French Only

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.


Reward/Punishment

I think a lot depends on the age of your learners. I teach French immersion to Grade 6 (11 and 12 year olds). I have a list of their names on the wall with 10 blank spaces in chart form - one for each class day for 2 weeks. Every time I hear a student speaking English, they must sign their space on the list for that day. If there is no signature in the space, I put a happy face sticker in their space at the end of the day.

At the end of 2 weeks (10 class days) any student with 8 or more stickers gets a reward - sometimes a trinket from the dollar store, other times, when most of the class earns the reward (as is usually the case) I will invite them all for a special dessert at lunch hour, or give them a free period or game time. Those who spoke too much English are given work to do instead of participating in the reward.

Also, the number of happy face stickers on each student's chart is tallied each term and counts as part of their French mark!

Je trouve que cette solution fonctionne très bien pour l'âge que j'enseigne. Tu pourrais la modifier pour des apprenants plus jeunes ou plus âgés.

MVKS

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Ce que je fais dans mes cours est de passer aux élèves au commencement d'un chapitre une feuille de billets. Chacun vaut un point de participation possible. Au cours de toute activité orale (je leur en fais signe en avance), je circule parmi eux et à tout moment où je soupçonne (puisque je suis le prof et ce n'est pas une démocratie, il ne me faut pas de preuve) qu'on ne soit pas en train de parler en français, j'enlève un billet à l'élève en question et il/elle perd l'occasion de prendre un de ses points. Si une séance se passe sans que personne perde aucun billet, je donne au groupe une petite récompense.

Quand il s'avère difficile de se déplacer, il se peut qu'on puisse regrouper les étudiants en quatre ou faire quelque chose pour éliminer les rangées traditionnelles.

Encore une activité que je fais est de passer un de ces mêmes billets à tout élève qui me pose une question en français au delà de la normale (dite je peux aller aux toilettes, etc.) De cette manière, on a la conséquence ainsi que la récompense et pour ceux qui en perdent beaucoup en parlant anglais, on a l'occasion de reprendre les points perdus.

sidlefou

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I teach adults who also tend to go into their own language if I'm not careful. Some of them asked me to be stricter about it so I brought in a money box and they have to pay a (very small) fine each time they use their own language for anything unrelated to the lesson. They think this is very funny but best of all it works! I have told them we will use it as party money for a class celebration at the end of term.

AnneBreck

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I find that adults do sometimes come forward with a proposal for a money box. But I like each class to bring the idea to me if they want. Sometimes I have to mention that individuals have used up their one "freebie" a day; usually just a couple do.

ldeisman

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Place a jar with 20 beans on your desk, and explain to the students that each time anyone uses English unnecessarily, one bean will be taken out. If the students make it a whole class without using English, three beans will be added. At the end of the term, if the jar holds 100 beans, you'll throw a class party. (My third grade teacher did this to keep us from using the word "ain't" but the same concept applies for a French class.)

You can also try the gum incentive. At the beginning of class, place a piece of wrapped gum (or other treat, especially one that smells good) on the corner of each student's desk. Students that make it through the class without speaking English can eat the gum; the other students' pieces get taken away. (My fifth grade teacher used to do this in the class period just before lunch and it was very effective - in fact, this is how I learned the word "incentive." :-)

LKL

General tips | Reward + Punishment | Unorthodox but effective

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