In French classes, teachers usually want to encourage students to speak only in French. Practice makes perfect and the more French students speak in class the more they will learn and remember. However, it can be difficult to enforce French only, especially when you have a large class and students are doing group work - some groups finish the French exercise faster than others, and then English conversation usually follows. When a call for help was posted on the Profs de français forum, teachers responded with a variety of creative and effective techniques.
General tips
Make sure the students have all the necessary vocabulary (sentences) to handle all types of classroom situations for requests and questions. Reinforce the use of studied phrases to generate French dialogue.
shared by mnodonne
~ ~ ~
Make it clear that it's not chatter in class that's frowned upon, but the English chatter in class. Tell them that as long as they are using French, they can chatter as much as they like (within reason). Often they think they're getting in trouble for chatting. Frankly, if my students are speaking in French, I don't see the harm in it. It's communication in the target language, right?
arp225
~ ~ ~
Very often the reason we go into English is that a student has initiated it by asking a perfectly valid grammar question in English but after that it can be difficult to get back into the swing of French. They can be quite opinionated about what they want to do!
A colleague told me that he gives everyone a "Don't correct me!" card that they can choose to hold up or not when they are telling us something in French. I think I'll put the idea to them, so that those who tend to lose the thread when corrected can exercise some control.
AnneBreck
~ ~ ~
I give out a series of different colored slips of whole language in an envelope (hole punched so they can keep it in their binders) that we practice diligently for several weeks and that are reviewed on Mondays, such as
- I don't understand.
- How do you spell that?
- What did you say?
I always say to the students that we don't give corrections, we give time.
ldeisman
Group work
Make sure each group is a mix of strong and weak students. Allow friends to work together on the condition that they follow the French only rule; if they keep reverting to English, change the groups around.
~ ~ ~
I limited the group work today and directly afterwards asked them to continue the same exercise, but individually in front of the rest of the class. I felt that it was more effective and I had a little more control over their output.
erinnire32
~ ~ ~
For French only group work in year 1, the goal must be very simple and mapped out. Usually we are practicing mini-dialogues with changing variables cued by pictures. It is frustrating not being able to express all one's grammatical thoughts in the second language.
Limit time on group work. Not all students need to finish every last sentence. This will encourage slower students to move a little more quickly. This instills a challenge, thus an incentive, to finish, if not to finish well. You therefore have less chance for English to break out.
Use peer editing for written work before you collect it. Editing skills are needed. Pairing strong students with weaker students will encourage this skill.
Remember that there is no cooperative learning at the beginning levels of a foreign language. There is only cooperative practice.
mnodonne
General tips | Reward + Punishment | Unorthodox but effective
