Acceso usuarios
Helga Bister Broosen, Roland Willemyns
After a discussion of the past history of the instruction of German in Alsatian schools, this paper focuses on a recent and new development- the introduction of bilingual instruction (half of the time in French, the other half in German) in a series of pre-elementary and elementary schools, public as well as private. Since other forms of German instruction continue to exist (a three-hour and a six-hour system) the motivation and incentive for this new (and politically highly unexpected) decision is discussed, the methodology and aims are contrasted with those of the other systems and the first evaluations are published and analysed. Also, since the continuation of this bilingual instruction system on the secondary school level is projected, we try to evaluate how this evolution may possibly affect the overall linguistic situation of Alsace and how it meets the aspirations of the advocates of an official bilingual statute for the region.
