Training engineering: undertaking a training plan according to the current needs of French teachers in Mexico

Abstract

In recent years, new social and academic situations have emerged in Mexico, allowing a more competitive mobility for language students, particularly French, promoting exchanges and diverse learning objectives.

To face these new situations and considering the lack of formal training in teaching, many teachers are making great efforts to integrate new strategies into their planning and class dynamics, allowing students to better adapt to these recent contexts.

This research shares the first findings initiated at the end of 2019 as part of a Meeting of Bachelor's Degrees in French as a Foreign Language (FFL) in Mexico. As a result of this national meeting, many questions arose about the training and profile of FFL teachers in Mexico, which defined the paper that is being presented here.

The main objective of the scope of the research is to analyse the needs, design actions and training schemes, as well as their implementation and evaluation, based on a grounded and structured approach with the participation of the teachers who were involved in our work.

This work started with an attempt to establish the current profile of the FFL teacher in Mexico. The sample to build this profile was made up of 100 professors from eight public universities in various states of the country. The observations of these teachers regarding the “ideal” profile of a FFL teacher in Mexico were considered as well as their own training trajectories as FFL teachers were reviewed. In addition, directors, coordinators, and heads of language schools and centres were interviewed to identify their concepts, definitions, and perceptions about the ideal professional profile teachers should have to teach classes at their institutions in self-learning centres or FFL laboratories.

This research also aims to propose a new representation of the profile of FFL teachers in Mexico which can easily be used to understand the different influences that determine the pedagogical practices of teachers based on various existing models, but mainly from the principles and tools of Training Engineering. Parmentier (2012) states that “One must understand the methods and practices of analysis of demand and training needs; design a training project; the definition of the methods and means to be implemented; coordination and monitoring of training; the evaluation of the training, as well as the expected validation modes" (p. 8). Because of the above-mentioned, the intention is to provide FFL teachers with a tool that enhances their profile integrating their disciplinary culture, personal epistemology, pedagogical knowledge, and teaching skills, as well as their knowledge in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).