Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Volume 3 (2012) Issue 2
.
From Association to
the Acquisition, Process,
and Consolidation
of New Language Material:
A Differentiated
Approach to French Vocabulary Instruction
Alexandra Reuber (New Orleans , USA
Abstract
(English)
This article explores a
differentiated approach to vocabulary instruction via the combination of
textbook exercises selected from Vis-à-Vis
(2010) and Tom Tykwer’s court-métrage Faubourg Saint-Denis
Key words: Vocabulary instruction, authentic input, individual
intelligences, learning styles, linguistic competence, inter-social competence,
cross-cultural competence
Abstract (Français)
Cet article présente une démarche différenciée pour l’enseignement du
vocabulaire. En combinant des exercices du manuel Vis-à-Vis (2010) avec le court-métrage Faubourg Saint-Denis
(2006) de Tom Tykwer, cette approche offre des ressources authentiques aux
étudiants, reconnaît leurs intelligences individuelles, respecte leurs modes
d’apprentissage et leur apporte une multitude d’occasions d’exprimer leurs
opinions personnelles sur le thème de la vie quotidienne. Comme cette
approche leur permet d’expérimenter avec la langue et d’influencer le déroulement
de la leçon, les étudiants perçoivent leur cours de français comme une
communauté d’apprentissage dont tous les membres ont le droit de s’exprimer.
Par conséquent, une telle démarche pédagogique ne réduit pas seulement l’angoisse
de la langue étrangère, mais incite les étudiants à apprendre cette langue et
sa culture. Cette démarche différenciée soutient donc le développement de la
compétence linguistique, inter-sociale et interculturelle des étudiants.
Mots-clés :
Enseignement du vocabulaire, ressources
authentiques, intelligences individuelles, modes d’apprentissage, compétence
linguistique, compétence inter-sociale, compétence interculturelle
1 Introduction
At the foreign
language summit in December 2010, Arne Duncan, current Secretary of Education,
openly admitted that the U.S.
“is a long way from being the multi-lingual society that so many of [its]
competitors are” (Duncan
This
misunderstanding of the unimportance of foreign language instruction carries
over to institutions in postsecondary education. Even though not all American
colleges and universities require completed language-course work at the
high-school level upon the student’s admission, it is a fact that every
undergraduate student pursuing a B.A. must complete between two to three
semesters of foreign language instruction prior to graduation. As Catherine
Porter Lewis has pointed out in The
Chronicle of Higher Education on the Web, these undergraduate students
often perceive this enforced foreign language requirement “as [an] obstacle to
be avoided or an imposition to be endured” (Porter 2010). For frequently
uninterested freshmen, these mandatory classes are a thorn in their side, and
the fulfillment of the language requirement is usually their only source of
motivation.
For inexperienced
student teachers, these language classes are a pedagogical and methodological
challenge. They often do not know how to address a diverse class consisting of
students with a high integrative and instrumental orientation[1]. In
addition, they often have difficulties selecting and presenting material in a
coherent and meaningful way, and choosing activities and techniques that
promote meaningful learning. Last but not least, inexperienced student teachers
too often rely solely on the use of the textbook, without realizing that this
one type of text within the educational curriculum is not enough to motivate
students, to address their individual intelligences or learning styles, to
expose them to the use of authentic language in real-life contexts, or to have
them develop an understanding of the foreign culture whose language has to be
learned.
This article
pursues three goals:
- It illustrates how to motivate
students in a second semester French beginners’ class (FREN 1020[2])
for the foreign language and its culture via a combination of regular
textbook work and commercial French film.
- It shows that an appropriate
combination of textbook and commercial film provides students with
meaningful learning opportunities which foster their linguistic,
inter-social, and cross-cultural competence while decreasing teacher
input.
- It serves beginning teachers as a practical outline on how to plan and conduct a differentiated lesson on vocabulary instruction that addresses students’ individual intelligences and learning styles. Moreover, it shows how to create a classroom atmosphere in which every participant “feels valued and respected” (Greene 2012: 14).
2
Material Selection and Presentation
This article is
based on personal experiences in one of the author’s own FREN 1020 classes, in
which she used Tom Tykwer’s short film Faubourg Saint-Denis (2006) while
studying Lesson One of Chapter 13 in McGraw Hill’s beginner textbook Vis-à-Vis. This particular combination
of material was chosen for two reasons. First, both textual sources presented
the topic of la vie quotidienne, comprising lexical fields such as
friendship, love, marriage, daily activities, and the human body. Second,
having taught Lesson One of Chapter 13 before, the teacher-researcher was aware that the
lesson’s presentation of several semantic fields in combination with the introduction
to and the use of reflexive verbs when discussing daily activities had been
challenging for students. In the past, students had often been overwhelmed by
the amount of new material presented to them in this lesson and had expressed
their frustration.
To prevent this
from happening again and to teach a meaningful lesson comprising vocabulary
acquisition and introduction to the use of reflexive verbs presented on pages
354-357 in Vis-à-Vis, the teacher
chose to complement regular bookwork with Tykwer’s film.
Tykwer’s film is a
very helpful pedagogical tool in many ways:
- Tykwer’s film concentrates on the
notion of friendship and love. As such, it illustrates the topic of l’amitié et l’amour adequately.
- The film suggests talking about the
human body and the importance of physical appearance as a decisive factor
when two people fall in love. Thus, the film facilitates the combination
and contextualization of the individual semantic fields to be learned.
- It is an authentic French film which
connects “the educational school context,” in which the foreign language
is studied, with its “cultural context” (Bernaus 2009: 26) in which it is
used and lived. The film invites students to develop their cultural
understanding of life in
- Fourth, through the representation of
this real-life situation which is communicated to the students “by visual
elements as well as oral ones” (Markey 1976: 731), the film exposes students to more than just a picture-book
representation of Paris including snapshots of Paris-specific products:
the street Faubourg Saint-Denis within the 10th arrondissement,
the Conservatoire, the Métro, the Gare Saint-Lazare,
cafés and parks, and the Grand Arch at the Porte Saint-Denis (among other
things). Thus, it opposes what Elsayed Modbouly Selmy calls a
“klischeehaftes (Kennen)Lernen” (‘stereotypical learning’) (2004: 77) about the foreign culture.
- The film illustrates Francine’s
engagement with and her “willingness to seek out or take up opportunities
to engage with otherness in [her] relationship” (Schulz 2007: 15) with
Thomas. The term otherness in this sense comprises several meanings, as it refers to geographical,
linguistic, and behavioral aspects. In short, the film shows Francine’s
openness towards the foreign French culture. In this sense, the film helps
students to stir their interest in and their willingness to discover other
perspectives and to establish comparisons between their own and the
foreign culture. It encourages them to leave
their language ego behind and makes them realize that “apprendre une
langue étrangère, c’est apprendre une culture nouvelle, des modes de
vivre, des attitudes, des façons de penser, [et] une logique autre, nouvelle
[et] différente” (Courtillon 1984: 52). Hence, we can argue that the
film fosters students’ linguistic and cross-cultural knowledge, which are
both key to linguistic and intercultural competence.
3
Getting Started
Using the court-métrage
Faubourg Saint-Denis
Set 1
1. Décrivez votre meilleur(e) ami(e) ! Il / Elle est comment ?
2. Comment est votre homme ou femme de rêve ? Décrivez sa personnalité et
son apparence physique.
With the help of
these questions, students’ existing knowledge of the use of descriptive adjectives,
vocabulary studied in previous chapters could be assessed as well as verbal
constructions expressing likes, dislikes, and preferences, and negative
structures (e.g. “ Je n’aime pas les garçons qui parlent toujours du foot.” At the same
time, this pre-screening activity allowed the researcher to teach students new
vocabulary by filling vocabulary gaps or resolving so far “unresolved language
problems that the collaborative dialogues” (Lapkin 2002: 498) revealed.
Exposing students to new material which was contextualized, “easily
assimilated, or ‘attached,’ to [their already existing] cognitive structure”
(Hadley 2011: 144) helped to foster meaningful learning.
Since this initial
exercise addressed students of all language levels equally, the entire student
group was motivated to participate. Whereas weaker students reviewed and
practiced previously acquired material and speaking skills, students of a more
advanced linguistic level were able to contribute their knowledge of new or
related vocabulary to the semantic field that was developing on the board (Tab. 1) in the form of word-clusters which reflected the knowledge of each
individual student (Bräuer 1997: 4).
All students were
actively engaged in this collaborative process of vocabulary acquisition, a
process consisting of what Kevin Flanigan and Scott C. Greenwood once defined
as “Level 1 words (critical “before” words)” and “Level 2 words
(“Foot-in-the-door” words)”[3] (2007:
229). Whereas Level 1 words belong to the field of vocabulary which is
essential to the understanding of the language presented in the film as well as
in the textbook, Level 2 words represent a category of words which
typify either new or familiar concepts. Table 1 exemplifies the created list
containing both Level 1 words (normal font) and Level 2 words (italics).
Vocabulaire
exemplaire : L’apparence physique
|
La personnalité
|
le corps athlétique
gros(se) / mince
grand(e)
petit(e)
de taille moyenne
le cœur doux
la tête
les cheveux (m.pl.) noirs, blonds, châtains etc.
le visage
le nez
l’œil (m.) / les yeux
le sourcil
la joue
la bouche
la lèvre
la main
la jambe
le bras
|
intelligent(e)
honnête (honnête)
franc (franche)
amusant(e)
sincère
bavard(e)
sportif (sportive)
dynamique
riche
chique
sérieux (sérieuse)
charmant(e)
travailleur (travailleuse)
beau (belle)
mystérieux / mystérieuse
|
Tab. 1: Level 1
and Level 2 words: L’apparence physique
This 10 minutes
icebreaker to Chapter 13 proved to be a good means to fight against students’
feeling of self-doubt, to foster their belief in self-efficacy and achievement,
and to “increase students’ awareness of the values of participation” (McKeachie
et al. 2011: 45). As such, the activity promoted the idea of the classroom
being one language community in which nobody was favored or left out, but where
everybody could “learn actively from each other” (Ryder 1985: 254).
4
Processing and Connecting of New Material
After the
acquisition of “new features of the language” (Hadley 2001: 237) had been
completed, students were asked to make “connections between new and known
information” (Stahl 1986: 664) via a second set of questions addressing their
intra- and interpersonal learning styles.
Set 2
1. Vous êtes
comment ? Décrivez votre apparence physique et votre personnalité
2. Et votre camarade de
classe à votre gauche / droite, il / elle est comment ?
3. Est-ce que vous
préférez sortir seul(e) ou avec un(e) ami(e) ? Pourquoi ?
Pourquoi pas ?
Within the next
five minutes, students answered these personalized questions, which encouraged
them to use the new vocabulary while speaking about themselves, reflecting on
their values, and expressing their personal opinions. Since this activity
required a “two-way interactive communication” (Phillips 2009: 31), in some
cases even leading to follow-up questions from their peers, we can argue that
it fostered students’ interpersonal communication skills while consolidating
the material just learned. At the same time, this activity served as an
introduction to a third set of questions exploring another so far unknown
semantic field, the vocabulary of l’amitié
et l’amour (‘friendship and love’).
Set 3
1. Pouvez-vous vous
imaginer de tomber amoureux avec un(e) de vos ami(e)s ? Pourquoi ? Pourquoi pas ?
2. Pourquoi est-il facile
de tomber amoureux, mais difficile de trouver le vrai amour ?
3. Quelles sont les
étapes naturelles après être tombé amoureux ?
4. Qu’est-ce qui se passe si on ne s’entend
plus ?
The entire student
group answered these questions in discussion style. Whereas the first two
questions allowed students to consolidate and use the acquired vocabulary of
the semantic field l’apparence
physique (‘physical appearance’) and la personnalité
(‘personality’) through personal communication, the last two questions required
further language input and vocabulary instruction from the teacher. Here it
needs to be noted that at no point during this class period did the teacher
(researcher dominate the process of foreign language instruction. On the
contrary, teacher and students acted more and more as communication partners
(see Kommunikative Methode online).
With the help of
the sketches presented on page 354 of Vis-à-Vis,
the teacher (researcher) was able to
introduce students within the next ten minutes to this second semantic field of
l’amitié et l’amour including
reflexive verbs[4].
As earlier in the lesson, the teacher created a word map (Tab. 2) listing Level
1 (normal font) and Level 2 words (italics).
Vocabulaire exemplaire : L’amitié et l’amour
|
Quelques activités que nous associons avec l’amitié et l’amour
|
l’amitié (f.)
meilleur(e) ami(e)
tomber amoureux
être amoureux de
le coup de foudre
l’amoureux / l’amoureuse
le rendez-vous
l’amour
les fiançailles (f.pl.)
le mariage
la séparation
le divorce
|
s’embrasser
s’aimer
aimer bien / mieux
adorer
détester
se fiancer
se marier
s’entendre
se disputer
se fâcher
se disputer
se séparer
pleurer
divorcer
se réconcilier
|
Tab. 2: Level 1
and Level 2 words: l’amitié et l’amour
During the next ten
minutes of class time, students practiced and consolidated the new vocabulary
by completing exercise B, on page 355 of Vis-à-Vis
(Tab. 3).
Posez
les questions suivantes à un(e) camarade. (‘Please ask a classmate the
following questions.’)
1. Est-ce que tu
préfères sortir seul(e), avec un ami / une amie ou avec d’autres
couples ?
2. Selon toi, est-ce
que les jeunes d’aujourd’hui tombent amoureux trop vite ou trop souvent?
Est-ce que tu crois au coup de foudre ? Pourquoi ou pourquoi pas ?
3. Est-ce que tout le
monde doit se marier ? Pourquoi ou pourquoi pas ? Si ou, à quel
âge ?
(Amon 2012: 355) |
Tab. 3: Practice
and consolidation of the new vocabulary
Whereas the first
three questions found elaborate discussion, students fell silent when
attempting to respond to question four. To keep the active learning process
going, the teacher replaced question four with the following: “Selon vous, que doit-on faire quand il y a
des problèmes ou quand les sentiments changent ?” Students were
divided in their responses. Whereas some expressed the necessity to s’exprimer, discuter, and to se
réconcilier à tout prix others
chose the easy way out, namely se séparer.
No matter which position students took, all of them used the new material,
exchanged their personal opinion on the subject of friendship and love, and
practiced the vocabulary as well as the reflexive verbs in basic French
sentences, for example: On s’exprime et
discute tous les problèmes .
This
learner-centered interpersonal activity was an important assignment within this
lesson. While being engaged in what Jean-Pol Martin once defined as “Lernen
durch Lehren” – i.e. learning by teaching - (Graef 1990: 1), students in the
class, first, had to understand the new material and then practice the material
in authentic communicative exchanges with their peers. Via this particular
method, students were able to develop their linguistic knowledge as well as
their methodological competences (see Graef 1990: 2). Hence, it provided
students with a true learning experience, which fostered their self-confidence
and language autonomy while being engaged in their own learning process.
Since this approach
focused on the “konzentrierte Vernetzung aller Schüler” – i.e. the concentrated
interconnectedness of all students’ - (Ldl online), it should be noted that
this type of activity can only be executed successfully when students of the
respective learning group feel comfortable within their learning setting. If
this is not the case, students might not be willing to reveal and discuss some
of the issues addressed in this set of questions.
5
From Text to Screen
In order to
maintain students’ interest and motivation the already personalized topic was
then connected with Tom Tykwer’s court-métrage Faubourg Saint-Denis.
Even though Tykwer’s film is only about 7 minutes long, its screening was
divided into two parts.
Part I (00:00:00-00:06:02)
consist of a series of flashbacks which Thomas, an ambitious blind Frenchman,
experiences while being on the phone with Francine, an American theatre
student. These flashbacks inform the viewer about their first encounter, their
developing friendship, and their evolving love for each other. This first part
offers many points of discussion, as for example a description of Thomas’ and
Francine’s daily routine, an evaluation of their different personalities, or an
analysis of their relationship. Part I ends with Thomas’ utterance, “ Pardonne-moi Francine ” (‘Forgive me
Francine.’) (00:06:02). Part II consists of a follow-up telephone conversation
between Thomas and Francine; a conversation with a twist, showing Francine’s
natural talent as an actress.
To assess students’
global understanding of the film’s first part, the teacher started with a brief
brainstorming addressing all students equally. In answering the teacher’s
question “De quelle situation s’agit-il ?”, every student was able “to draw
together content knowledge gained” (Paesani 2006: 770) throughout the screening
and, while doing so, to consolidate once more the new vocabulary written on the
board. The fact that students could easily relate to the content of Tykwer’s
film was very beneficial for the lesson’s goal of vocabulary acquisition and
introduction to reflexive verbs. All of the students had had disputes with
friends or partners in the past. Most of them had travelled abroad. Even though
not all of them had visited Europe , every
single student had left home in order to go to school in another city. Hence,
every student could relate to Francine’s situation of being in a foreign city,
making new friends, and exploring the new surroundings.
To encourage and also
guarantee a more detailed understanding of Tykwer’s court-métrage, students
were then asked the follow-up question,
“Francine et Thomas, comment sont-ils ?”, which they addressed in
writing. Even though this assignment asked for display[5] and not
for real writing, it was significant at this point as it required each
individual student to process and apply the newly acquired vocabulary in
written form when describing and characterizing the main characters and also
their relationship. As such, this writing activity was very different from the
“writing down” practiced earlier in the lesson.
This
semi-controlled composition was important for two reasons: First, it allowed
all students to verbalize their opinion. Second, it also gave those students a
voice who were generally too shy or insecure to participate, or who usually
needed more time to phrase their comments prior to uttering them.
At the end of this
10 minutes’ writing phase, students presented their work to the entire class,
forcing them to demonstrate their “reading” of Francine and Thomas to their
peers and to the teacher. Whereas some students only gave a description of the
characters’ physical appearance and professional avenues, others took the
assignment one step further. They described Francine’s and Thomas’ relationship
first as friends, then as a couple. In order to “foster their self-confidence
to present their opinions” (Reuber 2010: 27) to others in the foreign language,
the teacher gave every student enough time to read out his / her answer to the
question. To stimulate students’ critical thinking, the teacher challenged them
with a third set of questions which was discussed as a group:
Set 4:
1 .Comment est-ce que
nous pouvons caractériser leur relation ?
2 .La relation,
est-elle stable ou plutôt labile? Sont-ils heureux ?
|
Their answers reached from simple statements such as, “Non, ils ne sont pas heureux. Ils se disputent souvent” to the
expression of more complex thoughts, as for example: “D’abord, la relation est stable. Ils s’amusent et s’aiment beaucoup.
Plus tard ils ont des problèmes. Ils travaillent trop. Ils se disputent
souvent. Je pense qu’ils vont se séparer”.
The individual
presentation of their written responses in addition to the discussion of the
teacher’s follow-up questions was essential to the students’ learning process,
as it strengthened their reading skills and developed their analytical and
critical thinking. Moreover, this exercise reinforced their linguistic and
social self-confidence to share their personal opinions with others of the
foreign language community. In this respect, this performance task helped them “learn
to evaluate the logic of and evidence for their own and others’ positions”
(McKeachie 2011: 36).
This assignment
provided the teacher with the opportunity to informally assess the students’
listening, writing, reading, and speaking skills, as well as their contextual
comprehension of textbook material and film. Students’ execution of the
exercise illustrated that, at this point of the lesson, they had mastered what
Benjamin Bloom once defined as the first four levels of “cognitive operations”
(Eisner 2000: 3) necessary in foreign language learning: knowledge,
comprehension, the application of new structures, and the analysis of the
situation which was visually and linguistically presented to them.
6
Collaborative Creativity after the Viewing Process
Since language
learning and development relies as much on collaborative interaction as on
individual cognitive learning processes addressing students’ verbal, visual,
and intrapersonal intelligences, the following 15 minutes of class time
targeted students’ interpersonal intelligence.
In partner-work,
students first discussed the meaning of Francine’s highly symbolic telephone
message[6] and how
the relationship between her and Thomas had changed over time. Then, they wrote
a possible follow-up dialogue between Thomas and Francine, in case he or she
called back.
At this point,
writing was no longer a support skill for vocabulary instruction. It now had
reached the level of what Gerd Bräuer calls expressives Schreiben
(‘expressive writing’) (1997: 4), a collaborative free-writing activity whose
primary goal is a written exchange of ideas related to the topic to be
discussed (see Bräuer 1997: 4) via a contextualized and personalized use of the
vocabulary. As such, this interpretive communication focused on the
understanding and explanation of the (linguistic, cultural, emotional) other
via the understanding of the self. It was a good opportunity for students to
express their personal opinions about the topic in general, and about the
couple’s relationship in particular while practicing the use of the newly
learned vocabulary and structures. Hence, it was a highly motivating assignment
which fostered students’ autonomy, self-determination, authentic language use,
as well as their interpersonal and communicative competence.
In regard to
Bloom’s taxonomy, this assignment exemplified students’ mastery of Bloom’s last
two levels of learning objectives: the level of synthesis and of evaluation and
creation. In their dialogues, students assessed the couple’s current
relationship, argued for and against it, and defended the characters’ feelings.
Most dialogues were characterized by an
expression of extreme arguments and emotions illustrating love, pain, sadness,
disappointment, and hope.
Students were only
able to evaluate this situation and “make judgments about the value of ideas”
(Bloom online) presented to them, as they had mastered the preceding four
cognitive levels mentioned before. During the last 10 minutes of the 75 minutes
class, students first presented their dialogues, then watched the end of the court-métrage
holding a surprise.
Whereas time was
not an issue in this 75 minutes class period, it has to be acknowledged that a
teacher who only has a 50-minutes’ time span may not be able to follow this
proposed outline. If time is an issue, the author advises screening the last
minute of the film and assigning a brief composition, in which students express
their opinions on whether or not Francine’s rehearsal on the telephone was
appropriate, for homework. Since Tykwer’s court-métrage is accessible on
youtube[7], the
viewing of the remaining film segment should be feasible even outside the
classroom.
7
Conclusion
In conclusion, we
can state that through the combination of traditional bookwork and commercial
film, students were naturally introduced to new vocabulary and grammatical
structures. This particular combination facilitated students’ learning as it
recognized students’ individual intelligences and learning styles
(verbal-linguistic, auditory, visual, intrapersonal-introspective, and
interpersonal-social), initiated a positive classroom energy fueled with a
lively interaction between the individual students, and allowed for students’
choice, creativity, and autonomy.
This differentiated
approach was highly motivating as it allowed students to relate their own
experiences to each other, and, by doing so, to contribute to the creation and
progression of the lesson as a whole. By making “les apprenants acteurs de leur
apprentissage” (Gouillier 2011 : 25), students were offered many occasions
to develop and demonstrate their linguistic competence.
In addition, this
learner-centered approach provided students with an instruction which was based
on the interconnectedness of schoolwork and foreign-culture product. When
students realized that “la langue [étrangère] et la culture sont en étroite
corrélation” (Manaa 2009 : 211), meaning that they are always acquired together
and cannot be separated from another, their attitude towards expressing
themselves in the foreign language changed. In the class in question, the
teacher had the impression that students no longer perceived the combination
and practice of the semantic fields and reflexive verbs presented in lesson 1,
Chapter 13, of Vis-à-Vis, as
artificial, but as complementary tools. In contrast to previous semesters when
students often fell silent during this particular lesson, this time, students
were engaged and eager to express themselves in French. The fact that every
student was included in the teaching and learning process allowed for personal
growth and achievement through a natural progression of difficulty and
complexity of the individual activities.
As students became
more autonomous, the teacher’s role changed. Her role was no longer perceived
as the sole resource pool of information. During this lesson, the teacher
functioned as a facilitator and coordinator, and first and foremost, as an
equal member of the classroom conversations. She was part of a group that
learned, discussed, and shared new ideas. Hence, this differentiated approach
to vocabulary acquisition created an atmosphere that allowed students “to try
out language, to venture response” (Brown 2007: 74), and to perceive the
foreign language classroom as one learning community in which everybody’s voice
was equally important and respected.
This sense of
community is a decisive factor for learning to take place. It is important for
all students, but especially for those who are mostly instrumentally driven or
who suffer from anxiety and / or apprehension in regard to the foreign language
to be studied. Only in an environment in which students feel safe (to make mistakes)
and understood, can teachers do their
work and, at the same time, fight against students’ foreign language classroom
anxiety, which all too often blocks them from learning and performing well.
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Author:
Alexandra Reuber,
Ph.D.
Director
French
Language Program
Professor of
Practice
Department of
French and Italian
E-ail: areuber@tulane.edu
[1] Whereas students with a high
integrative orientation are intrinsically motivated and desire to learn a
foreign language because they want “to communicate with members of a different
culture out of respect for and appreciation of that culture”, students with an
instrumental orientation are extrinsically motivated and desire only “to meet
concrete educational, vocational, or economical goals” (Goldberg 2006: 426).
[2] The language competence of
undergraduate students at this advanced novice level of language acquisition
can be compared to a high A2 or low B1 level within the Common European
Framework of References for Languages (CEFR). Students at this level are able
“to communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct
exchange of information” and are able “to describe experiences and events, […]
dreams, hopes, and ambitions” (CEFR online) in various tenses and contexts.
[3] Flanigan’s and Greenwood
[4] The grammatical rules of reflexive
verbs will find explanation at a later point in the Chapter. At this point,
students will only learn them as part of the new vocabulary. The use of
reflexive verbs was reduced to the first and third person singular and the third
person plural.
[5] Whereas in real writing “the
reader doesn’t know the answer and genuinely wants information,” in display
writing, as is often demanded in tests and textbook exercises, writing serves
primarily “for the display of a student’s knowledge” (Brown 2007: 395-96).
[6] Francine leaves the
following message: « Thomas
écoute ! Parfois, la vie exige un changement. Une
transition. Comme les saisons. On a eu un printemps merveilleux, mais l’été est
fini et nous avons manqué l’automne. Tout d’un coup, il fait froid, si froid
que tout se met à geler. Notre amour s’est endormi et la neige l’a prise par
surprise. Et si tu t’endors dans la neige, tu ne sens pas la mort venir. Prends
soin de toi ». (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7omytFn4M74
).
[7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7omytFn4M74