Abstract
In the Canadian context, although most considerations of the home-target language use divide are centred on the presence of English in French Second Language (FSL) programs, the increasing number of immigrants has provided impetus to extend the discussion to include the use of languages beyond Canada’s official languages. With the use of questionnaires with novice teachers pre and post Bachelor of Education programs and interviews for three years hence, this study sought to explore novice teachers’ perspectives on the use of languages in the FSL classes that include English language learners (ELL). Novice teachers remained consistent in identifying the need to maximize French use, minimize English use, and include languages from students’ language repertoires as useful means to support the FSL acquisition of ELLs. In addition, the novice teacher participants revealed a preference for ELLs to be included in core French as opposed to immersion programming.
Highlights
Second language teachers continue to be regularly challenged to consider the role and space afforded to their students’ home languages within the learning environment and often assume that the home language(s) and the school language (i.e., English within this study’s context) are the same
Given that there was not a direct question pertaining to languages on the questionnaire, the findings presented here are limited to the one open-ended question on the questionnaire: “What strategies would you use to meet the English language learners (ELLs)’ needs?” This item provides the most data in response to the second research question of this paper, which considers how teachers conceptualize support of students and if another language is viewed as a support
There was no direct interview question pertaining to languages as a consideration when preparing to include ELLs in French Second Language (FSL), as was the case with the questionnaires, the interviews provided data pertaining to using French as the language of instruction, reducing the amount of English, and using the students’ first languages
Summary
Second language teachers continue to be regularly challenged to consider the role and space afforded to their students’ home languages within the learning environment and often assume that the home language(s) and the school language (i.e., English within this study’s context) are the same. It should be noted that these studies occurred in classrooms from Grade 6 and above where the overall student population is generally presumed to have a solid command of English; we do not, explore students’ English skills as a part of this review In her observations of two Grade 6 core French teachers instructing eight FSL classes, in a context where ELLs formed approximately 50% of the classroom population, Mady (2013) discovered a variety of practices pertaining to teacher language use. A plurilingual framework recognizes that while students’ language competencies vary, the combined accumulation of such competencies serves as a resource that can enhance additional language learning (Cummins, 2008) Practical implementation of such a framework includes the use of multiple languages in a learning context in order to reveal linkages (Coste, Moore, & Zarate, 2009) that may lead to enhanced metacognition and strategy use potentially resulting in improved language acquisition. Moore and Sabatier, qualified that teachers are not yet equipped to undertake plurilingual practices in the FSL class, and while it was not explicitly mentioned in their conclusion, it could be a result of the fact that such a shift requires a shift in viewing other languages as a resource, as a benefit to the development of the students
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