French Language Teaching Research Articles

Architecture as a Portal to the Teaching of French Language and Literature

Architecture as a Portal to the Teaching of French Language and Literature

La belle étoile par Jean Védrines

something wonderful, and how we often sabotage the happiness we have: no matter. We are here for but a small stay, so how does any of it actually impact us? Millburn H.S. (NJ), emerita Davida Brautman VÉDRINES, JEAN. La belle étoile. Paris: Fayard, 2010. ISBN 978-2-213-64427-1. Pp. 352. 19 a. La belle étoile initially appears as a sensitive portrayal of the post-World War II era of France told through the eyes of Giovan, a twelve-year-old boy whose family fled to France from Italy when he was seven years old. Thus, at first, the reader may expect the novel to treat in depth the reason for the family’s departure from Italy, particularly since Gioachino, Giovan’s father, was a steelworker who fought in the Resistance in Italy and who, from 1946 to 1947, wanted to continue the civil war against the bourgeoisie. However, this is not the case. Instead we are treated to a narrative of Giovan’s frustration with not understanding why his family left Italy and with why his parents are insistent that he learn the French language well. The novel is divided fairly evenly into three parts (the first section has nine chapters, the second seven, and the third eight). The first section sets the tone for the novel. It opens with Giovan following his father through a train station and ending up at a rally meeting of sorts for those wanting Gioachino’s support for a communist-leaning movement. Yet the narrative quickly changes focus to a linguistic one, that is to say, Giovan’s struggles with the French language. For example, the following discussion between Giovan and Moustache, one of Gioachino’s fellow workers at the factory, reveals the importance of language for assimilation to a new culture: [M]ais il sert à quoi, ce bâton de fer? [...] Oh, l’innocent! Un “bâton de fer”! On peut pas dire une chose pareille... Qu’est-ce qu’il t’apprend donc, ton père, en français? Un bâton se taille dans une bonne branche, du bois dur, de l’arbre vif, tandis que le fer, l’acier, c’est du métal, de la fusion, tout ce qui est coulé, fabriqué aux usines Saint-Jacques, dans la basse ville. (44) The second section continues with Giovan’s efforts to comprehend the family ’s hasty departure from Italy. He asks everyone, especially his father’s co-workers . But no one is able to answer his questions and he only collects small nuggets of information about the family’s history, opening up the doors for more unsolved mysteries. The third section culminates with Giovan’s interaction with his older brother Pietro, who is also trying to figure out why his family left Italy so quickly. It is Pietro who, in an attempt to understand what his father refuses to share with him and Giovan, turns to revolutionary literature. However, one morning in 1968, when the workers occupy the factory where their father works, Gioachino is forced to re-enter the arena of controversy, finally making it possible for Giovan and Pietro to begin to grasp the consequences of their family’s history. Although La belle étoile is more of a portrait of an immigrant family than a depiction of life and political unrest in post-World War II France, it does have a certain appeal. Moments, such as for example, when Giovan contends with learning the Reviews 797 French language under the watchful eye of his parents, as well as learning to find his own voice as he matures into a young man, will appeal most to French language teachers. Canisius College (NY) Eileen M. Angelini YERGEAU, PIERRE. Conséquences lyriques. Montréal: Québec-Amérique, 2010. ISBN 9782 -7644-0762-2. Pp. 338. $24,95 Can. C’est un roman déconcertant. Un roman tout court? Non pas! L’attente du lecteur qui tourne les premières pages d’un roman, n’est-elle pas de pénétrer l’intimité des personnages qu’il va rencontrer, de devenir témoin de leur vie quelle que soit l’époque et le climat social, politique...

Vloga učitelja pri motivaciji učencev za učenje francoščine v Sloveniji

Učitelji francoščine na slovenskih osnovnih šolah in na gimnazijah menijo, da je naloga učitelja, da z različnimi pristopi motivira učence in dijake za delo v razredu, ocenjujejo celo, da učiteljev trud spodbudno deluje na motivacijo nezainteresiranih učencev oz. dijakov. Učitelji torej verjamejo v svoje delo, v svoje znanje in sposobnosti, da učencem francoščino predstavijo tako, da imajo veselje do učenja, da s svojim delom v razredu višajo interes za znanje francoščine. Kljub temu pa kar 78 % učiteljev meni, da bi jim koristilo predavanje na temo motivacija in izmenjava primerov dobrih praks. Analiza kaže, da učitelji zaupajo izbranemu učbeniku, učence najpogosteje motivirajo z lastnim navdušenjem do obravnavane teme in s svojim delovanjem na področju francoščine skrbijo za učiteljev »dober glas«. Dejstvo je, da gre pri motivaciji za dinamičen proces, ki se tudi krajevno in časovno spreminja. Učitelj je del tega procesa, ni pa edini odgovoren za njegov izid.

Acadian Teacher Identity in Early Twentieth-Century New Brunswick

This research includes an examination of archival documents which trace the awakening Acadian identity of a young New Brunswick teacher during a period in which the province’s public school system constituted a program of English language assimilation. Calixte Savoie later became an Acadian activist and Canadian senator; the narrative of his teaching experience illustrates his mounting frustration, culminating in his 1926 resignation in protest after a dispute over French language education rights. The purpose of this paper is to locate Savoie’s developing Acadian identity in relation to scholarly research about national identity, including works by Philip Buckner, J.M.S. Careless and Benedict Anderson, and to highlight the history of Acadian education in post-World War One New Brunswick.

Foreign Language Teacher Trainees' Reading Attitudes

English, French, and German foreign language teacher trainees’ reading attitudes in both their native language and a foreign language were investigated in terms of their feelings of anxiety within the subdimensions of comfort, self-perception, self-concept, and value. The grade point average scores of the teacher trainees were also considered in order to investigate whether or not these had an influential role on foreign language reading attitude. Foreign language teacher trainees enrolled at a university in Turkey completed 230 valid questionnaires. Results indicated that the teacher trainees were more anxious while reading in a foreign language compared to their native language.

Quality of life and subjective well-being in undergraduate students

The study designed to investigate whether the quality of life and its four domains (physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environment) are significant predictors of subjective well-being and also to examine the quality of life in terms of gender, socio-economic level, the number of sibling, living environment, mother education level and father education level. The study was carried out with undergraduate students in German, French and English Language Teaching Departments and Primary Education Department. Subjective Well-Being Scale (Tuzgöl Dost, 2004) and WHOQOL-BREF that was adapted to Turkish by Eser, Fidaner, Fidaner, et al. (1999) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by using t-test, One Way ANOVA and stepwise regression analysis. Results revealed that quality of life (overall) and psychological health, social relationships and environment domains of quality of life predicted subjective well-being positively whereas physical health domain did not predict subjective well-being. In addition to this, significant difference was found in quality of life scores in terms of socio-economic level.

EDUPORTFOLIO: A TOOL FOR SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Originally used in artistic circles, the portfolio has gained considerable ground in the education field, where it serves a multitude of functions, both academic and professional. It is also a rapidly evolving tool, notably due to advances in Web 2.0 technology that have opened the way to new pedagogical potentials. The portfolio is also prominent in second-language teaching and learning programs, as witnessed by the European Language Portfolio (ELP), which was developed and piloted by the Council of Europe and is used as a support tool in line with the ISSN 1518-3483 Licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons Rev. Diálogo Educ., Curitiba, v. 10, n. 31, p. 581-592, set./dez. 2010 582 KARSENTI, T.; COLLIN, S. Rev. Diálogo Educ., Curitiba, v. 10, n. 31, p. 581-592, set./dez. 2010 Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In this context, we present Eduportfolio, a flexible electronic portfolio that can be adapted to a variety of educational contexts, including second language (L2) education. We draw a portrait of the portfolio in education, including the advantages of the electronic version. We then present Eduportfolio along with some empirical results to illustrate eportfolio use in French second language (FSL) teaching and learning.

Caracterización de las prácticas evaluativas en lengua extranjera

Se presenta una síntesis de los resultados más relevantes encontrados en la investigación titulada “Las prácticas evaluativas aplicadas en el área de francés del programa de Lenguas Modernas”. Este estudio tiene como objetivo dar cuenta de los discursos, herramientas y prácticas de los profesores de francés en la planeación, el diseño y el desarrollo de estrategias relacionadas con la evaluación, así como los factores que influyen en el desempeño académico de los estudiantes. Su propósito es generar espacios de reflexión para unificar criterios aplicables al quehacer pedagógico en el contexto de la evaluación en el área de las Lenguas Extranjeras.

The Internet, Language Learning, And International Dialogue: Constructing Online Foreign Language Learning Websites

In the present study we call attention to the close connection between languages and globalization, and we also emphasize the importance of the Internet and online websites in foreign language teaching and learning as unavoidable elements of computer assisted language learning (CALL). We prepared a checklist by which we investigated 28 foreign language teaching websites (4 from each of seven languages including English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Turkish). The participants were 14 third-year university students who were enrolled in the French Language teaching department, but had a basic knowledge of the related languages that was sufficient to read and write. All the students had taken CALL classes at university level, and had previous experience of website evaluation and assessment. As a result of the analyses of the language teaching websites, we observed that they were lacking physically, contextually and pedagogically. Consequently, we built a model foreign language website frame considering the feedback that we received from the subjects. We believe that our website evaluation checklist and model website frame might greatly serve the CALL field.

L’enseignement du français à l’épreuve de la démocratisation (1959–2001)

This paper deals with the way French language and literature teachers have addressed the question of social inequities at school in France from 1959 until today. Classical Humanities, which had constituted the basis of elite education for many centuries, were harshly questioned from the eighteenth century on as being inadequate to a modern world. During the twentieth century, a new criticism was expressed against classical education: it was considered as a way of reproducing the domination of the bourgeoisie by setting up a barrier against the popular pupils, who frequented the so‐called primary schools, and were thus excluded from this classical culture. The democratisation of the French school system, through the transformation of primary and secondary systems from parallel systems (for lower‐class pupils and upper‐class pupils) into sequent degrees, was therefore accompanied by the extension of a new subject: French literature. French authors, read, studied, commented on from the lowest grades of primary schools to the last grades of secondary schools, seemed to offer the common cultural references needed by a democratic society. The creation of the “Agrégation de lettres modernes” in 1959 crowned this controversial evolution, a few months after the Berthoin reform had theoretically opened the secondary schools to every pupil whatever his or her social background. However, far from being a triumphal decade for the French literary studies, the end of the 1960s witnessed violent attacks against this traditional teaching. Considered as a part of bourgeois culture, it was accused of dooming pupils from a popular background to inexorable failure. Just like the Classical Humanities earlier, French literature appeared as an instrument of ideological domination and social reproduction. At the same time, the success of structuralism in linguistics and literary studies opened alternative possibilities to the classical literary history and proposed new ways of analysing texts and literary works. In this context the transformation of the discipline itself appeared to some teachers as both an adequate and legitimate way to democratise secondary schools. This paper describes the rise, the extension, and the abandonment of this original attempt from the 1950s to today. The proposals made by the promoters of the reforms are considered, in this paper, as a complex construction where social experience, political engagement, praxis, and theory are inextricably intertwined, thus questioning the relationship between politics and school culture. This paper also examines how the emergence of didactics as a scientific field at the end of the 1970s, and the subsequent rejection of political considerations from its technical and pedagogical discourse, tended to prevent teachers from grappling directly and efficiently with the issue of social inequities in French literature and language courses. This “de‐politicisation” of the curriculum debates may well have been the symptom of an inability to conceive how culture might be defined and what role it might play in a democratic society.

Wanting to be wanted: a comparative study of incidence and severity in indirect complaint on the part of French and English language teaching assistants

ABSTRACTUsing data from the ESRC funded project Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication (PIC), this paper applies contrastive quantitative and qualitative analysis to data derived from oral statements, logbooks and retrospective reports by language teaching assistants in France and England. The data concerns their ‘rapport’ (Spencer-Oatey, 2003; 2005) with the members of staff responsible for their professional supervision and the paper assesses complaint behaviour across the two national groups. Basing our study on computer recorded discourse segments taxonomically codified as ‘negative assessment’, we show that the incidence of ‘indirect’ complaint (Boxer, 1993) is significantly higher among English assistants than among their French counterparts. A revised model for measuring ‘severity’ (House and Kasper, 1981; Olshtain and Weinbach, 1993) is applied to the data using corpus linguistic techniques. Its findings demonstrate that English assistants also complain more ‘severely’ than their French peers. Nevertheless, the difference in linguistic behaviour between individuals within each group is shown to be greater than that between the two national groups, implying that personality is a stronger determinant of cultural outlook than nationality.

A general infrastructure for basic education course design using the ASPI model

The issue of the use of ICT(s) in educational institutions raises many interests but also questions. So, is it enough to equip schools with computer equipment and Internet connection to say that the process is launched? While this prospect is promising for a country like Algeria, it will help improve the quality of teaching, the teacher and pupils by providing the means to do more in less time and more independently. But to make such projects succeed, it must provide adequate educational products that fit well and/or complement the curriculum provided for these levels in the school. In this context we propose to adapt a model known as ASPI for the implementation of training device for basic education. ASPI has been designed and proposed for learning environments for adults. As cases of application we chose to test the approach on two subjects: “Road Safety for Children” and “French Language Teaching”. In this work we present the first case study.

Virtual classroom site in French written expression lesson: a practice sample

The problems of a Second Language Learner in written expression have made us to practise a different teaching method, and we have used a virtual classroom site for French Written expression lesson. The virtual classroom site has been prepared for Writing II lesson which is given second term of first class in French Language Teaching Main Art in Education Faculty of Anatolian University. The sample of the study consists of 30 students. Half of the stuents used traditional way of learning (control group), the other half of them used virtual classroom site (experiment group). We has researched the contributions of virtual classroom site on French Written expression lesson by using different kinds of data collecting tools like pre-test, motivation questionnaire and interview technique.

The Adult Learner of French in an Anglophone Setting

Unlike most other papers which are devoted to the discussion of the problems of normal French language teaching / learning in anglophone settings, this paper examines specifically the anglophone adult learner of French, his needs and objectives. The paper provides a brief history of the introduction of French into Africa, reflects on the beginnings and place of the language in Nigeria, particularly in the educational system and then goes on to identify adult French learner groups, their needs and objectives. The paper also discusses briefly the varieties of French and their implications for the anglophone adult learner and suggests French for communication, which is essentially oral, as the most appropriate variety of the language to be acquired by the adult leaner in an anglophone setting.

Utilization Of French Graduates In Secondary Schools In Makurdi Local Government Area Of Benue State Of Nigeria

Much has been said about the need for French or the reason why French should be taught in Nigeria. French is a modern language that is spoken, written and used like all the other world's modern languages. Despite its importance, It is unfortunate that the wide use of French has often been overlooked by Nigerians hem even some highly educated ones are not sufficiently informed about it's usefulness. The need for the teaching of French Language therefore cannot be over emphasized if Nigeria is to take it's rightful position in the world of developed nations. This study which is descriptive nature looked at the extent to which French graduates are been utilized. The participants comprised Thirty-five French Language graduates in 13 secondary schools in Benue State. Ten principals of secondary schools were also interviewed. Some questions were raised to guide the study and data was analysed using frequency and simple percentages. The analysis revealed that French graduates in Benue State secondary schools were made to teach other subjects other than French. The study also revealed that secondary school principals do not include French subject in their school's time table and even when they include it, they do not assign enough number of periods to it. It was therefore recommended that Educational managers need to be educated on the need for French in Nigeria. Government should also take adequate steps to motivate the teacher and the learner so that a lot of progress could be achieved as we reap the full benefits of improved teaching of French. Keywords: French teachers, French Language, Nigerian schools, Benue State, Utilization.Journal of Technology and Education in Nigeria Vol. 12 (2) 2007: pp. 40-44

Postcolonialism, Positioning and The Use of Drama in The Teaching of French Language and Literature

This paper discusses the problem of cultural identity for learners of French who have inherited an educational system introduced by the colonizers. The historical experience of the Caribbean has resulted in a critical and significant difference between what we really are and what we have become by the process. If our African heritage lies at the centre of our cultural identity it gives meaning to the strategies and positioning that can be used in an educational process that acknowledges the “doubleness” of similarity and difference in the constant process of “becoming”. If English can be considered the first foreign language by the majority of the people of the African diaspora, French is a second foreign language, in which learners are stretched linguistically and culturally at the same time. The natural dramatic propensities of Blacks have an important position of play in the complexity of doubleness.

K významu konektorů ve výuce francouzského odborného jazyka

Spojovaci výrazy neboli konektory jsou velmi důležite pro koherenci odborneho textu. Jde předevsim o spojky, přislovce a uslovi, ktere zajisťuji navaznost obsahu vět nasledujicich na věty předchozi daneho textu. Konektory rozlisujeme casove, mistni a logicke. Pro porozuměni odborneho textu jsou nejdůležitějsi logicke konektory. Z toho důvodu je nutne jim věnovat velkou pozornost ve výuce francouzskeho odborneho jazyka. Jejich pochopeni a spravneho uživani lze dosahnout pomoci vhodných cviceni zpracovaných na zakladě autentických odborných textů.

De Ontwikkeling Van Productieve Nt2-Vaardigheden Van Franstalige Leerlingen In Het Nederlandstalige Onderwijs In Brussel

In the officially bilingual Belgian capital Brussels, two independent education systems operate in parallel: a Dutch-language education system and a French-language education system. Pupils and parents can choose between both systems freely and independently of their home language background. Many Francophone parents prefer to enrol their children in Dutch-language schools in Brussels, because they believe this will stimulate their bilingual development. As a consequence of the massive inflow of French-speaking pupils in Dutch-language education in Brussels, an atypical form of education has emerged which we call "immersion-like education". In a previous cross-sectional study, the language skills of predominantly Dutch-speaking and predominantly French-speaking were tested. In this paper we will discuss the longitudinal development of Dutch L2 productive skills of native speakers of French across three consecutive school years. To assess their writing and speaking skills in their L2, predominantly French-speaking pupils were asked to write an informal letter to a friend, to write down arguments for and against a statement and to retell a wordless picture story. Based on these productions, three parameters were calculated: accuracy, complexity and fluency. In this paper, we describe the development of these parameters by means of repeated measures analyses of variance. We also discuss whether or not there is any relationship between these parameters. We ultimately address the question if this form of immersion-like education actually stimulates the development of bilingualism.

Pedagogical Applications for the Single Computer Teaching Station: A Case Study in French Language Instruction

The majority of foreign language classes today are not taught in multimedia, Internet-connected classrooms equipped with computers for each student and an integrated projection system for the teacher. The instructional reality that exists for many practicing teachers dictates that incorsporating technology into a foreign language classroom consists of a single computer teaching station hooked to the Internet; the unit sits at the front of the classroom with the monitor facing the students. This paper takes into account the limitations imposed on foreign language instructors and offers a sample case study of what can be accomplished to advance the use of the target language and the study of the foreign culture in the classroom, given the technological constraints involved.

Language Socialization Research and French Language Education in Africa: A Cameroonian Case Study

This article reports on exploratory ethnographic research on language acquisition and use in a village located in the Mandara Mountains, Cameroon. The study indicates that members of this community share several beliefs and practices related to multilingual communicative competence and its development. In the school attended by children of this village, classroom practices of communication and language socialization differ significantly from those of the community. Discontinuities between community and classroom practices and their implications for French acquisition by children of this community are discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of how language socialization research can contribute to our understanding of community/classroom discontinuities and their consequences for classroom French acquisition, and thus to efforts to improve French language pedagogical practice in Africa.