This safe environment we have created is ideal for students to play with language, to experiment with word creation and to really take ownership of their learning. Contrary to what may be popular pedagogy among French teachers, I will tolerate and in fact encourage blending of French and English into a personalized Franglais of sorts. Of course I will always promote using our words (our French words) to express what we wish, but so often interest and enthusiasm for language is squashed when teachers criticize the use of English, and in so doing criticize the student's efforts at communication. While we want to help them leave the security blanket behind, we can do that while we encourage creative word play that students can now use to work through complex concepts of differing linguistic structure. If we want confident, spontaneous speakers, we can't stifle that creativity that helps them achieve this right now. And honestly, what bi- or multi-lingual person do you know who doesn't bounce back and forth between languages every now and again? As we strive for students to endeavor to express themselves, we have to allow for the varied ways in which they will find to do so, as we support them in exploring ever-more-appropriate ways.
In the beginning stages of language learning, students want to be right, and I think language instruction has a bias toward the existence of right or wrong, of perfection. Well, language isn't perfection, and students learning language will make errors, even when they are doing really well. But they hear a traditional correction and they feel like they are wrong and thus not good, and this quickly discourages them. Often however the foundation is correct, and it is just that the refinement isn't there yet; the spelling is slightly off but recognizable, for example. So although this may be controversial for some, I intend to be more accepting of things like flip-flopped letters and other common misspellings, not counting them as errors, and identifying the accurately spelled version as plus (or more) correct. In this way, I hope to encourage students in their linguistic endeavors in a way that inspires and liberates them rather than stifles them.
Community Connections
The 5Cs of Foreign Language Learning are the guiding goals of language instruction; they are: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, Communities; of the 5, Communities is notoriously the most difficult to incorporate meaningfully into lessons.
The easiest way to do so is to set up some sort of email exchange with a school in a French-speaking area, but I have hesitated to commit to that because, with all the deadlines and demands we face already, I am afraid to commit to something that will be too difficult for me to follow through on properly. But by building the culture of the class around community, I can start to develop the concept of community with my students in their first and second year with me, and as part of that process we can transition to an exchange. First, we can connect with the Spanish and Chinese classes in our school, and then perhaps other 5
th
and 6
th
grade language classes in the district. Also, I would like to foster the connection between older and younger students by having my older kids visit the younger classes occasionally to read or work with them.
