Very interesting one Brian, especially for someone who was typically Anglophone and at 30 still only spoke English and not a word of any other language. I fell in love with Italy then went through the evening class-uni system reading Italian and French and ended up doing a PGCE MFL and maîtrise : français langue étrangère (here in France) and now teach French to foreign students here (PGCE in Uk and taught French and some Italian in the UK after my PGCE but came straight back to France after a year’s teaching!) Taught English in France in schools, CCIs, IUTs, companies etc. so have seen the different approaches to language learning.
The biggest difference and reason I see for the current situation is that anglophones on the whole have no real motivation for learning a foreign language – I even had parents telling me to “go easy on little Jimmy because no one needs to learn French anyway…”. I speak from experience because I didn’t learn a thing at school, had no exam to pass and couldn’t see the point. Now French kids might have pretty poor (pedagogically speaking) language lessons but everyone accepts that they need to learn a foreign language, nearly always English and that they’ll have to pass exams in it right through their schooling regardless of what they study, yes I’ve even taught English in the école nationale de boulangérie to future bakers and to unemployed people as a condition of them keeping their benefits. So the “need” and “motivation” simply aren’t there early on for Anglophones.
Now being more specific regarding those that come to live in France. I’ve come across various types but the over whelming group are the “I’ll pick it up once I’m there” group. Now if it takes 7 years study to get to A level French reasonable get by type level and 11 years of study to get to degree level (still not really what I’d call fully fluent) then how on earth is somebody going to pick it up whilst living in France, watching UK TV and listening to UK radio and talking to other Anglophones – at best there will be a short conversation in the boulangerie each morning or the local bar but it’ll be the same thing everyday and never out of the comfort zone. (and please please please I’m NOT having a go at anybody, not trying to be all high and mighty or intellectual, I’m just answering Brian’s question from a linguist’s point of view!)
It is also extremely uncomfortable to pass from a situation where you can talk about anything and anything to one where you are effectively reduced to the communication capacities of a 2 to 3 year old and that’s why so many people simply throw in the towel – it’s bloody hard work mentally and it takes years!
And to answer Phil’s point – yes with foreign languages by the very nature in which they’re learnt the easiest is reading then listening (both passive activities) followed by writing (active activity but you have the time to think, look things up, change things) followed by speaking (100% active with no time to think/look things up etc!)
Native speakers often make the assumption that if you can’t speak that well then you can’t read or write the language (that would be the case for a native language) and are often surprised to see that many foreigners write far better French than the French.
One last thing for all those who are struggling – expose yourselves to every possible encounter with the language: watch French TV even if you don’t understand too much, listen to the radio (although harder than TV as there aren’t any pictures to give you clues), don’t shy away from grammar – it gives you the building blocks and explanations for you to understand and go forward.
Courage, bonne chance et n’oubliez pas “on peut si on veut”
And sorry for the waffle but I’m on home territory here!