La contextualisation de l’enseignement du français en milieu créolophone : une approche contrastive de l’expression du passé

This paper examines the teaching and learning of French in a Creole-speaking context, with particular attention to the acquisition of past tense forms by Creole-speaking learners. It questions the relevance of undifferentiated approaches to French language teaching in contexts where learners’ first language is a French-based Creole, and argues for a contextualized and contrastive didactic perspective. Drawing on the framework of adapted French didactics proposed by Chaudenson (2008), the study is based on a qualitative analysis of written productions collected from newly arrived allophone students (EANA) in a middle school UPE2A setting in Guadeloupe. The learners’ first language is Haitian Creole, while the surrounding sociolinguistic environment is characterized by the presence of Guadeloupean Creole. The analysis focuses on recurrent non-standard forms related to the expression of past time in French, particularly the use of the passé composé. These forms are interpreted as the result of interlanguage processes involving transfer, reanalysis, and aspectual reinterpretation from the Creole system. By comparing the aspectual marking of past events in Creole with the tense-based system of French, the study highlights both points of convergence and divergence between the two languages. The findings suggest that a contrastive approach, explicitly addressing these correspondences, provides a relevant framework for understanding learners’ difficulties and contributes to ongoing discussions on aspect, tense, and language contact in French-based Creole contexts.