Français langue seconde
The French (Immersion) Language Arts curriculum informs students what they must know, understand, and do to effectively and confidently communicate and interact with French speaking individuals.
The target of the French program is to encourage students to be capable of questioning and communicating with various communities around the world. The French language is viewed as a tool to reflect and communicate that enables students to eventually contribute to society.
The French Subject is unique
Conceptual Framework
In the French Curriculum, the Concepts and Big Ideas support more self-reflection via. associating several concepts in to understand the elements that link said concepts together.
Students should make generalization and identify recurring phenomena and connections between concepts once familiar with literary concepts including:
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Structure
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Meaning
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Interpretation
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Emotions
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Identity
Various elements of the curriculum should help students develop
competencies to become able to identify patterns, enabling students to “understand” rather than “become familiar with” fundamentals of the French language.
Holistic Approach to Learning
The French curriculum represents a holistic approach to teaching and learning. The six language elements: Reading, Listening, Viewing, Speaking, and Representing and inevitably interconnected. The curriculum is built on the idea that students actively participate in the learning process. Students are to interact, interpret the meaning of messages, and communication in French.
Openness to a Wide Range of Literature
Starting In Grade three, the curriculum encourages the use of different genres of texts. Though their years, students study varieties of genres of French literature, (hopefully) motivating them to dig deeper and to appreciate the diversity and richness of the work.
Culture
Culture and the development of student identity are the focus of the French program. The curriculum offers to explore and better understand the truths of their own culture, as well as the cultures of the French-speaking world. Through the study of French, students build their linguistic, cultural, and personal identities.
Just like most subjects, the French curriculum is built on the KDU (Know, Do, Understand) model of learning, and is intricately built to work in a flexible way to help students dig deeper. Students are to learn through Content, Curricular Competencies, and Big Ideas
Big Ideas
A subject’s Big Ideas represent the fundamental parts students should understand. Students discover and understand big ideas through interactive learning.
The Frech Curriculum’s Big Ideas include the ideas that
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Awareness of other cultures helps us discover our own culture and build our identity in grade two
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Cultural elements within a text can reflect the diversity of cultures in grade 5
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Becoming aware of the values in texts help us to understand their cultural content in grade 8
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Linguistic variations offer cultural reference points within the French speaking world in grade 11
Curricular Competencies
The Curricular Competencies are what students are able do. The objective of this program is to put students in learning situations that help them explore and reflect, as well as create and communicate. Some examples are
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Identifying themes and keywords in a text to understand messages in grade 2
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Distinguishing secondary ideas from the main Ideas on a text in grade 5
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Analyzing a text to explore various interpretations in grade 8
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And interpreting a text to identify the explicit and implicit messages in grade 11
Content
The Content, as usual, represents the Know component of the learning model. In each French grade, the topic in the content can potentially be applied through multiple Curricular Competencies that shape students understanding of Big Ideas.
RATIONALE
Language is an international learning tool which influences how students and teachers think, reflect, and reason. Learning a new language can develop new learning tools, enabling us to face the unknown, to develop a new perspective of the world around us
The French Language Arts program places students in a French-speaking environment, in which students develop the competencies, knowledge, and strategies to fluently communicate and interact in the French language. Students are directed to improving their French-speaking capabilities and to appreciate the rich and diverse French-speaking cultures and writings. Throughout the course, students are to follow a continuous-progress approach, which allows them to build on top of learning from previous years.
Culture, as always, is a vital role in learning, offering students opportunities to explore and delve deeper to understand the realities of their own culture and the culture of the French-speaking world. By interpreting and analyzing French texts throughout a spectrum of genres, students train their critical thinking and reflect how one’s language and culture can influence personal perceptions and values. By being students in a bilingual learning community, they become aware of the value that learning a new language could bring to their Canadian identity and personal development.
GOALS AND RATIONALE
GOALS
The French Immersion Language Arts (FILA) curriculum aims to ensure that students are able to:
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Communicate fluently, orally and written
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Develop linguistic abilities and problem solving through observation, inquiry, critical thinking, etc.
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Understand and appreciate French texts that reflect French-speaking and Indigenous perspectives
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Understand and appreciate French-speaking cultures as well as their own and those of others
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deepen their knowledge of themselves and others in a changing world
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Be able to integrate French into their life, either professionally or personally
TEACHER INTERVIEW with Mr. Amega
What career opportunities can students expect to get by taking French?
-Many government jobs (engineering, healthcare field, environmentalism, public transit (airports, post office)
-Looks good on resume to have someone speak both Canada’s languages
What does a usual lesson on French look like in your class?
-Content on grammar at the beginning of class
-Class activities (only speaking French in class for a specific amount of time to get people comfortable with the language using specific themes)
-Worksheets so the teacher can provide help if needed
What do you find most interesting about French?
-Being exposed to a new culture that’s still also in Canada
-Being able to master a completely new language with a new set of grammar rules, and different pronunciation than what was in the English language
What do your students struggle most with? What do they understand easily?
-Most struggle with grammar (since it is very different from English and is used often)
-Vocabulary is decent (especially if the words are like that of English words)
-Certain verb tenses and future tenses that connect to English are also easily understood
Are there any French learning techniques you recommend students take? If there are, what are they? And how effective is each technique for your students?
-Use a set amount of time to engage with French content outside of class (such as Duolingo, watching a variety of French dubbed or subbed movies, TV shows, books, and French songs)
-French journaling
-Practicing speaking with a friend
-Duolingo is especially effective as it provides daily reminders, allows you to join lessons with friends, and is easily accessible as long as you have internet
Why does Canada speak both English and French? Why isn't French widely spoken in other places besides Europe and Canada?
-Historical colonizers / both English and French settlers came to Canada (French came first but English won the most control)
-English language became prevalent all over the world
-French is also spoken in concentrated parts of Africa after the French settlers came hundreds of years ago and had spread it around.
Grade 10 Course Content:
Grade 10 is the last junior year of high school so the course is more advanced and up to a senior level to prepare students for the following years of learning which will only become increasingly difficult.
The most notable difference is that tests become worth more. Quizzes are 45% and the final is worth 25% instead of the 20% like in Grade 8 and 9.
Criteria in general grammar is increased.