Classes and my lessons have gone very well the past few days so no complaints there. With my older BTSers, I did a recorded visit to the plasturgie atelier. This proved a few things. 1) I have the worst short-term memory ever. I would be saying something, and completely forget in the middle of a phrase what I was planning on saying. And 2) I now know way too many technical terms in both English and French. My students were describing the equipment and machinery to me in French, and then I had to translate it to English with no help. Huh. Of course, I can probably better describe how a injection press or an extruder works in French than in English. Whenever I will ever use these terms, I do not know. And we won't get into the part where one of my oh-so-mature students hid inside a large metal container... yeah...
Claude and I did an intensive French lesson today. I think I had some major breakthroughs! Even Claude agreed! I'm starting to get the rhythm down, and whenever I repeat right after him, after a few times, I sound completely French. I just need to work on it when I'm speaking independently. Claude says I have all the right tools and knowledge to speak perfectly, I just need to practice doing it correctly. I concentrated really hard on using the things we went over today for the rest of the day, so we'll see.
I've been meaning to write about this the past few days, and I'm curious as to what other assistants (past or present) think. Last week, when Natasha came to the French lesson, Claude went on and on about working in a lycee as opposed to a primary school. He's been encouraging Natasha to tag along with me to some classes, because he think it'll improve her French. He asked her what she mainly spoke with her students, and when she said French, he still brushed it off and insisted that she come to the lycee classes. Yes, we both get the same kind of exposure to teachers and other employees at the school (though I'm more likely to hang around my school than she is at her schools), but then he said that the level spoken in a primary school is not the same as in a high school. Well, it makes sense, because think of what an 8 year old kid is going to say as opposed to an 18 year old.
It's been on my mind this past week. After my past few classes, I realized how right Claude is. And I'm not just talking about my classes with the BTSers (which is a huge chunk of them) where I have to speak 95% in French and have become a human dictionary of technical French terms, but in my other classes as well. There's a constant dialogue between me and my students. We're talking about actual topics and such not colors and animals. A good portion of it has to be in French or else they have no clue what's going on (technical school, remember?). I've also learned so many of the "current" sayings, idioms, pronunciations, etc. I don't think my level of French would have improved as much if it weren't for my students. I seriously have a notebook full of phrases and vocab I have learned from them. Claude has told me several times how quickly I pick things (both right and wrong) up from them.
I know in some high schools, you could probably get away with minimal French and never learn anymore if you don't want to. At mine, that would have been hard because of their low level of English, but I could probably have just done simpler activities. Pretending not to speak French was never an option as Claude only speaks to me in French unless he's trying to hide something from the students. Anyway, I'm just so grateful to have been placed in the situation I'm in. I mean, how many people who study French (and are not quite bi-lingual) can say they can keep up with a room full of French teenagers without a problem? As Claude says, "On pique des choses". I learn things from them, they learn things from me.
Thoughts?
But remember how Lauren couldn't get anyone to speak French with her last year in a lycée and how frustrated she was by it?
ReplyDeleteI disgree with this. Yes, I speak French with my students, but I also speak exclusively French with the teachers I work with. I speak in French all day long, every day. While I may not be up on all of the current slang, I know how much my French has improved and I know that my accent is good because I only speak with native speakers. I also attribute the improvement to making a French friend or two and really being forced to speak about something besides colors or Barack Obama.
I think at the end of the day, the important part is to be in a situation where you have to speak in French, and a lot of French. The first obstacle to overcome in speaking a language is the habit of speaking and hability, or ease of expression. This can be acquired in any environment where you are forced to speak in the foreign language. Grammar and vocabulary can come from additional study as much as from learning on the fly. I don't really see that either lycée or primaire are intrinsically better than the other for improving your French.
It was the teachers who wouldn't speak French to Lauren, because they thought she didn't understand. And I love Lauren a lot, but she really didn't make much effort either.
ReplyDeleteThis post was in no means a commentary on the best ways to improve speaking French, just a commentary on the environment within the classes. How one is more likely to learn more (especially vocabulary wise) from teenage students than primary students.
And besides that, I think you have the wrong idea about my time in Chauny. Yes, I speak in English with Natasha (and Paul when he's around), but with everyone else, it's French. So one or two hours out of my day is in English... I don't see how that is any different than speaking to like, a parent back home each day. I spend 90% of my day in French whether it be chatting with the teachers and other lycee workers, students, surveillants, my friends, people in the cafe, etc. I think you're assuming I'm constantly surrounded by English, when really, I'm not. Just because I'm friends with the other English assistants doesn't mean I'm always speaking English. Like right now, even though I had dinner with Natasha, I was speaking French with the surveillants for the past hour.
My point wasn't to comment on how much French you speak, but rather to present the fact that how much French one learns isn't dependant on what post you have. One can learn French just as well working in the primary schools as working in secondary.
ReplyDeleteAnd it depends on what sort of vocabulary you think is important to learn. When are you ever going to use all of thise technical vocabulary you've learned? I'm sure it's very interesting, but does it have a practical application? Sure, I learn all kinds of words for animals, but I am not a zoologist, does it matter that I know how to say woodpecker in French? No.
I think that one thing we all find to be true about the assistant program is that "it depends." I think you are lucky to be in a situation where you have learned a lot from your students and been able to work with Claude, but I hardly think that is typical, just as I don't think it's typical that I have classes that are almost all well behaved and where the kids don't make fun of me. It's hard to make broad generalizations about a program that is completely different in every city, every school.
Oh no, the technical vocabulary is completely different than the "current" phrases I'm learning. The technical stuff, I'll probably forget in all of two seconds, but everything else... think of it as K&K Learn French but to a much broader degree. It's phrases that are used on a day to day basis, but not things you'd ever read in a book.
ReplyDeleteI never made any broad generalizations (besides the whole what an 8 year old would say compared to an 18 year old, because that's true in any language). Claude's comment pertained to mine and Natasha's situations. You'll notice that I always say "I". I learned a lot from my students and situation. It's all how I personally benefited. That I'm grateful for the situation I have. I never discouraged anyone from signing up for a primary post. You could probably put me in the same position as I don't know... Lauren, and even though I'm still me, I wouldn't have learned as much as I am right now. But then again, I also think that what I've contributed to the situation has made it a better one. I presented myself as a friend to my students, so they're more willing to chat with me. If I had been more authoritative with them and more "we're doing this and that's it", it wouldn't have been the same for me here even though they're the same students. Does that make sense? I just got really lucky and found the perfect fit for myself here. Just like you find that it's a better experience for you in the primary schools. But see, unlike Natasha, you're a big part of your schools. She's not. Hell, she barely works... she does about 7 hours a week. So when Claude said that she would learn more in the lycee, he was right.
Also? I have major respect for you primary assistants. I tagged along with Claude today, and since he had some business to take care of with the maitresse, I soon found myself completely alone and leading a lesson with 25 rowdy 9 year olds. Yikes times a million.
I would argue that I have learned just as many slang phrases from my primary children as people do from their lyceens, with the difference being that the my primary children (usually) don't swear (except in English). I speak 95% French in my schools, because I have terrible children who wont listen to me if I speak English and wont try to figure out what I am saying. With the teachers I speak a mix, but about 90% French. I speak English to them when I don't want the kids to know what I am saying, but less than half of my teachers speak any English, so it doesn't always work.
ReplyDeleteMy students correct me all the time too, because they are rude badly behaved demons. It's especially great when they correct me or say that some phrase I used doesn't exist and then the teacher corrects them and says that I speak better French than they do, hahahaha!
In my life outside of school, I speak basically no French. I don't see the point of speaking it with other anglophones, and a few of the assistants here don't speak French anyways. I have a few French friends that I see on the weekends and we all speak French together.
Basically I already spoke French well when I came here, and I didn't come on the pretense of improving my language skills. I knew I would be speaking a lot of French in school, and assumed I would speak English with other assistants.
Long story short, I don't think that being in primary schools doesn't give me less opportunities to learn/practice French than if I were in secondary schools.
Also, I realized today that I don't know how to talk to a child in French. In English, you talk to children using broad concepts and small words, but I speak to the baby terrorists just as I would their teacher. Which may explain some of the blank looks I get. That or they just ARE as dumb as they act.
ReplyDeleteSo I disagree with Claude's statement that the level spoken is different in primary than in secondary. It's the same for me!
Haha. Emily, I think your kids are future students at my school. Seriously, the stuff your kids pull are things I can see my lyceens doing when they were younger. I'm sure the other primary assistant in your town is not having the same "learning" experience as you. Same as Natasha is having a different experience than you. Well, your kids are little demons as you say. And your comment about them giving you blank looks cracked me up. All your stories about your students do. Yeah... I don't know how to talk to kids either. That's why I could never teach the little ones. No patience. And I can't talk to people without sounding like an adult.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of student corrections, I have picked up so many bad habits from my students and Claude has to try to break me from them. He tells them that I used to say something correctly, but now, they've ruined me. LOL.
And OMG! Baby terrorists! Nearly died laughing at that one!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Are you hanging with us this weekend? I promise to be alive for it all this time.