic” but a response to “a single question: who should govern France?”

So it looks likely that Macron will stay put.

And he wouldn’t be the first French president to continue in office despite his party having failed to win a parliamentary majority – presidents François Mitterand and Jacques Chirac both served part of their term in office in a ‘cohabitation‘ – the term for when the president is forced to appoint an opposition politician as prime minister.

But should he resign?

The choice to call the snap elections was Macron’s decision, it seems he took the decision after discussing it just a few close advisers and it surprised and/or infuriated even senior people in his own party.

If the poll leads to political chaos then, many will blame Macron personally and there will be many people calling for his resignation (although that’s hardly new – Macron démission has been a regular cry from political opponents over the last seven years as he enacted policies that they didn’t like).

Regardless of the morality of dealing with the fallout of your own errors, there is also the practicality – if current polling is to be believed, none of the parties are set to achieve an overall majority and the likely result with be an extremely protracted and messy stalemate with unstable governments, fragile coalitions and caretaker prime ministers. It might make sense to have some stability at the top, even if that figure is extremely personally unpopular.

He may leave the country immediately after the result of the second round, however. Washington is hosting a NATO summit on July 9th-11th and a French president would normally attend that as a representative of a key NATO member. 

You can follow all the latest election news HERE or sign up to receive by email our bi-weekly election breakdown

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