French as an International Language

One of the missions of the Institut de Langue Française is to promote the teaching of French as a foreign language. Born from Latin language, French replaces it as an international language in the seventeenth century before leaving  its place to English since the end of the Second World War. In 1685, Pierre Bayle wrote that French was “the point of communication of all the peoples of Europe”. The main cause of this French hegemony is the power of the French state at this time. On March 6, 1714, the treaty of Radstadt marking the end of the War of Spanish Succession was written only in French. French remains the international language par excellence until 1919. Georges Clemenceau accepts that the Treaty of Versailles ending the First World War be written in French and in English. Since then, English has been gaining speakers to the detriment of French. At the beginning of the 21st century, French still retains many of its prerogatives. If international organisations can accept more than one official language, only one language should be the reference language in case of conflict. In this area, French resists.

For example, the attempt to impose English instead of French as the reference language of the International Olympic Committee was rejected. Rule 24 of the Olympic Charter always states: “The official languages of the IOC are French and English. (…) In the event of any discrepancy between the French text and the English text of the Olympic Charter and any other IOC document, the French text shall prevail unless something else is expressly stated. There are even international organizations where the only official language is French: the Universal Postal Union in particular. On the other hand, English is clearly preferred to French in terms of scientific publications or speeches at the UN, for example. In the European Union, the dominant position of French is also eroding.

If French manages to maintain its institutional positions, its daily use as a working language is lost, reinforcing the image of decline since 1919. However, the number of speakers has started to increase since the 80s and it is even expected that the number of francophones exceeds that of anglophones in the 2030s. In 2050, it is expected that francophones will represent 8% of the world’s population, while the anglophone population will represent only 5%

It is also the fastest growing language on the entire African continent (as an official language or as a foreign language). French is taught in many universities around the world and enjoys a particular influence in the diplomatic, journalistic, judicial and academic worlds. French is the second most widely taught foreign language in the European Union schools (with Spanish only at distant fourth). With the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the European Union since January 2007, French is in front of German as the most widely taught foreign language in the Union after English. In general, French remains one of the most taught languages in the world.

Due to the special case of an important Spanish-speaking language bloc in Latin America, the only continent where the Spanish language is found significantly (apart from Spain itself), the United States is the only major English-speaking country in the world where French is not the first foreign language taught,  which here has been Spanish since the 1980s; it was previously French. In other English-speaking countries (Ireland, English-speaking Canada, etc.), French maintains the privilege of being the first foreign language taught and far ahead of other languages.