Department of French, Italian and Spanish
Odile Rollin, October 30, 2010
University of Calgary
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University High School
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• Number of students per class
• Motivation & engagement of students
• Resources available
• Time to cover curriculum
• Time for practice and provide feedback
• Classroom : “artificial place”
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Restaurants
Bookstore
Radio
Television
Church
Festivals
Local newspaper
“Le Chinook”
Alliance
Française
ACFA
Cafés
Choir
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Apprehension
Motivation
Time
Location
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Pilot Project
University
Passport
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- With the support of the French Centre
- Since September 2009
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• Drop-in Centre (Craigie Hall C 301)
• French Monitors
• Magazines, newspapers, dictionaries, films, newsletter, music, TV, radio...
• FLIP + French courses
• Trip to Quebec
• Scolarships
• Repsit
• Various activities from Sept till April: Café – croissant, immersion weekends, games, presentations, movies… mostly conversations and individual help
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• University of Calgary:
– FRENCH 209 (200 students/year)
– FRENCH 211 (130 students/year)
– FRENCH 213 (200 students/year)
3 courses with a final oral exam
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• Students choose and prepare one paragraph from any text.
• Students meet with a monitor and read aloud.
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• When an assignment is graded and errors identified by the French Instructor, students make the necessary changes at home.
• Then, they meet with a monitor to go over the changes they made.
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• Students choose 2 to 4 questions in a list of questions provided by the Instructor.
• Students prepare the answers at home.
• Students meet with a monitor to present their answers.
FRENCH 209 :
- Introduce your family
- What do you study at the U of Calgary and what courses are you taking ?
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FRENCH 209
“Acrostiche” based on their name
Students prepare their assignment at home and meet with a monitor to read their work aloud.
FRENCH 211
Events of their weekend
FRENCH 213
10 sentences using the subjunctive around a topic
Example of acrostic for FRENCH 209:
C courageuse
O optimiste
U université
R réservée
T timide
N nationalité canadienne
E élégante
Y yeux bleus
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• Students prepare an oral presentation for the
Lab Instructor.
• Students practice their presentation in front of a monitor.
FR 209
You meet a student from
University Laval . Prepare a dialogue including greetings, questions on university courses and family members.
FR 213
Prepare a presentation on a trip you went on.
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• Pick-up the passport at the French Centre
• Sign up the sign up sheet for each activity
• One activity per week
• 11 weeks to finish 5 activities
• 2% per activity
• Activities done in any order
• Hand in passport to Instructor one week before the end of classes
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Date
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• “The passport was an overall good experience. To be honest, it was very scary going to the French
Centre as a beginner, but it only encouraged me to speak French. It was intimidating trying to talk to someone much more fluent in the language, but all of the monitors were helpful whenever I struggled.
My favorite activity was the acrostic! All the different descriptive words available made it interesting, but also challenging to find the right ones! ”
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• “It was somewhat intimidating to go to the
French Center as a beginner. It was not 'fun'
per se, but I suppose it was helpful.”
• “Some activities were more fun that others.
For example, the “acrostiche” was fun, but the oral presentation with my partner was difficult to schedule”.
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• “I very much enjoyed going to the French
Centre. I think it was a great way to get the students to practise their oral skills. I ended up spending quite a lot of time there.”
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• “I enjoyed the “Passeport d'activités”. It forces students to go to the French Centre and practice speaking. I think it was very worthwhile as after I had been to the French centre a few times, I felt comfortable to go back often. ”
• “The “Passeport d’activités” gave me a specific purpose to go to the French Centre. Before, I was not sure what to do there.”
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• “Overall I thought that the “Passeport d’activités” was useful and encouraged us to practice speaking French outside of the classroom. I don't think I would have visited the French Center if the activity hadn't required us to do so. After having been to the FC, I visited the center more (especially in preparation for the final exam).”
• “I enjoyed the "Passeport d’activités", I found the monitors very relaxed and extremely helpful. The activities were enough work to learn something but they were not too much to be difficult to finish in a reasonable amount of time.”
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• Passport built ties and friendship between students and monitors
• Students participated more in activities offered by the French Centre (Immersion weekends...)
• Monitors gained knowledge of curriculum taught in each course
• Monitors developed strategies to help students in specific areas
• Attendance in the French Centre was higher
... BUT...
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• Shorter activities
(200 students x 5 activities= 1000 visitors for
6 monitors)
• Immersion weekend counts for 2 activities
(Communication and Oral presentation)
• Activity date stamped
• No make-up activities for lost passports or late students
• No drop-in, sign-up sheet only
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• Excellent preparation for the final oral exam
• Regular contacts with native speakers improve comprehension
• Individualized support from specialists
• Confidence building in L2
• Easy to mark (0%, 1% or 2% : total = 10%)
• Use of target language outside the classroom
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• The French Centre is now known from most students enrolled in French courses
• Recurring visitors to the French Centre
(6 visits)
• Higher attendance in the French Centre
• Affordable document (7 cents / passport)
• Hiring of 2 extra monitors
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Designed and put in place by
Nathalie Dunn at William
Aberhart High School (Calgary
Board of Education) in 2007.
- 16 pages
- Attractive
- 9 categories
- 8 stamps/page
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• Rationale:
• - to integrate culture in
L2 learning
• - to encourage the use of L2 in class and outside the classroom
• - to put students in authentic L2 situations
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Motivation ?
- Oral participation mark
- Citizenship Award
- Prizes at the end of the year
- Scholarship (Trip to Quebec)
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How does the “Passeport
francophile” work ?
- One passport per student per year
- Stamped and dated by all immersion teachers
- Completed pages entered for the draw
-Passports handed in for oral participation mark
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Categories included in
“Passeport francophile”
- In class use of L2
- Films, book club, and guest speakers
- Trips, exchanges, and special events
Participation in “ Immersion in Action ”
- Music and community events attendance
Each activity is stamped and dated
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Feedback on the
“Passeport francophile”
- Good motivator for most students
- Difficult to complete some pages
- Easy to use for teachers
- Costly document
- Sponsors to contact
-Support from the school / staff
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• Web site designed for teachers and students of French
• Started in 1997
• Designed by 2 French instructors
• 4000 sites
• 10 categories
– Civilization
– Dictionaries
– Exercises (on-line)
– Newspapers and Medias
– Libraries and Bookstores
– Literature
– Youth literature
– Music
– Pedagogy
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User friendly
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Definitions
Synonyms
Illustrated
Vocabulary
Dictionaries
(75)
Other
(Etymology, Quotes,
Proverbs, Acronyms…)
Translation
Thematic
(Music, Food,
Stainglass …)
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Interactive
Selfcorrecting Exercises
1200 exercises
Grammar
3 sections
Vocabulary
Comprehension,
Culture, Phonetics
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Statistics
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Statistics
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• 84,000 visits per year
• Visitors from 170 countries
• Proper connection over the year : 96%
• Direct traffic: 22%
• Referring sites: 52%
• Search engines: 24%
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1. To teach French http://www.ucalgary.ca/repsit/
2. To listen to the French news http://jt.france2.fr/20h/
3. To translate a word http://wordreference.com/
4. To prepare self-correcting exercises http://hotpot.uvic.ca/
5. To read the French newspaper from Calgary http://www.lechinook.com/
6. To send students to a great programme in French http://www.francophoniedesameriques.com/forum2010
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Odile Rollin rollin@ucalgary.ca
Eileen Lohka elohka@ucalgary.ca
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