Repenser la 4ème épreuve de français en Vallée d'Aoste pour valoriser la compétence bi-/plurilingue

Abstract

Aosta Valley is an autonomous Italian region with special status characterized by Italian-French bilingualism. Since 1998, in addition to the three written tests of school leaving examination, the aostian students have to take a particular written test, i.e. the French language test (quarta prova). This test, which should complete the bilingual education, is an exact copy of the written Italian test. It remains to be seen whether this quarta prova actually highlights the student's plurilingual competence. After a detailed analysis of the French test's development, a research about the assessment of the educational context and bilingual pedagogy, it is inferred that the exact copy is not equivalent to the Italian saggio breve (short essay). Moreover, the bilingual pedagogy is not much adopted and finally, the French test, the same for everyone, can be a disadvantage for the students of the vocational education. In this paper, we argue that it is important to rethink the typologies of this French test, to propose new criteria for assessment and new requirements for the public competitive entrance examination in Aosta Valley.