Multilingual school and choice of languages

At EIDE, pupils have several choices in terms of languages. The school offers two language sections in primary: French and English.

From the first year of primary (P1), pupils choose:

  • The language section: Pupils choose their language section from French and English. Apart from language classes, all subjects are taught in the language of the section.

  • Language 1 (language taught at mother tongue level): Pupils choose their language 1 (L1) from French, English and Portuguese. In this way, the school enables many pupils to use their mother tongue at school.

  • Language 2 (language taught at first foreign language level): Pupils also choose their language 2 (L2) from French, English and German. L2 must be different from L1.



Important

  • One of the L1 or L2 languages must be the language of the section chosen: French for pupils who have chosen the French language section, English for pupils who have chosen the English language section and German for pupils who have chosen the German language section.

 



Luxembourgish compulsory for all

Learning Luxembourgish (oral communication) as an integration language is compulsory for all pupils in primary school and the lower classes of secondary school, the preparatory way and integration classes.

Examples

Pupil Marie B. has French as her mother tongue. Her parents decide to enrol her in Primary 1 in the French-speaking section with French as language 1 and English as language 2.

Pupil Pierre H. has Luxembourgish as his mother tongue. His parents enrolled him in Primary 1 in the French section with French as language 1 and English as language 2.

Pupil Harry F. has English as his mother tongue. His parents enrolled him in Primary 1 in the English section with English as language 1 and French as language 2.

In Primary 1, three different language courses are organised: the ‘language section’ course, the L1 course and the L2 course.

In the ‘language section’ course, Marie and Pierre are in the same French class. Alongside this class, Marie attends another French L1 class where all the pupils who have chosen French as their mother tongue are grouped together, while Pierre also attends a French L2 class which groups together all the pupils who have chosen French as their second language (so Pierre and Harry are part of this group).

In this way, pupils from the same language section are taught together for a certain number of lessons, while for another part of the lessons, they receive a course adapted to their level of knowledge: L1 for those learning the language as a mother tongue and L2 for those learning the language as a foreign language.