please overlook the typos on my little netbook at uni!
from the inside, the standard of most English French teachers' French is about the same, degree level is just degree level, it isn't native level far from it! I've worked with teachers in the UK who can't really speak the language they're teaching fluently, that's just the way it is. I have friends here who are french english teachers and non of them have ever dared talk to me in english as they're embarassed to do so. I teach french here in France, have a masters degree from a french uni, OH is french, kids only speak French etc but I'm still not a native speaker and never will be. But I do correct my OH's written french, she always asks me to proof read it and the standard of most young french people's spelling and grammar is terrible. Having said all that it's a disgrace not staying with native speakers on a trip to the UK!
My daughter - who is fully trilingual - dared to correct her French English teacher at the Lycée. After that the teacher basically ignored her for the rest of the school year and gave her the 'silent treatment'!
I have the same problem with one of my kids, she has taken German for 5 years and been to Germany 4 times and still can't speak a complete sentence! Also one of the the advisors for the trip this year is one of the "lycée" English teachers. She said upon meeting me "Oh so you're American! What a beautiful place, I spent ten months in San Francisco, I Loved it!" I said "Oh yeah I love San Francisco, I grew up in the Bay Area, in Sunnyvale actually..." She looked at me as if I were speaking another language and I had to translate into French what I had just said. This is what is teaching our children unfortunately... and I've seen and heard worse!
Give me 500 euros, and I'll take any other children you want to go and stay in England,and we'll go and stay with my sister!! She provides student accommodation, usually for over 18 year olds but I'm sure if the 'The Big Sis' went too, it would be fine!!!!!
I have had similar issues with the way my children are taught English! Certainly it is complete lunacy to have the children staying in host families that are not native English speakers (or German speakers!!) That just doesn't make sense!! It is also extremely worrying that the English Teacher (I presume they wrote the Programme) can't do better than that - but explains a lot about the way some French people speak English!! But may be we should look at how French is taught in English Schools before we start to feel too self-righteous about this!! Don't misunderstand me - I am not excusing this or saying I think it is acceptable, because I am not and I don't! :-)
The same thing happened to us but with a trip to Germany, our daughter( and luckily for her they were paired off to stay with the host families.)was sent to an arab family, they didnt speak German/French or English. The 2 girls were so upset they went to their bedroom and cried. The problem other than the language was the way of life and the food they ate, nothing was similar to German life.
If you would like to see more of this dross, do let me know, I have half a dozen pages of it.