Mme Phillips

Everything you need to know about French language acquisition

How to survive and thrive in French

Everything you need to know about French language acquisition

What is French class all about?

It’s about Conversation and Communication …

in French, not in English.

All in French?

Can you communicate all in French by the end of the school year?

Oui!

But it takes commitment and work. On your part.

Communication means…

Expressing your ideas.

Figuring out what some else’s ideas mean.

Making sure you’re understood, and make sure you can understand someone else’s French.

Research:Second Language Acquisition

Some Basics to Help You Earn an A in French

The Affective Filter

Researchers tell us we have an “Affective Filter” in our minds that can help or our progress.

To be successful at learning a language, you need a low affective filter which means…

Low Affective Filter

If you have a low affective filter, you are comfortable with your classmates.

The more comfortable you are with your classmates, the faster you learn to speak French.

What does Low Affective Filter look like in a classroom?

Positive support for each other helps everyone learn to speak French. We’re a community.

No put-downs of anyone allowed. Ever. Period. Starting right now.

Low Affective Filter

Consider our French class a No-Fear-Here Zone.

I’m counting on your support!

More Research: Comprehensible Input

“Comprehensible Input” is French that you hear and/or read that is at a level just a little beyond what you can understand. You understand most, but usually not all, of what the French speaker says to you.

Getting lots of Comprehensible Input is how we learn to speak any language.

Comprehensible Input

Can you get the gist of it even though you don’t understand all the words?

If so, it’s Comprehensible Input.

Comprehensible Input

Even absolute beginners can get by in French.

See?

Le professeur est intelligent.

L’artiste est excellent.

Comprehensible Input in a nutshell:

It’s the fuel that will get you on the road to French! Listening to and reading a lot of French is how we

learn to understand, read, speak, and write French. Without plenty of input, you won’t learn to

comprehend and speak much French at all. So open your eyes and ears to French!

Comprehensible Input implies:

The more French you hear in class, the faster you learn to speak it.

Students work hard to learn how to listen, read, and think in French. Learning French is a challenge, but it’s doable!

Students and Teacher make a pledge: only French! (unless you ask permission to speak English.)

Comprehensible Input

Using Comprehensible Input effectively means not translating into English.

Translation makes you rely on English, which robs you of the opportunity of getting French input and makes you less likely to speak and write in French.

More Research: Natural Order of Acquisition

We acquire, or “pick up” a language in a particular order.

You need to crawl before you can walk.

More Research: Natural Order of Acquisition

We all pass through the same stages of Acquisition, but at different rates.

What does this mean for you?

More Research: Natural Order of Acquisition

• Some students in class will start speaking French faster than others. That’s normal.

• The more you listen, study vocabulary and use phrases your teacher gives you to communicate in class, the more quickly you proceed through stages of Acquisition.

• Your first important goal: stick to French and avoid English in class.

More Research: The Monitor

We have what researchers call a “Monitor” in our heads who is a kind of rule bully. He gets bigger and bigger the more you worry about making errors or when you worry about what other people think. He interferes with our speaking because he makes us feel self-conscious.

Bad news!

If you worry about errors … the Monitor pops up and makes it hard for you to express yourself.

Ignore him, and he’ll go away until you call on him.

Implications for The Monitor

Use him when you write. Ignore him when you speak.

Good news about speaking French!

It takes a long, long time to

speak French fluently and

without errors, so long that

you might as well not worry

about speaking perfectly.

Mistakes are inevitable when

you start speaking French in a

natural way.

Good news about speaking French!

Beginners can’t control

mistakes when they speak

French.

In class, we’re interested in

what you say, not how you

say it.

We all make mistakes

So, just speak French, and don’t worry about how you sound.

Try to avoid some very common beginner pitfalls by doing the following:

Have faith in your teacher’s skills and your own ability & let go of English.

Avoid translating for your classmates. You rob them of their ability to figure it out on their own.

Remember that classroom work is only part of your quest to speak another language.

Try to avoid some very common beginner pitfalls by doing the following:

Be patient: you’ll communicate fairly quickly, but, at the same time, it’s a lifetime adventure to learn to speak another language well.

Always ask for help (in French) and let the teacher decide to use English or French to help you right now.

Fin!

Are you ready to get started?

Bon courage!

Part II

Everything you need to know about acquiring French

Remember Communication?

Express your ideas

Figure out what some else’s ideas mean.

Make sure you’re understood, and make sure you can understand someone else’s French.

We work on French communication skills in four areas

Strategic Competence

Discourse Competence

Sociolinguistic Competence

Linguistic Competence

Strategic Competence means:

• You know how to stay in French during conversations.

• You know how to work around words and topics you don’t know yet.

• You manage a conversation so you get the speaker to talk with you, instead of over your head.

Discourse Competence means

• You express your ideas, even at the start with simple language.

• You build up your vocabulary.

• You rely on cognates.

• You use tools like context clues, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. to help you understand words you don’t know.

Good news!

You start developing

Discourse and Strategic

Competence right away,

during the first few weeks

of class.

Good news!

Your teacher will show you

tricks and study skills to learn

how.

Your main job: build vocabulary

The faster you build up your French vocabulary, the faster your Discourse Competence grows.

Sociolinguistic Competence

You develop Sociolinguistic

Competence as you learn to

use the right phrase at the

right time.

For example …

Sociolinguistic Competence

In English, what do you say when:

You want to pass in front of someone?

Your family friend gets married?

Your best friend’s grandmother passes away?

Your brother wins a competition?

You step on someone’s toes on the dance floor?

You want to politely interrupt the school principal?

Sociolinguistic Competence

If you know the answers, you

have Sociolinguistic

Competence in English.

You’ll learn how to develop it

in French as well.

Linguistic Competence

You show Linguistic

Competence when you

tie your sentences together

the way a native French

speaker would. That means:

You recognize good sentence structure.

You apply grammar rules.

Good news!

Your teacher shows you

how to do this in writing

fairly quickly.

It takes study to do this.

Good news about speaking French!

It takes a long, long time to

speak French fluently and

without errors, so long that

you might as well not worry

about speaking perfectly.

Mistakes are inevitable when

you start speaking French in a

natural way.

Good news about speaking French!

Beginners can’t control

mistakes when they speak

French.

In class, we’re interested in

what you say, not how you

say it.

We all make mistakes

So, just speak French, and don’t worry about how you sound.

Bad news!

If you worry about errors … the Monitor pops up and makes it hard for you to express yourself.

Ignore him, and he’ll go away until you call on him.

Try to avoid some very common beginner pitfalls by doing the following:

Have faith in your teacher’s skills and your own ability & let go of English.

Avoid translating for your classmates. You rob them of their ability to figure it out on their own.

Remember that classroom work is only part of your quest to speak another language.

Try to avoid some very common beginner pitfalls by doing the following:

Be patient: you’ll communicate fairly quickly, but, at the same time, it’s a lifetime adventure to learn to speak another language well.

Always ask for help (in French) and let the teacher decide to use English or French to help you right now.

Fin!

Are you ready to get started?

Allons-y!