Promoting FSL

Classroom Environment - Promoting FSL - Know the Research

If visitors came to your FSL classroom, would they get the impression that French is valued in your room?

What do they see when they walk through the door?

  • Bonjour! welcome signs...
  • Posters
  • Bulletin board displays,
  • Numbers posted in French & English
  • Vocabulary words affixed around the room

What percentage of instruction is offered in French?

Who does most of the talking in French, you or the students?

Are students actively engaged in the lesson?

Do students have a positive attitude about learning French?

How can you promote a love of language learning?

  1. Be a positive model yourself.
  2. Tap into the emotional/heart side of things, because this is what typically motivates people…
    • You can promote how helpful it is when traveling, working or even connecting with new friends online
    • Foster pride in learning a second language: building confidence, impressing others, feeling accomplished, giving your brain a workout!
    • You might launch a lifelong love affair with a place your students cannot wait to visit (Vieux Québec, Monet’s garden)
    • Create joyful memories no matter how few hours we have with FSL students. Even if we simply spark a positive feeling about the French language and Francophone people, culture and places and an air of confidence that students leave feeling capable of learning a language later in life if the opportunity or need arises, we have been successful.

3. In order to increase motivation, we need to seek to decrease anxiety. Provide numerous supports and a positive learning environment so students feel safe taking risks and tackling new skills.

4. Ensure students feel successful and motivated rather than continually frustrated or underchallenged.

5. Leave room for choices (e.g., individual or group work; options for topic/format of the summative project) within the 'no choice' aspects of this program.

6. Portray French as a thriving language and culture. Bring in French guests; visit a French restaurant; attend or host a French event; introduce students to French artists and musicians; do a virtual tour of Carnaval, eat des croissants au chocolat!

7. Promote the benefits of the program to parents and other school staff so they become positive champions. Share information at school open house events and on the school website.

Know the research. Get a copy of the 2016 Canadian Literature Review

In 2016, the Second Languages and Intercultural Council (SLIC) of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, in partnership with the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers (CASLT), initiated a review of the literature to examine the impacts of second language learning. SLIC and CASLT collaborated with the University of Calgary’s Language Research Centre and called upon Dr. Mary Grantham O’Brien to oversee this project. Dr. Grantham O’Brien and her team of researchers reviewed the recent literature in the following areas: cognition, academics, personal life, society at large, economics, and intercultural understanding.

The Literature Review and an Executive Summary are excellent tools to share with stakeholders to demonstrate the value of students learning a second language.

Visit SLIC to get more information: https://slic.teachers.ab.ca/Resources/Pages/SLIC-Resources.aspx

Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.

Flora Lewis