Do the French like English?

The last decades, people have been travelling much more than before. In this context there is a need for communicating in other languages and English is often used as a lingua franca. However, many tourists have come home from France complaining about reluctance with regard to speaking English, and there seems to be a stereotypical view of French people as being arrogant and unwilling to speak English. Why has this stereotypical view of the French appeared? And do they really deserve to be regarded as reluctant and negative to speaking English? Through questionnaires and interviews with French speakers this work investigates language beliefs and attitudes with regard to age and gender in order to find out more about French attitudes to English, and how these may influence communication. Interestingly, the results show that they are generally positive.This study is especially interesting for students and professors of sociolinguistics and language attitudes. Also, it may give useful insights for teachers and researchers of second language acquisition and teaching. Overall it provides relevant insights to anyone who is interested in knowing more about French attitudes to English.

Auteur

Bachelor/Cand.Mag in French and English language and literature. Master/Cand.Philol in Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, University of Bergen(with exchange at Université de Nancy II & University of York) Main interests: sociolinguistics, second language acquisition and teaching. Currently a language teacher in upper secondary school, Trondheim, Norway