Comparative Analysis of French Language Teaching Methodologies at Selected Bilingual Schools in Benue State

Bilingual school programmes in Nigeria, while relatively few, represent important experimental sites for intensive French language instruction, yet systematic comparison of the teaching methodologies employed across these institutions and their relative effectiveness has not been conducted in the existing literature for Benue State. This study comparatively analyses the French language teaching methodologies practised at three bilingual secondary schools in Benue State: Government Bilingual Secondary School Makurdi, Federal Government College Katsina-Ala, and Community Secondary School Otukpo. A mixed methods design combined lesson observations, teacher interviews, and administration of a standardised French proficiency test to a sample of 280 students across the three schools. Teaching methodologies were classified against a framework derived from communicative language teaching, audio-lingual method, and grammar-translation approaches. Results show significant methodological variation, with the Makurdi bilingual school demonstrating stronger adherence to communicative principles, corresponding to significantly higher student oral proficiency scores. The other two schools relied more heavily on grammar-translation and rote memorisation despite nominal bilingual designation. Teacher-centred instruction dominated in all three schools, with student speaking time averaging less than 20% of observed lesson duration. The study recommends adoption of a unified bilingual school French methodology framework for Benue State and argues that the bilingual school concept requires substantive resource commitment rather than designation alone. Keywords: French teaching methodology, bilingual schools, Benue State, communicative language teaching, language proficiency