Intensive Core French in Newfoundland and Labrador

Joan Netten and Claude Germain

Memorial University of Newfoundland and Université du Québec à Montréal

This three year research project has been funded by Canadian Heritage and approved by the Department of Education of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The project is in its second year: last year (1998-1999) it involved four grade six classes and this year eight classes. The two main research objectives are to increase communicative competence of the students, both accuracy and fluency, and to determine conditions under which such a curriculum could be implemented. While there has been some experimentation with the concept of intensity, this project in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is the first large and very well documented study of Intensive French in Canada.

Nature Of Intensive French

Intensive French is defined as an enrichment of the core program by the creation of a period of intensive exposure to French which enables students to receive three to four times the number of hours of instruction normally devoted to French. This definition integrates two different concepts: amount of time and concentration of teaching time in five months (from September to the end of January). Three important consequences follow: the enrichment of the curriculum, a change in the pedagogy or methodology used by the teachers, and the compacting of the regular curriculum.

In general, Social Studies, Science, Health, Religion, Music, and Physical Education were compacted. In most cases, English Language Arts was also compacted; Mathematics was not. In compacting the regular curriculum, the outcomes were retained but the number of resources was reduced. At the end of the intensive period students return to their regular curriculum in English including the usual number of hours in French.

Research and Theory

Studies by Lightbown and Spada (1989) have indicated that students exposed to a period of intensive study of a second language show greater progress than students exposed to the same number of hours of instruction but spread out over a longer time period. Earlier studies by Stern and others indicated that students exposed to a period of study where the second language was used as a means of communication, that is where students were immersed in the second language, enhanced communication skills considerably over those situations where the language was approached as an object of study as tends to be the case in most core French programs (Stern et al., 1976; Swain, 1981). Recent studies have shown that the focus on content learning at the same time as language learning complicates the process of perceiving the messages about language form for the student and that, as a consequence, second language accuracy may be affected negatively (Lyster and Ranta, 1997; Netten, 1991). Intensive French is different from immersion in that no attempt is made to achieve subject-matter outcomes but only linguistic ones; any mention of subject-matter is incidental.

In this research project the English Language Arts curriculum has normally been reduced. This reduction is based on the theory that learning a second language is an enrichment of language learning in general and that, although the process is not entirely clear, some degree of transfer occurs. According to Cummins’ hypothesis on the interdependence of languages (1978), languages learned are not completely independent from each other and there is a direct relationship between the competences developed in each language. In addition, in his theory of a common underlying proficiency in language learning, Cummins suggests that there is a relationship between first language competence, second language competence, and cognitive development. Consequently, the reduction in language arts is based on the assumption that there is some transfer of competence that could occur from French, as a second language, to English, the first language of the students. For instance, if students learn how to write a paragraph in their second language, during the second semester they could transfer this knowledge to their English language arts. This is what actually happened in all our four groups during the first year of the project.

According to Piaget, cognitive development of the individual does not develop at the same time as social interaction. Cognition and social interactions are seen as the development of two parallel phenomena that occur more or less at the same time. However, mainly under the influence of Vygotsky (1985) and, more recently, of Moscovici (1989), a neo-piagetian perspective is actually being developed mainly at the University of Geneva by researchers such as Schubauer-Leoni and Perret-Clermont (1985), Doise and Mugny (1981), Mugny (1985) and a few others (Garnier, forthcoming). The main hypothesis is that there is a direct relationship between social interaction and the development of cognition. Not only is there some type of correlation or parallel development between these two aspects but also some causal effect: social interaction could enhance the development of the individual and of the learning of different concepts. However, most empirical research undertaken up to now to verify this hypothesis has focused on the learning of mathematical or scientific concepts, not on language learning. As the main purpose of learning French as a second language, in this research project, is to develop communicative competence, special attention has been given to social interaction not only between teacher and students but among students. Teachers are encouraged to facilitate interactions among their students in order to develop not only communicative competence (through negotiation of meaning, corrective feedback, and so on), but to facilitate their cognitive development.

Curriculum And Pedagogy

Intensive French is not only "core French" intensified. Due to the increased number of hours and the concentration of teaching time, the regular core French curriculum was not suitable; a different curriculum developed from the outcomes provided by the Department of Education for Grade 7 to Grade 11 was designed by the teachers based on their experience. In addition, the "pédagogie du projet" which enables more cognitive involvement and interaction among students was adopted. The curriculum, a whole language approach, is based on five themes and is adapted to the interests of students. Each unit or topic (such as Ma famille et moi studied under a theme (Moi) encompasses small project activities undertaken by students individually or in groups (v.g. create a family album); the units culminate in a related major project activity (such as an open house at school). The whole process is driven by communication and motivation with the focus on meaning: "In order to enable students to use language as determined by genuine communicative and conceptual needs, projects set at a higher level of abstraction will be necessary" (Brumfit, 1984).

Results

In evaluating oral production, the French 3200 interview (in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador), based on ACTFL, was administered. Approximately one third of the 111 students involved achieve level 3, one third achieve level 4 and one third achieve level 5. In evaluating written production, the students wrote a composition ("La maison abandonnée") which had already been given to students studying French as first language in the Province of Quebec. An individual profile for each student assessing both accuracy and fluency was developed; the average performance is at grade 3 level compared to Quebec students.

Follow-Up

It was intended that students follow an enriched core program in the intermediate grades. In the rural school district, an attempt has been made to provide as much enrichment as possible for the intensive French students at the intermediate level. The district will explore the possibility of introducing expanded French classes at grade ten. Students from the Intensive French program will then be able to access the expanded French classes in the Senior High-School and continue to develop their competence in French. In the urban school district, however, students have tended to opt for late immersion at grade seven. Intensive French has enabled a more heterogeneous group to access late immersion.

In conclusion, according to these preliminary results, Intensive French seems to be a very effective way to develop communicative competence, including both fluency and accuracy. However, researchers still have many questions about the role of time, of teachers, of pedagogy used, of teachers’ language competence and other related issues. Considerable data are still to be analyzed: teachers’ journals, students’ journals, recordings of classroom events (Carullo, 1999), etc. After one year of experimentation, Intensive French presents also an interesting new perspective on the different conditions under which French could be taught in Canada. In addition, it may have repercussions on the way regular core French can be taught: the four teachers involved during the first year of the project have already changed their approach in their core French classrooms. Above all, students seem to achieve much more than teachers have expected, both in language and in personal development.

References

Brumfit, C. (1984). Communicative methodology in language teaching: The roles of fluency and accuracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Carullo, K. (1999). La précision linguistique et l’aisance à communiquer en enseignement intensif du français. Unpublished M.A. dissertation in Linguistics (concentration didactique des langues), University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), Montreal.

Cummins, J. (1978). Educational implications of mother tongue maintenance in minority language groups. Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 34.

Doise, W. & Mugny, G. (1981). Le développement social de l'intelligence. Paris : Interéditions.

Garnier, C. (forthcoming). Représentations sociales pour comprendre l'action éducative : apports réciproques. In C. Garnier & M.-L. Rouquette (Ed.), Représentations sociales et éducation. Montreal: Editions Nouvelles, Co-Editor: de Boeck.

Lightbown, P. & Spada, N. (1989). A Secondary V follow-up study of learners from primary level Intensive ESL programs. Direction générale du développement des programmes, Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec, Québec.

Lyster, R. & Ranta L. (1997). Corrective feedback and learner uptake: Negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 37-66.

Moscovici, S. (1989). Des représentations collectives aux représentations sociales. In D. Jodelet (Ed.), Les représentations sociales. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Mugny, G. (1985). Avant-Propos - La psychologie sociale génétique : Une discipline en développement. In G. Mugny (Ed.), Psychologie sociale du développement cognitif. Berne : Peter Lang.

Netten, J. (1991). Towards a more language oriented second language classroom. In L. Malavé & F. Duquette (Eds.), Language, culture and cognition. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 284-304.

Schubauer-Leoni, M-L. & Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (1985). Interactions sociales dans l'apprentissage de connaissances mathématiques chez l'enfant. In G. Mugny (Ed.), Psychologie sociale du développement cognitif. Berne : Peter Lang.

Stern, H.H., Swain, M. & Maclean, L.D. (1976). French programs: Some major issues. Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Education.

Swain, M. (1981). Time and timing in bilingual education. Language Learning 31, 1-15.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1985). Pensée et langage. Paris: Éditions sociales.

About the Authors

Claude Germain, Directeur du Département de linguistique et de didactique des langues à l'UQÀM, est bien connu pour ses recherches et publications

dans le domaine de l'enseignement des langues secondes.

Joan Netten, professeur à Memorial University of Newfoundland, a été responsable des programmes de formation des enseignants du français langue seconde. Ses recherches portent surtout sur les programmes d'immersion en français et la compétence de communication des apprenants.

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