Fluency → Self – confidence → Learning

Dear FSL Teacher,

Having had the opportunity to meet, help and work with many French teachers, I decided to write this article reflecting on what I have been observing in the domain of teaching French. I do not pretend to be an expert in teaching this language at all. I simply have some ideas that I accumulated through my long career in teaching and creating resources in this language that, I believe, can be helpful to you. Although you will probably disagree with many of my ideas, I encourage you to look at them objectively.

If you want to become a teacher of French, or if you are one, I challenge you to respond to the following questions with honesty.

1. Do you have the passion to teach a Second Language such as French or you want to teach it because there is a demand for it?

2. Do you have the will to make sacrifices and the patience to constantly learn and become fluent in speaking French, or you want to do it because your mother or father or a friend did it before you and they survived?

If you choose to become a French teacher because there is a great demand for it, you will probably have a job until you retire. However, the question that begs an answer deals with whether your work is challenging and it leads to the full development of your professional self.

I hope you agree with me that teaching a language such as French, in a country where English is the language of the overwhelming majority of the population, is a very demanding and challenging experience. Although it has a lot in common with teaching any other subject, a distinct characteristic can be attributed to it that puts successful second language teachers in a league by themselves.

In order to teach French to non-French-speaking students, you have to love what you do, be sincere in showing your interest in your students and subject, and achieve an acceptable level of verbal fluency to make you feel at ease teaching this language. In our view, becoming fluent is a long process that is not limited to holding a diploma in French and taking FSL I, II or III. It is a constant contact with the oral language that many credited courses, on line or on site, do not provide for various reasons. And according to many teachers and professionals with whom we have worked, the result is the perception of becoming fluent in French when, in reality, they leave these courses with a credit and a high mark, but their real verbal fluency remains in the classroom. And that adds to their frustration and forces them to say:

“I understand your question but I am not confident enough to respond to it”

In our opinion, as a French teacher, you have to make choices and sacrifices. Everything can be achieved but at a cost. Reading and writing in French help but using the vocabulary you learn and retain through reading, verbally first, helps a lot more and makes you feel at ease in expressing yourself in French. If you do not use the vocabulary you learn, by speaking the language first, it will be difficult for you to know whether you make mistakes when you speak French and where your mistakes are. Therefore, you need someone who masters the language to point your mistakes to you, correct them and help you avoid making them again. Otherwise, you will keep making them and thinking you are fluent in French because you hold a diploma and speak quickly with a beautiful accent.

In our view, verbal fluency has little to do with your qualifications, your speed and your accent in speaking French. Oral fluency has children called Clarity, Concision and Simplicity. At first, speak the language properly, clearly, with concision by using relevant and simple vocabulary, free of the influence of Anglicism, and later worry about improving your accent and your speed. We see the accent as the dressing on the salad, which makes it taste better but it is not the most important ingredient, and we wonder whether anyone would drink/eat the dressing without the salad. The same goes for the accent. It is not enough by itself. You can improve your accent by listening to videos, on your own, at your own time and pace, where no one can hear you. You make mistakes, you laugh at yourself and you challenge yourself to improve your accent. It is not easy, for sure, but it needs to be done with consistency. Use your sense of humour and, above all, be humble, open to learning new ideas from others and fully convinced that No One can become a professional dancer without going on the dance floor.

Although many teachers and experts in the domain of teaching languages think that having confidence in yourself enables you to become fluent, we tend to change the order of the words slightly and believe that fluency leads to confidence. To keep matters simple, when we acquire a rich vocabulary in French or any language, and we are able to use it properly, we become more confident to speak this language. Otherwise, we tend to avoid using it for fear of making mistakes and feeling humiliated. Based on our research during 42 years of teaching French and dealing with a wide range of learners, at the elementary, college and university levels, we strongly believe that at the early stages of learning French or any other second language, vocabulary must have the priority over grammar. Otherwise, we can memorize the grammar rules without being able to apply them due to the fact that we have not learned, retained and USED a relevant vocabulary.

Being happy with your performance is central to your well-being, but you have to be realistic and think about the performance of your students. If you want to make your students able to express themselves in French verbally, engage your students and challenge them. Give them enough time to use the language daily, at ease. Share resources with your students that they enjoy and encourage them to speak French, use the vocabulary, explore their dramatic talent, such as dialogues reflecting real situations, where the characters help the students speak French properly, identify with them and use the language instantly. Use games and music in presenting your material. You do not have to be a musician to make some words and expressions rhyme.

Moreover, you have to become a student again, often, so you will be able to know whether what you are teaching is understood by your students. And last but not least, make sure that there is an empty seat for HUMOUR in your classroom, be it at the elementary, secondary or university levels, because without instilling humour in your lessons through the resources and characters, your class or lecture will be a source of boredom and indifference. All the elements described above, being patient, using games, music, humour and becoming a student often in order to create a joyful ambiance in your class, fall in the realm of Methodology. If you have a Ph.D. in French and you do not have a way to communicate your message, your students will become indifferent to what you teach, to the language itself and to its culture.

Having enough qualifications and a sound methodology are essential to your success as a French teacher. However, a third element, very important in our view, is Experience. We do not mean by that how many years you have been teaching which can be helpful for your salary grid. What we mean by experience resides in your ability to keep learning as you grow, to observe other educators who have a more efficient way of teaching than you. We see the experience as the opportunity to put some questions to yourself every day about how your French class goes, and what you could do to engage Alex, help Maria and above all, ensure that your message is understood by all the students in your French class and not only by the advanced ones. We consider experience as having a keen sense of observation, curiosity, creativity, innovation, and an ability to not fall victim to routine and a willingness to be challenged by your students, by your own self and by life itself. In a few words, experience allows you to make mistakes, learn from them, test your creativity and refine your style if needed. It reminds you that if your class does not go well on a Monday, there is always a Tuesday. So do not dwell on past mistakes but rather consider them a starting point toward a better present and a much better future.

Furthermore, another element indispensable to your success at the primary, intermediate and secondary levels, in a country such as Canada, is the involvement of the parents in the French education of their children. And this can be done by sharing relevant, simple and useful resources in French and English with the parents who wish to help their children remain in contact with the French language away from school. You must share resources that will encourage the parents to learn how to speak French, such as video-lessons, so they can engage their children at home and enjoy speaking the language. By so doing, you raise the value of the French language teaching and you engage the parents who will support you and influence the important decisions made by the government concerning the French language services. These are simple steps but can have an enormous impact on the way your students and their parents view French.

Finally, avoid, as much as possible, presenting new lessons to your students under pressure. Let them learn and explore at ease. Do not put pressure on yourself by trying to meet a deadline. This is very destructive to you and to your students. You can finish three units in three months, before Christmas, but your students will not be able to use verbally three complete sentences without making mistakes. Teach what you can but vary your topics. Have a universal approach. Do not limit yourself to what the textbook covers, because many textbooks contain some material that your students will never understand nor use. Do not be afraid to explore new horizons because you are dealing with human beings able to absorb and assimilate a great deal of information. Read to, and above all, read with your students, and encourage them to read publicly at an early age, with intonation and expression, individually or in groups. That is, in our view, how they will become good speakers and readers in the future.

And last but not least, if you want yourself and your students to speak French fluently:

- Speak the language and dance with the words because children learn how to speak first, and there is no difference between an adult and a child in a Kindergarten French class.

- Know the meaning of what you say and how to refine and polish your verbal style first, and written one next, because knowing what you say gives you more confidence, enables you to communicate with others and makes you feel good about your progress.

- Use the vocabulary you learn constantly and instantly, by asking yourself questions and responding to them. Do not wait to find someone else to speak to you. Pretend that you are speaking with a friend and try to improvise a variety of creative answers, even if it is very simple, because Simplicity is the mother of Art, according to Montaigne.

- Revisit always the simple words and expressions you have already learned because practice makes perfect and allows you to Read those words and expressions more easily. And when you know how to use the vocabulary acquired verbally first and read it with ease, the process of writing it becomes a lot smoother. And, above all:

- Taste this beautiful language and speak it with pride, before you Type it or write it, the way you taste a fresh BAGUETTE so that your students will be tempted to taste one, and together, at every occasion, at school and elsewhere, you will not be ashamed to say, loud and clear, ?VIVE LE FRAN?AIS!?

Merci!

Antoine Khoury

P.S. If you agree with some of our ideas and you are looking to improve your verbal fluency, we invite you to visit the following site and take a look at our resources that will help you reach your goal:

Antoine Khoury Distance Learning Resources Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers

For more information, please contact : akhoury@cogeco.ca

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