Les manuels scolaires du français au Tchad et la compétence interculturelle : le cas du manuel « étoile en français au cours moyen 1ere année ».

Abstract

Our research poses the problem of the evaluation of the FLE textbook of the first year middle course in Chadian schools from the angle of the intercultural dimension. The teaching/learning of foreign languages, as a means of access to international communication, has nowadays been the subject of numerous research works on the importance of teaching the language not only from the linguistic point of view but also from a cultural point of view. In Chad, laws and educational guidelines are explicit on this subject. Importance should therefore be given to the teaching of the cultural aspect as well as the linguistic aspect of the language, thus allowing Chadian learners to open up to the world. However, if the cultural dimension is an integral part of learning this, what about its implementation at the level of meditation represented by the textbook? To answer this question, we have analyzed from the point of view in the form and content of the textbook “Star in French in the middle course first year” through some evaluation grids proposed by specialists in the field. Following this development, we sent a questionnaire to 15 primary school teachers in the city of N'Djamena in order to better understand how the intercultural dimension is taken into account in the first year middle school class. The results of our research showed on one hand that the evaluated textbook does not present relevant cultural elements for the development of intercultural skills. There is a considerable lack of the cultural traits of the targeted language country in this textbook. However, the cultural realities of the learner's country are strongly represented in this textbook through various learning activities. On the other hand, most teachers that were questioned on this subject declared that they were not aware of the religious realities of the country's language taught. Thus, it is important to review the content of this method by integrating cultural elements from various backgrounds to allow learners to open up to modernization.