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ABSTRACT

DOCUMENT RESUME

FL 021 676

Coleman, Mary E., Ed.; And OthersFrench in Action Newsletter, 1991-1993.9342p.

Yale University Press, 92A Yale Station, New Haven,CT 06520.

Collected Works Serials (022)French in Action Newsletter; n1-5 1991-93

MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.Classroom Techniques; College Students; CulturalEducation; Curriculum Development; Deafness;*Distance Education; *Educational Television; ForeignCountries; *French; Higher Education; InstructionalImprovement; *Instructional Materials; LanguageTeachers; Media Selection; Personal Narratives;Program Descriptions; Second Language Instruction;*Second Languages; *Testing; Videotape Recordings*French in Action (Video); New Zealand

The five issues of this newsletter, which focuses ona set of vide Jased, commercially-produced French second languageinstructional .gaterials, contain articles on a variety of topics. Theinstructional materials in question, "French in Action," consist of avideotape component (52 episodes), an audiotape component, workbook,study guide, and textbook. Among the topics discussed are: curriculumdevelopment using the materials; personal narratives of classroomapplications; ideas for general application in teacher education andtesting; hints concerning the use of specific episodes; making thetransition from a different set of instructional materials; amodification of the course used with deaf college students; use indistance education; selection of the curriculum for New Zealand'seducational television network; professional nevis and announcements;and letters. (MSE)

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Vol. I, No. 1Vol. I, No. 2No. IIINo. IVNumber 5

French in ActionNewsletter

Creating a Network of French Action Users April 1991

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2

French in Action pioneer Barbara Meisterwins prestigious Klingenstein Fellowship

Will spend next year developing pre-college materials for French in ActionSeveral weeks ago, Barbara Meister re-

ceived a letter from the Teachers College atColumbia University. It announced her accep-tance into the prestigious Joseph KlingensteinFellows Program. According to the letter,Meister had been seleded from "a group of out-standing and talented educators ... throughoutthe nation." Apart from her great talent as ateacher and impressive credentials, the mostunique and distinctive aspect of her applica-tion may have been the nature of her proposal.As stated in her Program Plan, "The purpose ofmy proposal is to create a manual of guidelines

In this issue:Arlicles:

Barbara Meister winsKlingenstein Fellowship 1

Elizabeth Anglin createssummer teachers institute 2

How French in Actionchanged my career 3

French in Action: A solidfoundation for the APExam 4

Feature Sections:

Bulletin Board 2

Calendar 4

News 5

Newsletter MembershipForm 7

Tableau d'Honneur 8

for pre-university instructional strategies toaccompany French in Action."

Given her young age, 27, and her limitedexperience compared to the other applicants,it seemed as though Meister would havelittle chance of being accepted. "It is very,very competitive," she explained. "Last yea,-no language people won, and this year I amthe only language person. The other appli-cants are mostly older people, who are al-ready possibly heads of schools or heads ofdepartments, so winning was really an uphillbattle for me. But that says a lot for FiA. Iconvinced them that my proposal was validand its objective important enough Ito merit afellowship]."

Meister has been usingFiA as a core program toteach French to fifth andsixth graders at Collegiate,a private school for boys inNew York City, where shehas been a teacher for thepast six years. She haswanted to "do somethingwith the program for acouple of years now."She considers FiA to bea resounding success,even with sucii youngchildren. "Because ofthis program, the chil-dren feel so free to ex-

materials for middle and upper school studentsas well. Because FiA was conceived and devel-oped with college students in mind, supple-mentary materials for pre-college students arenot yet available. During next year at Colum-bia. Meister hopes to, "visit and observe andtalk to teachers, find out what they are doing,what is working, what is not working, and getidea about what they think they need; andthen come up with materials which will makethe program work better, different ways rshowing the video, and working with tt'e au-dio, and what kinds of group activities work,etc. Now that I have this year off I can reallycome up with things that will help every-body."

As part of her re-

"Winning wasreally an uphill

battle for me.But thatsays alot for

French inAction."

press themselves. .Andthey sound so French. [FiA ]creates the desire to say as much as you canand to sound as French as you can, to really tryto sound authentic. They love to imitate everybit of it. And with the video, they can imi-tate it physically, with their hands andeyes. Everything they see on the tape theylove to do. The program really motivatesthem."

While teaching with Fi A over theyears, Meister has taken an interest in devel-oping supplemental materials which wouldmake HA more accessible to children of allages, from elementary to high school. In termsof elementary school kids, Meister finds that,"once you get to about Lesson 10 the grammarbecomes too sophisticated. We need to get ahandle on how to present the grammar in away that is better suited to their level. Thestory itself is not a problem. It's all tongue incheek. It's funny. They are supposed to laugh,and they do!"

Meister plans to create supplemental y

3

search next year, Meis-ter is going to interviewat both private andpublic schools. Shedoesn't believe thatFiA is only appropri-ate for private schoolstudents. "Certainthings about childrenare universal. Certain-ly my kids are very mo-tivated, but on the oth-er hand, I think you canmotivate anybody ifyou present the lan-guage in the right wayand if you make it fun.

That is the thing aboutfun! If Capretz's hair looks funny, any

kid who looks at the screen is going laughand enjoy it. When Marie-Laure is talkingabout loving chocolate, it's not just privateschool kids who are going to want to say whatshe is saying. I think you can make it work foranybody. It is just a matter of knowing your au-dience."

According to Meister, some of the thingswhich give FiA its universal appeal and makeit almost more appropriate for children thanadults include the fact that it doesn't scarethem. "My kids are not scared of anything.They are not scared of complicated structuresbecause they don't realize they are complicat-ed. They just do whatever is asked of them.They don't know about the grammar that is be-hind it, so they don't worry about it. They justpick it up. The way the exercises are present-ed, they can imitate the model, and justthrough repetition pick grammar up. People

Continued on page 7

2 - Frnch In Action Nwslettr

A

If you need help orinformation, or can providehelp or information to yourcolleagues, this bulletin boardis for you. Please addresswritten notices to the Frenchin Action Newsletter at 111 Grove St,.New Haven, CT 06511.

FiA in the summer: Elizabeth Anglin and hersummer teachers institute in Mississippi

ProfessorElizabeth An-glin, a profes-sor at the Uni-v ers i ty of

Southern Mis-sissippi, hasconducted twothree-week

French workshopsat USM for Mississippi

high school teachers,one during the summer of '88

and one during the summer of '90. Ina report on the workshops, she credited theirsuccess to two factors. One was the commitmentand enthusiasm of the teachers who partici-pated. The other was the French in Action ma-terials they used. Anglin would like, .o run aninstitute this summer, butcan't because of a lack offunding.

Lucia Hodgson: Whatinspired you to run a summerteacher's institute in Mis-sissippi?

Elizabeth Anglin: InMississippi, as in manyother parts of the country,teachers in the small townsget very few opportunitiesto practice their French.And sometimes teachers arenot well-prepared to teach

EA: First of all, I'm not native French.[FiAl allowed me to run a workshop and let thehigh school teachers hear a whole lot of na-tive French from different people, as opposedto hearing only my French. ", was also partlya question of money. FiA enati:es you to do aninstitu'..._ with a very limited budget. When you runa workshop you genera4need a number of people todo it. Because FiA has somany materials , [theteachers attending theworkshop] don't have tocount on a workshop

amazed at how well it worked and how muchmore interesting it was. We had a follow-upmeeting in the fall. One of them, who hadstarted at a very low level of proficiency, wasjust absolutely wide-eyed at how much shehad learned. She had gone home and kept

working with FiA. That was

"French in Actionenables you to do aninstitute with a verylimited budget."

teacher all the time. Theycan get modeling and feedback from the mate-rials. That first summer I ran it all by myself,and I couldn't possibly have done that if I

couldn't have put them to

"French in Actionallowed me to run aworkshop and let thehigh school teachershear a whole lot ofnative French fromdifferent people."

French because they are cer-tified in another area. [Running a summer in-stitute] just seemed like a way to allow teach-ers who are in ,-,ry isolated situations toimprove their French and to update theirteaching approach and techniques.

LH: Why did you choose French in Actionas the core materials for the institute?

Would you like moreinformation about gettingyour hands on French inAction exam copies andmaterials?Call: 1-800-LEARNEROr contact:Yale University Press92A Yale StationNew Haven, CT 06520

work in small groups.[Another thing

which] intrigued me aboutFiA was the possibility ofa dozen teachers at verydifferent levels partici-pating in the same class.When you run an institutehere in Mississippi in thesummer there is really arather sInall audience todraw on. You can't consti-tute a workshop of peopleat the same level. The ad-vantage of FiA is that it

provides interesting and challenging materi-als for teachers at very different levels. Thepeople whose French was much better nevergot bored with it, and they learned to use it intheir classrooms, and the people who werevery unsure about their French were able tolearn more of the language. The teachers wereaccomplishing different goals with the samematerials.

LH: What was the focus of your insti-tute?

EA: We were essentially trying to get thet achers to use French in the classroom, and weu ied FiA as an example to illustrate tech-niques for using the language in the classroom[by manipulating video materials]. What wewere trying to show them was that theydidn't necessarily have to be proficient them-selves [in French] to use these materials.

LH: Did the teachers accept this idea?EA: Yes. They had all been intimidated

by the idea of trying to speak French in theclassroom, but by the end they were all

what we were looking for; wewere trying to let them under-stand that FiA teaches themhow to learn.

For these teachers it wasa real eye-opener. They hadalways thought of French assome kind of strange code thatthey didn't know very much

of and that their students knew less of. Theydidn't think of it as something real. I thinkthat's what they got out of FiA: They under-stood that French is a real language and thatthey can actually speak it and that they canactually teach their students to speak it. Youcan try to explain that to people, but I thinkthat as a result of the institute, a number ofhem had the experience of understanding

themselves that it is really true. -L.H.

French In ActionWSIF1IiP

Volume 1, Number 1April 1991

Editor : Lucia HodgsonEditorial Assistant: Nina SchmirLayout, Design: Jack Olsen

The French in Action Newsletter ispublished whenever the spirit moves us,but not more than three times a year,usually in spring, autumn and winter.Subscriptions are free of charge, and canbe obtained by completing the form onpage 7 and sending it to the followingaddress:

French in Action Newsletter111 Grove StreetNew Haven, CT 06511

The French in Action Newsletter ispublished by the FrEnch in Action Projectwith support from the Annenberg/CPBProject and the Yale University Press.

French in Action New2leffer - 3

arLucia Hodgson: Tell the about your history as ateacher.Marie-Madeleine Watkins: Born in Paris, I attended theLycée Lamartine, and then the Sorbonne where I earned aLicense de Lettres Modernes. I won a scholarship to studyat Sweet Briar College, and then I earned my Mastersand much later finished my PhD at the University ofTexas in Austin. In '78, just before I finishedmy dissertation, I got my first and only jobhere at Berea College. Now I am an Asso-ciate Professor of French.LH: When did you start using FiA?MW: We are in our third year. We startedthe semester after Dr. Capretz made hispresentation at a workshop at Wooster Col-lege. I had heard aboutFiA from a friend at theU of Texas. It seemed

good to be true, orsomething that was

was probably too

only for big leagueschools. I forgot

so fantastic that it

about it, but every so often when I had anespecially unpleasant classroom experi-ence struggling with the various other books we used (wewould change textbooks every so oftenlooking for the perfect one) I would dreamabout how nice it would be to have some-thing as fantastic and luxurious as FiA,what I knew about it anyway.Then I attended the workshop. M. Ca-pretz's presentation couldn't haJe beenclearer. There was no hype. It was very convincing. On the way back, mycolleaguP and I decided that FiA sounded so good that we shouldn't waitto make a change. If we really believed in it, we should change rightaway, and right away meant for the Spring semester.The question was: Who is going to get started with this new method'They decided that I should, and that was the most exciting thing thathad happened to me in all my years of teaching. I really felt the kind ofenthusiasm that teaching ought to bring. I was also a little bit nervous,because the whole thing is a little bit intimidating. It has so many com-ponents, and I wasn't sure I would know how to use them. I was afraid Iwouldn't be able to control the material. But there was really no reasonfor me to ' 'el that way, because after I had stud-ied everything thoroughly, really gotten into it,

renc

fore, with the old methods, we never had those writing assignments.LH: Without mentioning any names, can you tell me the main differencebetween FiA and other programs?MW: The greatest difference is the recycling of the material, the waymaterial is seen once and then comes back again am is totally integrat-ed. I never found that, and I have used just about everything out there,because I was never satisfied. Another is the perfect integration of cul-ture and language, which is something that you simply do not find inthe regular texts. With the other texts you have those silly little dia-logs, and they are supposed to present the typical French family hav-ing lunch together, or a typical student saying, "Bonjour, je m'appelle so

and so. Je ne suis pas francais, je suis senegalais. J'aime étudier,mais je n'étudie pas tout le temps." That was supposed to give us apicture of a typical French speaking student, and it was bland,

tasteless. It didn't evoke any image ofwhat a French person is all

about. It was to-tally neutral, to-tally culturallyfabrica ted, to-tally artificial.Nobody really

speaks like that ory would say thatspontaneously. There was none of the idiomatic French that is cap-

tured in FiA.,,...: Could you compare FiA's approach to grammar to that

cbtin ontext is the only way to do it. Otherwise youhave dry, boring, grammar lessons, instead of

W: I think the way FiA presents grammar inof other text-books?

aving language lessons. The students absorbhe grammar. The workbook is beautifully

r made; everything in the workbook is meaning-ful. So many of those other workbooks just look

like busy work. [In FiAl there is this beautiful integration. Everythingmakes sense. It is like all the parts of the puzzio coming together. Andas far as the result, I would say that the results you get with FiA in myexperience are superior [to what you get with more traditional meth-ods]. I think that often the students will know the grammar as well [aswith traditional methods], and not just because they have memorizedsome rules, but because they know it has to be qui instead of que, for in-stance, because que doesn't sound right. They will say it is qui instead ofque because, "Don't you remember Mireille says, 'C'est l'hornme qui &aildans le train, or whatever. They are learning grammar the way lan-guage is learned, not the way grammar is memorized. That I think isdefinitely a plus.LH: What do you think of the FiA videos?MW: It goes without saying that it is more enjoyable to watch, especial-

ly something that is as well done. Nothing is

hin Action

caree

and rehearsed and read and underlined and prac-ticed, the more I looked at it the better it looked,and the easier it looked to use.That spring semester, three years ago, I taughtthe first 101 class, and then in the fall we addedtwo more sections, and the more we use it the hap-pier we are. Now looking back on it, I realize thatthat first time around I was probably not doingthe materials justice. I was not really using themvery proficiently, as I should have, but that isperfectly normal, I am sure. It takes practice.Since then I have attended a couple more work-shops, done on the local level.LH: How are students doing with FiA comparedto ;Now they were doing before with other meth-ods.MW: Yesterday I returned some writing assignments from my third levelFrench class, and the level of proficiency they have achieved in writingis astonishing, astounding. Most of the papers were two pages long, andthe assignment was on the lesson where Robert and Mireille go to Char-tres. Robert is jealous because he thinks he sees Mireille talking to thebeau Suedois in the petite Alpine rouge. Of course the question is: Did hesee her or not? Does she knnw the beau Suddois or not? I asked them towrite a letter from Mireille tc. Ghislaine, recounting the outing in Char-tres. I got such beautiful papers, and this is not the first time. I havehad many, many great, great papers, writtei in incredibly good French,something that I would never had dared ask ot ...y students before. Be-

Mary-MadeleineWatkins, a professor atBerea College inKentucky, talks abouthow she finally foundthe program of herdreams.

5

stilted, nothing is contrived. There is always alot of humor in the situation, and truth. Thetruth that is presented is never stereotypical.We are not given a caricature of French people. Itell you, Madame Courtois, les Courtois ... I

swear I know these people. They were the par-ents of my best friend, and there are people real-ly like that. This is very important in terms ofteaching. It prepares our students. Those of ourstudents who have spent a semester abroad witha background in FiA all say, "Oh , but I knewthis, I expected this because I saw it in FiA."And it goes from being able to identify une boiteaux lettr,.., to knowing about food, to not taking awhole cheese on your plate. Little things thatyou would not think about, but which to them

make a big difference. [With other textbooks] there is no way [thatcould happen]. It is just not the same animal.LH: How do you implement FiA in your classes?MW: In 101 we do up to and including lesson 13, and after that I decidednot to do more than 12 lessons a semester. 13 would be ideal, 13 wouldcover everything, but it just is pushing them too K. cl. We end at lesson35 or 36. Starting next spring we are going to add a 104 which will takeit from wherever we stop and add 13 or maybe 14 lessons. When theyfinish 104 they will go into a survey of French Literature or AdvancedGrammar and Composition or a seminar on French Lit which I teach.

Continued on page 6

4 - Frnch in Action ws ttter

French in Action and the Advanced Placement ExamsCarolyn Demaray talks about the solid foundation FIA providesCarolyn Demaray will be speaking at the up-coming Northeast Conference '91 on the themeof building bridges to the AP. A teacher ofFrench at The Hotchkiss School since '72, De-maray has been involved with FiA since be-fore its publication. Her school taught withthe prototype ot the method, known as La Me-thode, for over ten years before the publishedFiA became available. Since '73 she has beenactively involved with the Advanced Place-ment Program, both in language and literatore,and has worked for The College Board of NewYork, and The Educational Testing Service ofPrinceton, New Jersey. She graded AP examsfor fourteen years, first as a Reader, then as a

CALENDARFrench in Action will be present at all ofthe following events:

March 21-24Central States Conference on the Teachingof Foreign languageIndianapolis, IN

April 8Barrington High School WorkshopBarrington, RI

April 25-27Northeast Conference on the Teaching ofForeign LanguageNew York, NYThursday 4/25 at 9:00am - Pre-ConferenceWorkshopFriday 4/26 at 3:30pm - The Teacher asVideo MediatorSaturday 4/27 at 7:30am - FIA BreakfastSaturday 4/27 at 10:30am - BuildingBridges to the AP Level

April 26-28Southwest Conference on the Teaching ofForeign LanguageAnaheim, CAYale University Press Exhibit Booth

May 9-11Pacific Northwest Council on ForeignLanguageSpokane, WAYale University Press Exhibit Booth

May 17-28Mountain Brook High School WorkshopMountain Brook, ALFiA One and a Half Day Workshopconducted by Pierre Capretz

July 3-5American Association of Teachers of FrenchMinneapolis, MN

November 23-25American Council of the Teaching ofForeign languagesWashington, DC

Table Leader and Question Leader. She wasalso a member of the Development Committeefor both the AP Language and Literature ex-aminations for three years. Demaray standsbehind FiA as "a perfect blend of oral andwritten French, putting the beginning Frenchstudent far ahead of any other program," sheis aware of.Lucia Hodgson:: What is the connection be-tween a beginning French program and the APexam?Carolyn Demaray: Teachers are veryworried that their foundation courseswill not be solid enough to prepare thestudents for the AP. As you can wellimagine, success at the advancedplacement level is only as good as itsfoundation. AP courses in French are not some-thing that can be done in just one year of teach-ing.LH: Why do you recommend FiA?CD: We find that FiA gives us this good solidfoundation. It provides a wonderful basis andfoundation for AP pursuits later on. I have seenno other course in the twenty-four years that Ihave been teaching that offers as strong afoundation, as pleasantly.LH: How do you implement the program inyour school?CD: We divide it, using the first half inFrench 1, and the second half in French 2. Weuse the entire program up to about lesson 47,and then we do the last lessons very quickly,giving the students the story line and pickingout selc:-ted bits from the grammar to go over,mainly because of time constraints. 1ln terms ofhow it is used], we follow the proposed pro-gram just about to a T. We do just what is sug-gested.

the contextual approach is not only easierand more natural, but it sticks with themlonger. Grammar rules will be forgotten.What good is a rule if they can't apply anduse it? I think it is far better to be able to usethe language and use it correctly even with-out knowing the grammar rule. [FiA students)

can use hypothetical/conditionalsentences; they use the subjunc-tive auto: atically, as theyhave heard it. They are able to

repeat it. I think that is far betterthan learning a grammar rule and

not being able to apply it. And todo it all in French is far betterthan going back and forth be-tween French and English.[With FiAJ they are able to pick

up the grammar and use it quite naturally,which I find is a plus to the program, and aplus eventually on the AP exam. For in-stance, in the essay on the AP language ex-amination, the graders look for use of idio-matic expressions, and they don't want themjust thrown in and not properly used. A stu-dent who is trained in FiA will use themproperly and naturally.I don't think it is lacking in anything. It cov-ers more verb tenses in the first year thanother programs. It is authentic. The studentscan communicate. Even the poorer studentscommunicate with the good feeling thatthey are speaking in French and makingthemselves understood. There is a lot ofheadroom for the brighter students to takeoff, to invent with the language, to be crea-tive and imaginative with it.I also find that it encourages more students

to continue in French andI try to personalize it asmuch as I can, and to ex-pand on it. I find thathigh school students arereally interested in talk-ing about themselves. So ifwe are studying Robertand Mireille going to see amovie, for instance, I willask the students if theyhave been to the moviesrecently, what they haveseen, who paid, or I willfocus on what they havedone lately, what they have ordered in a re-staurant. When we get to the lottery, most ofthem are not old enough to be able to purchasea lotiery ticket, but they are interested intalking about it. It seems to me that FiA is fullof things that appeal to the students, andthey are encouraged therefore to respond, tospeak, to communicate. It gives them a won-derful feeling when they discover that theycan do this.LH: Traditional teachers tend to think thatFiA over emphasizes oral work and underem-phasizes the learning of grammar. Can youcomment on this?CD: It doesn't require any drilling of grammar,as such. Teachers are a little frightened thatthe students might not learn it. In fact, the stu-dents absorb it. It is the way a little childlearns the language. I think that ultimately

"I have seen no othercourse in thetwenty-four yearsthat I have beenteaching that offers asstrong a foundation,as pleasantly."

not to be frightened to at-tempt advanced languagestudy. Some students maybe intimidated, or not likewhat they perceive as the"drudgery" of grammarlearning. Learning gram-mar is no fun. FiA is fun,and they absorb the gram-mar through using the lan-guage.LH: How do you feel aboutthe way FiA presents thestudent with French cul-

ture with both a big C and a little c?CD: It seems to me that France is a nice com-bination of both. There certainly are the lit-erary families, but there are a lot of otherFrench men and women who are going abouttheir daily chores, living their life, takingthe train, renting cars, and even winning thelottery occasionally. This is what makes itexciting and appealing to the high schoolstudent. It reaches them where they are,and may inspire them to pursue the stue,,, ofsome other things French. Certainly fromthe literary selections that are in the pro-gram they may be inspired to read some lo-nesco or go on to read some poetry or whathave you.LH: What do students in your school go on todo after two years of FiA?

Continued on page 7

French in Action Newsletter -

FiA in the United StatesFrench in Action is spreading rapidly

throughout the United States. At thistime over 100,000 students have studiedwith FM textbooks and workbooks in theUnited States alone. The program has beenused in some 1500 institutions in this coun-try. Approximately half are pre-collegelevel. FiA is used in all states and posses-sions from Alaska to Florida and from Ha-waii to the Virgin Islands.

Some 40 colleges teach French to dis-tant learners, off-campus, with FiA tele-courses.

Four states - New York, Massachu-setts, Texas and Utah - have acquired li-censes enabling them to put the video ma-terials in every high school in the state.

More than 300 businesses and majorcorporations are using FM, among them En-cyclopedia Britannica, Otis Elevator Co.,M & M Mars Inc., Pepsi Cola International,Honeywell, IBM, Michelin Tire Corpora-tion and Euro-Disneyland.

FiA on the airBased on Nielsen data, more than 8

million people have watchf d French inAction on television since it premiered.

According to PBS, 100 of the 331 pub-lic television stations in the United Statesare airing FiA during the Spring of 1991.Those stations serve some 51% of the totalnumber of United States television house-holds. Major cities where FiA regularlyairs include New York, Boston, Chicago,Washington D.C., Atlanta, Seattle, LosAngeles, and San Francisco.

(If you do not get FM on your localPBS station, write and phone to the pro-gram manager, have your friends, students,and students' parents call until you get it.It is free for the station, and will be freefor you if you persevere.]

FM can be seen on 'he Learning Chan-nel (cable) three times per week, reaching24% of all US television households. It isalso carried by Jones Intercable.

FiA abroadFrench in Action is on television in

Brazil (TV Cultura), Seoul, South Korea,and on cable in Tokyo and Japan. It is usedin France, in Taiwan, at the University ofBeijing, Republic of China, in England, inItaly, and in many other places we havenot yet discovered.

FiA invades CanadaIn British Columbia, the Open Learn-

ing Agency has just created a telecoursecentered on French in Action with addition-al Canadian video footage from RadioQuebec and other sources. Use of this tele-course for off-campus students disseminat-ed throughout the vastitudes of Canadianterritories began in November, 1990.

FIA in the SummerFrench in Action will be taught this sum-

mer at Middlebury in the beginner course, andin the "faux débutants" course by CatherineLeGouis. It will also be taught at MIIS (Mon-terey Institute for International Studies) underthe direction of Gisele Kapuscinsky. Forteachers, it will be taught at the ColoradoState University Summer Institute for ForeignLanguage Teachers under the direction of Eliz-abeth Berwanger. All three aforementionedprofessors are pioneers of the referential ap-proach embodied in FiA, and outstanding prac-titioners of the "Capretz Method."

The Bible, Shakespeareand, of course, FiA

When asked by US Magazine (July 11,1988) what five survival essentials he would

Contribute to the FiANewsletterDo you belong in the French in ActionNewsletter? We welcome written contribu-tions, suggestions, comments and questionsfor any and all of our sections, or sections wehaven't even thought of yet. We reservethe right to edit and publish all submis-sions without prior notice to their authors,unless requested not to do so.Please address contributions to:

The French in Action Newsletter111 Grove StreetNew Haven, CT 06511

like to have if shipwrecked, film critic RogerEbert chose French in Action along with theKing fames Bible, the complete works ofShakespeare, Gates of Heaven, and Djangolo-gy, a Django Reinhardt disc anthology.

FiA appears on JeopardyAccording to the Village Voice (January

23, 1990), French in Action's "social statussoared last December, when trivia king AlexTrebeck of Jeopardy ushered the series into theworld of bona fide pop culture with this $200question in the category of 'PBS'."Question: "Portraying Mireille and Robert,factors] Valerie Allain and Charles Mayershow us this language 'in action.Answer: "What is French?"

Talking about FiAThere has been a lot of talk about

French in Action, close to 150 talks andworkshops since the fall of 1987. One ses-sion of a seminar at Université de Paris X(Nanterre) on the French Presence in Ameri-can Medias was devoted to FiA (January 13,1990). Another session on FiA was held atthe Stage Pour Professeurs de Francais al'Etranger of CLAB (Centre de LinguistiqueAppliquee de Besancon) on August 20, 1990.At the annual meeting of ACTFL in Nash-ville, November, 1990, Carol Herron of Em-ory University reported on a study she con-ducted comparing results obtained by anexperimental group of students workingwith FM and a control group using a con-ventional text. Next door at the same timeJeanne Manning of Northern Virginia Com-munity College explained how she teachesFiA in two different places at the same timethrough two-way video.

FiA at the NortheastConference

Carolyn Demaray of The HotchkissSchool will discuss forming a solid founda-tion with French in Action for the AdvancedPlacement Examinations in her talk enti-tled "Building Bridges To the AP Level."Carol Herron of Emory University will talkabout the results of her study comparing re-sults obtained by using FiA with a more con-ventional approach at the FiA breakfast.Peggy Beauvois of the University of Texaswill conduct a pre-conference workshop onthe use of video, particularly the use of theFiA series, on Thursday, April 25. PierreCapretz will discuss The Teacher as VideoMediator for FM on Friday, April 26. SeeFiA Calendar for exact times and locations.

FiA on its way toHollywood

French in Action has been recognizedby the following awards:International Film and TV Festival of NewYork (1988)Association for Educational Communica-tions and Technology (1988 and 1989)Ohio State Awards (1989)Birmingham International EducationalFilm Festival (1988)National Education-al Film and VideoFestival (1988)

FiAinfiltrates Alabama

In an effort to garner votes for French inAction at the upcoming State Adoptionmeeting , Karen Mitchell of HuntsvilleHigh School in Huntsville, AL will be pi-loting the program with her French 2 classnext year. The class of 10th and llth grad-ers will attempt to cover a sizable portionof Part I of FM, implemented as it was in-tended for maximum success. Bonne chance!

6 - French in Action Newsletter

WatkinsContinued from page 3LH: How does FiA work for non-majors?MW: All they have to do is take those threesemesters and I think they enjoy it. One studentwho is a Spanish major told me that she reallyknows far more French at the 103 level thanshe did Spanish at the 103 level, because ofthe difference between a traditional way ofteaching a language, as used by the Spanishteacher for lack of anything better, and FiA.The average French students end up being bet-ter prepared. They understand a lot more,which is so important. Training their ear - wenever had that with the other methods. Thestudents are also much more aware of culturaldifferences. They have absorbed culture asthey went along, sometimes very consciously: Iwill emphasize, for example, something im-portant about the cathedral of Chartres. Orsometimes subliminally: they are absorbingculture without being aware that they are ab-sorbing culture, things that have to do withgestures, body language, or just getting a feelingfor what it is like to be in a French street.With the old methods there we were doing ourdrills and reading our silly cliaIngs, and thenwe would have to stop and say, "Okay now wehave ten minutes left, let's talk about Napole-on," or Versailles, or whatever cultural pointhappened to be at the end of the chapter. Forthe most part high culture, or sometimes it wassomething like the educational system, theimportance of the bac. I would try to speak inFrench as much as I could because even backthen I knew that speaking French is not some-

,0111111

"With other programs, Ibrought in materials,and tacked them on withscotch tape, bubble gum,and spit. It was an effortto bring somethins to aclass that msb so poor inrealistic material."

thing that you do when you have done every-thing else, but that should be done every stepof the way. But I had to lapse into English justabout all the time, say it in French, translateit into English, mix the two. Now I speakFrench 99.999 percent of the time. There is noreason for me to say anything in English, ex-cept when I want to be very clear about an as-signment or a date.The rest of the time there is no reason for me touse any English, and the students expect it.Once those first two days of orientation areover, well that's it, that's the rule of thegame, and there is no questioning it. And theyare proud of their achievements. Sometimes atthe end of the lesson I ask: Aren't you amazedthat ..,e talked about cars vs. SNCF. Did youknow you could say all this? And sometimesthey say: I never would have thought that Iwould find myself speaking French for ten min-utes on such a topic. It really feels good, itmakes me feel good, it makes them feel good.

and for me it has really made teaching thoseelementary courses which are bread and but-ter, a joyful experience. Before it was mostlyfrustration. I always thought there had to bea better way, and FiA is the better way. It iswhat I have really been hoping for, neverknowing exactly what shape, what form it

SampleLesson Plan

Watkins'Built-In ReviewSystem For FiABasic set-up: Over the course of the weekthat a particular lesson is being studied,the students are given periodic testing onthe previous lesson. They are also, at thestart of the new lesson, given a short,to-the-point quiz on a lesson from theprevious semester.Methodology: By testing them often andin small doses, "cramming" is avoided.By not testing on a lesson until thestudents have gotten started on the nextone, the students get a chance toassinniliate the material before beingtested on it. Testing students on materialfrom the previous semester keeps themfrom concentrating only on the lesson theyare working on, and allows them to seehow much prop- ess they have made.Example (Less.,n 20):Thursday:- 10 minute review quiz on Lesson 13 fromthe previous semester.- Start Lesson 20 in the lab. Studentswatch the video once through withheadphones. Then they rewatch thestory line, then the pedagogical section,and then the story line again.Friday:- Work-up of 60% of video story line ofLesson 20.- Short quiz on Lesson 19.Monday:- Students are responsible for first half ofworkbook of Lesson 20.- Work-up of the rest of the video storyline.- Work-up of apprc, dmately 30% of videopedagogical section.Tuesday:- Work-up of the rest of the videopedagogical section.- 15 minute test on Lesson 19.Wednesday:- Students are responsible for second halfof workbook of Lesson 20.- Review of Summary Quiz of Lesson 20.- Reinvention of the story. Talking aboutstog line, illustrations in textbook, smallgroup work.- 10 minute discussion of Lesson 14.Thursday:- 10 minute review quiz on Lesson 14 fromthe previous semester.- Start Lesson 21 in the lab.

would take. It was really VIM I was hopingteaching a language and lc rning a languagecould be all about.FiA: Is it more work than other methods?MW: No. And what IN ork it is makes sense andpays off. I don't bring in any other materials. Ihave got everything and more with FiA. It is sorich. There are so many things you can empha-size, all in French, talking about the charac-ters, the situations, the background. It's inex-haustible.With other programs, I brought in materials,and they were tacked on with scotch tape, bub-ble gum, and spit. It was an effort to bring some

"There is that humanwarmth, that bonding thatexists between the studentsand the teachers and thevideo characters. . . They areso believable. And M. Capretz,he is my team teacher.I teach in team with him."

realistic material to a class that was so poor inrealistic material, but what I brought to classdidn't always fit. I would bring in a song or apoem or an article, and there would be all kindsof things that hadn't been introduced so I foundmyself using translation.I really can't understand teachers who use FiAas a supplement, who just show the video. Thatis entirely missing the point, like having a su-percomputer and using it to type envelopes. It isjust doesn't make sense. I think there need to bemore workshops and people getting together onthe local level to show that there is a correctway of using the material. Otherwise peoplesometimes miss the point and that is a shame.FiA: Are there other misconceptions out there?MW: I have heard people say that they can'tadopt the program because their TA's wouldn'tknow how to use it. Sometimes [the TA's) arenot very proficient. But the worse of a speakeryou are, the better FiA is for you, because itdoes part of the teaching for you. You no longerhave to show how bad or rusty your French is.You can just use the video; it protects you. If youare in the classroom [without a videol and yourFrench isn't very good, everybody knows it, un-less of course you do nothing but use English andtranslate, which is what lots of people do. An-other thing is that the method is so well struc-tured, so well put together, that once you stepin, you can just move along with it. Teacherscanlearn from the program and we can only hopethat they will.People make fun of me. They say, "You thinkFiA works miracles." But I really do. It haschanged our professional lives like nothing elsecould have done. It has really transformedthose elementary courses. The video is so won-derful. There is that human warmth, thatbonding that exists between the students andthe teachers and the video characters. Thatmeans M. Capretz, that means Michael the ob-noxious studrnt, and Tante Georgette, and Ma-rie-Laure, and Jean-Pierre Bourdon and thewhole wonderful cast of characters. They are sobelievable. And M. Ca pretz, he is my teamteacher. I teach in team with him. - LH

Frnch in Action Newslttr - 7

DemarayContinued from page 4CD: We send them right from FiA into goodsubstantial grammar books, ard they readsome literary works. We have ...d L'Etranger,Therese Desqueyroux, some La Fontaine,L'Ecole des Femmes. [Some of our students also]are fortunate enough to spend the summer inFrance. They come back absolutely astoundedthat they were able to understand, be /mder-stood, get along in what they call "real"France. This in turn inspires them to go on.[Many] of them will come back and [tell me]they want to continuetheir studies in French. Ithink this is a greatcompliment to the pro-gram.I am so fond of Frenchand want my students sobadly to perform well inFrench and to enjoy it,that I really dislikemethods that reductthis wonderful learningto schoolwork, lome-thing not interesting.FiA is lively, it's cultu-rally authentic, its ap-pealing to the students.It is excellent for thegifted students and it iswonderful for the lesstalented language stu-dents as well. Thestronger student can pickup a little more in vocab-ulary, intonation, in-nuendo, gestures, whathave you, but the weak-er student certainly doesnot have a feeling of be-ing left behind. He too can communicate.LH: So you don't feel that FiA is more appro-priate for private schools than for publicschools?

CD: No. I think it is a marvelous program forstudents of all and many varying languageabilities, the talented and the less talented.But I think that some schools may not be usingthe program as it is intended, and this is goingto cause aberrations in what the students learn.Often it is used partially, or teachers willshow the story line and try to combine it withsomething else, which is absolutely not neces-sary. It is a well-conceived, beautifully con-structed program which when used in its en-tirety produces the desired results. To break itup and use segments here and there, or use sup-plementary materials, is not necessary.LH: Some teachers feel that a program whkiIhas a major video component encourages too

much passive learning.Do you agree?CD: I don't think thatthat is the fault of theprogram. If FiA is viewedas passive, it is the faultof the way it is being im-plemented. It is up to theteacher to stop and usethe video and call on thestudents to get them in-volved and to encouragethem to act it out or tolink it to their own exper-ience. Or when Robertand Mireille are walkingdown the Champs-Elysées holding hands,for instance, the teachercan gently tease the stu-dents: "I saw you holdinghands with so and so."This is a great pleasure ofthe program, and the stu-dents respond positivelyand actively to this.They learn without real-izing that they are learn-ing. They are just absorb-

ing it. I don't think that the program was everintended just to be put on a TV monitor and forthe teacher to go and snooze in the corner. I

think it is intended to be worked with activelyin the classroom, and for us it is a lively andsuccessful program indeed. - L.H.

CancansLes cancans de la conciergedu 18 (rue de Vaugirard)Julie Arnold, qui joue Cécile, la sceur aineede Mireille, a été vue, le mois dernier,

lors de la remise des Cesars(equivalents francais des Os-cars américains) a la tribunedes invites d'honneur, adeux places de Sophia Lor-en. Mais oui, ma chere!

Valerie Al lain (Mireilledans le Francais en Action) areparu sur Antenne 2 avec la

reprise d'Un Chateau au So-leil, série dans laquelle elle

joue le role d'une petite fleuriste qui finitpar épouser le fils du chateau, ce qui laconsole de n'avoir même pas eu l'occasiond'embrasser Robert.

A4eisterContinued from page 1definitely learn morein this kind of envi-ronment. At this agethey don't forget.They really do ab-sorb the language.And they are not justparroting it. I can pullout questions from anylesson that they havedone, and mix them allup, and they recognizethem and come back withan answer. They come up withthe most clever things. I am always astound-ed."

Another element of FiA which workswell with younger children and the young atheart is its incorporation of role-playing."They love playing the parts," Meister says ofher students. "They want to read the dialogsin the workbook [at the end of the Preparationa la communication] at least twenty differenttimes so that they each have a chance to do it.It is like a contest: Who can sound more likeMireille or Fido. And they love the reinven-tion of the story. I have them write out theirown sometimes at home, and they will do itover and over in class."

Teachers are sometimes hesitant to starttheir young sty lents out with FiA before theyhave studied with a more traditional text-book. Meister adamantly opposes that posi-tion. "If you have a chance to start kids earlywith language, then I would start them withFiA immediately, so that by the time theyare at that awkward age in seventh gradethey are used to it already. Then hopefullythey won't change their attitude. It is precise-ly because it is different from traditionalmethods that it is so great. I mean, how oftendo you hear: I took a foreign language for sixyears and I can't say a word of it. If you startthem with FiA, then maybe we have achance." -L.H.

Become a FiA pioneer. Join the network of FiA users.Keep in touch with FiA and your colleagues. Simplyfill out this card, put it in an envelope, and address itto French in Action Newsletter, 111 Grove Street, NewHaven, CT 06511.

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9

French In Action Newsletter - 8

Tableau d'Honneur

Reinvention de l'histoireThis 'réinvention de l'histoire" wascreated through the collective ef-forts of a first year college class atYale. The class had just finished Les-son 21.

Hemingway est assis sur un banc au jardin duLuxembourg. Michel-Ange s'approche.

Michel-Ange: Pardon, Monsieur, est-ce quevous voudriez bien me permettre de faire votreportrait?Hemingway: Mon portrait? Pourquoi?

Michel-Ange: Eh bien, je trouve que vous avezla tete de MoIse, et jedois faire le portrait deMoYse. Vous permettez?

Hemingway: Oui, sivous voulez Alors,comme ca, vous faites dela peinture?

Michel-Ange: Oui, enfinje barbouille.

Hemingway: Mais nevous excusez pas; il n'y apas de sot métier ... Vousavez un petit accent.Vous n'êtes pasfrancais?

Michel-Ange: Non, jesuis italien; je viens deRome. Vous connaissezsérement, tous les chem-ins y rnenent.

TuyauxMystire et boule de gommeA good way to stimulate the students' interestand to get them to talk is to have them try toelucidate one of the many mysteries hidden inthe FiA story. For example, in the video forLesson 22, you can ask them: Is the r"tifty-eyedgamin at the Closerie des Li las cheating Rob-ert when he quotes him the price for the kir?He tells him that "le service est compris," andthat it is, "quinze pourceni" But is it really?Could he be overcharging him? Is that whyhis eyes are so shifty? Is that why Robertdoesn't look happy?This "tuyau" was contributed by Marie-Madeleine Watkins of Berea College in Ken-tucky

Hemingway: Non, pas encore, mais je comptey aller dam quelqaes jours. Je viens des Etats-Unis

Michel-Ange: Ah, vous etes américain?

Hemingway: ... Oui, et j'invente des histoircs,c'est mon metier. On dit gue l'histoire deRome est trés importante, alors je dois absolu-ment y aller.

Michel-Ange: Voilà, j'ai fini.

Hemingway: Est-ce que je peux vous inviter aprendre quelque chose a la Closerie des Lilas?C'est tout pres.

Michel-Ange: Ah, je regrette, je ne peux pasaccepter.

Hemingway: C'est dommage. Moi, je vais tousles jours dejeuner a la Closerie: leur whiskyest excellent. Eh bien, au revoir.

Michel-Ange: Au revoir, Monsieur, et merci.

Sur le carnet deTante Georgette

En avril ne quitte pas un fil.En mai fait ce qu'il te plait.

French In Actionf

Corporation for Public BroadcastingThe Annenberg/CPB Project901 E Street NWWashington, DC 20004-2006

Nonprotit OrganizationU.S. POSTAGE

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Washington D.C.Permit No. 027

French in ActionN EW S L ETT E

Vol. I, No.2 Creating a Network of French in Action Users Fall/Winter '91

Getting Started with French in ActionMarianne Gehr talks about how she made the switch

Marianne Gehr teachez at the MenomineeIndian High School in Keshena, Wisconsin.She generously agreed to share some ofher impressions ofFrench in Action withour readers. Here are some of hercontributionn

I heard about this wonderful French programon television. So I tuned in and discovered formyself what an absolute delight FiA was. Ifelt that I should investigate it further. Iordered all the materials. At that time, towardthe end of my first year of teaching, I wasusing other materials I had inherited thatwere rather outdated. When I discovered FiA,I thought, "This is wonderful; this is exactlywhat I need." So, I began just trouble shootingwith it. It was the last quarter of the school

Articles:

Getting Started withFrench in Action

FiA, Fun, and French CultureFiA at the Junior College

Feature Sections:

FiA News

Tableau d'Honneur

RA Bulletin Board

FiA Calendar

Tuyaux

Cancans

1

4

2

2

3

5

7

8

year, three years ago. I wasn't really sure howto teach it or how the kids would react to it.But, I just wanted to know more about it,thinking that rather than waiting for fall, Icould just see how it would go over and whatI could do with it.

I discovered, of course, that it is wonderful,that it's just so much fun. Not only did mystudents really have fun watching the video,they seemed to learn a great deal. I alsoenjoyed teaching it immensely! I've alwaysenioyed teaching French, but this was clearlythe best learning system that I had stumbledupon.

Video

I love the video. I think that it's just so muchfun. It sets FiA apart from all the otherlearning systems that I have come into contactwith. I love the authenticity of the language. Ilove the story line: it's full of intrigue, humor,and romance. I love the scenes of Paris and ofFrance; the true-to-life family situations. I findthe instmctional portion of the tape veryuseful. The guignol is an important part of theprogram.

The video component is so important in partbecause the characters seem like real-lifepeople that the students can relate to. Thefamily situations in the video are classic; thestory is universal. All high schools have adragueur. I'm really in love with the charac-ters. They're like family. And I feel that I seenew things each time. As I become morefamiliar with the videos, I learn which thingsto point out and emphasize, little things thatkeep up the students' interest .

Style of Teaching

Each year and during the year, I modify theway I teach with FiA. When I flint started, Iused to show the tape in its entirety. That wasa huge mistake, especially for high school

1 1

kids; even college kids. My daughter had a. roommate who was taking a beginning levelFrench course at a local university, and theprofessor showed the video in its entirety. Shesaid, 'The lights went out and the kids begansnoozing." Even though she thought it wasgood, it didn't hold their attention. The way Ishow it is always changing. I am not sure howI am going to do it next year, but at this point,rather than showing the video in its entirety, Ibreak it up, even the story line. I explain littlebits and pieces. And the kids are interested.They have to have this explanation in order toreally understand it. They want to get on with!he story. They sit on the edge of their seatswhen I put it on.

"The element of surprise is sostrong, and I am convincedthat having to wait to find outwhat will happen nextincreases their enthusiasm forlearning French."

They don't know who the homme en noir Ls, orwhat's going to happen with Robert andMireille; when they are going to meet. It's likea soap opera; we just have to wait and seewhat happens. The element of surprise is sostrong, and I am convinced that having towait to find out what will happen nextincreases their enthusiasm for learningFrench. We have so much fun with thelanguage.

Audio

I feel that they have to be using the languageoutside of the classroom, and practicing,practicing the various phrases in order to feelcomfortable speaking them. I tell my

Continuedonpage 7

2 - French in Action Newsktter

F iA atthejuniorCollegeBarbara Vigano of Mount San AntonioCollege in Walnut, California has a lot tosay about RA. Here are some remarksculled from a recent interview:

The evening classes at a junior college attracta varied group of students - people who arevery intellectual, people who work hardduring the day and are tired in the evenings;others who just want to see whether they canhandle a foreign language and take a courseto try their minds at college for the first timein their lives. I noticed that FiA satisfied thedemands of a very wide range of people.With a more traditional approach, peoplewho have a hard time intellectually drop outvery quickly. These people stayed with theprogram and got a taste of foreign language.

Preventing Attrition

Because I had had such a fantastic experiencewith FiA, when I was capable of influencingthe textbook decision at the junior college, Ipushed for FiA. After one year, we switched.They had been using a traditional book that Iused for eight years at the university. Theattrition was terrible. The course was toodifficult, too grammatical, too theoretical, andtoo intellectual for eighty percent of thestudent population. Now, the word is gettingaround to the high schools in the neighbor-hood that French is being taught with FiA andI feel that it's going to increase the enrollment.At the beginning, the program can be difficultfor honest-to-goodness, real beginners. But, itkeeps them in the program, as I said before.At the same time, it challenges the fauxdibutants who find so much in there that theyhave never learned before, even though theyalready had a semester or two of Frenchwhen they started. The attrition level, whichis very important at the state-funded juniorcollege, decreased with FiA, and enrollmentseemed to be increasing.

I am amazed by the number of students whohave stayed with French and the evaporationof the notion that French is so difficult, sointellectual, and so elitist. Because of thecultural aspect of FiA, students see French asmore of an introduction into a different wayof life and a different culture than as alinguistic lesaon. This is what keeps them inthe program. I believe it is going to increaseattendance and interest in French nationwide.

Pacing Lessons

Our pace is much slower than the one

suggested by Capretz for the college level. Wetake lesson number 2 very slowly in order toretain people, and we only get as far as lesson9 in French I. We are on the semester system,but we only meet four hours per week, andthere is no mandatory language lab. Retainingthe students is more important than theamount they learn. I pace the lessons with thestudents, and when it is going too fast, we justslow the program down.

Grammar .

I used the later lessons of FiA to complementthe class that was still using the conventionaltext. With that text, they were supposed

"Because of the culturalaspect of RA, students seeFrench as more of anintroduction into a differentway of life and a differentculture than as a linguisticlesson. This is what keepsthem in trTe program."

to learn the subjunctive in a very theoreticalway. So, I used FiA to illustrate the subjunc-tive. We saw the section about the cinema

Continued on page 6

French in Action

Volume 1, Number 2Fall/Winter 1991

Editor Lucia HodgsonEditor for Yale University Press:

Mary E. ColemanLayout and Design: Debra Marr Bozzi

The French in Action Newsletter ispublished by the French in Action Projectin association with Yale University Pressand the Annenberg/CPB Project.Subscriptions are free, and can beobtained by completing the form on page7 and sending it to:

French in Action Newsletter111 Grove StreetNew Haven, CT 06511

12

FiA

N EWSContribute to the FiA Newsletter

Do you belong in the French in ActionNewsletter? We welcome written contribu-tions, suggestions, comments, and questionsfor any and all of our sections. We reserve the

right to edit and publish all submissionswithout prior notice to their authors, unless

requested not to do so.

Please address contributions to:

The French in Action Newsletter111 Grove Street

New Haven, CT 06511

The Australian Broadcasting Corporationhas just acquired rights to broadcast FiA forthe new Open Learning Project in Australia,a two-year project funded by the Depart-ment of Education and Training. Oneprofessor for a major university thatparticipated in the evaluation of theprogram said that FiA was going torevolutionize language training in Australia.

In its next issue, RELIEF, a new Canadianperiodical published at the University ofToronto, will feature an article by ProfessorCatherine LeGouis of Mt. Holyoke entitled:"FiA en ActionDu bon usage de la videodans un enseignment integre de la langue etde la culture."

Cleveland-0n August 19, 1991, BarbaraMeister of the Collegiate School, New York,N.Y., gave a presentation of Fa at abreakfast sponsored by the Annenberg/CPBProject atFirst View '91 (a screening ofeducational videos organized by theCorporation for Public Broadcasting for theState Departments of Education).

TorontoOn April 3, 1991, ProfessorCatherine LeGouis hc ited a talk called "FM,passe, present, et avenirde la theorie a lapratique" at GERSELF (Groupe de reflexionsur l'enseignement de la langue francaise).

The French Review has announced theforthcoming publication of an article byPvlene O'Connor of Simmons Collegeentitled "French in Action and the GrammarQuestion."

French in Action Newdetter - 3

Tableau d'Honneur

The following riinvention evolved from apeastri simple vs. imporfelt exercise createdby Professor Mena Peresxlenyi Pinterfrom John Carroll University, UniverskyHeights, OH.

Imaginez que Marie-Laura fait du balrysittingpour sa petite cousine, qui a 6 ans. Elk veut luiraconter une histoire, et elk choisit Cendrillon.

Il était une fois tine tres jolie jeune fille quis'appelait Cendrillon. Sa mere etait morte.Son Ore, un menuisier, se sentait tres seul, etalors, il s'est remark avec une veuve, quiavait deux filles. Malheureusement ces deuxfilles n'etaient pas ties gentilles. Tous lesmatins elks faisaient faire toute la vaisselle ACendrillon. Et rapres-midi, pendant que lamere et ses deux fines jouaient au tennis, aubridge ou faisaient la sieste, la pauvreCendrelon devait nettoyer toute la maison:rescalier, le palier, le salon, le balcon avec savue imprenable, enfin, tout. Un jour, lafamille a recu une invitatio i A un bal donnepar une vieille famine d'an Aocrates. La mereet ses deux filles sont allées au bal, et elles onlaisse la pauvre Cendrillon A la maison.Cendrillon pleurait toutes les lames de soncorps dans sa petite chambre quand tout d'uncoup, elle a vu une hes jolie dame devant elle.Elle portait une ravissante robe en soie avecdes diamants et des perks partout. Et elletenait A la main un petit baton en or qui faisaitdes etincelles.

- Qui etes-vous? a demande Cendrillon.- Comment, tu ne me reconnais pas? Je

suis ta marraine.

- Ma marraine? Mais vous n'etes pas MmeCourtois!

21,- Mais non, becasse, je suis ton autrernarraine, et je vais t'aider A allerau bal! Tu vas aller au jardin duLuxembourg et IA, derriere lafontaine Medicis, tu trouveras

une grosse...hum... aubergine!Apporte-la-moi.

Cendrillon est alit*chercher l'aubergine et sa marraine a touchél'aubergine avec son pefit baton en or. Et toutd'un coup l'aubergine est devenue unemagnifique Alpine-Renault decapotable. MaisCendrillon avait encore l'air triste.

- Regardez mon vieux jean tout dechire! Jene peux pas aller au 'Jai cornme ca.

Sa marraine a touché le vieux jean deCendrillon et hop!, Cendrillon portait uneravissante fupe rouge, exactement commacelle qu'elle avait admirée l'autre OurPrisunic.

La marraine est rest& A la maison avec lepere (qui n'était pas allé au bal). Elle a sortiune cassette video de son sac, et elle lui faitconnaitre L'Amour l'apres-midi qu'il n'avaitjamais vu parce n'allait jamais aucinema.

Et Cendrillon est alke au baL Quand leprince (le fils unique de la faminearistocratique) a vu Cendrillon, il a cru quec'etait une princesse, il est tout de suite tombeamoureux d'elle, et il a voulu faire saconnaissance. 11 s'est approche d'elle et lui adit

- Belle princesse, je suis le prince de vosreves. Je viens d'une vieille famillearistocratique, et je m'ap?elle Hubert dePinot-Chambrun.

Et ll a danse avec Cendrillon pendanttoute la soiree.

Mais soudain, la cloche a sonné. 11 étaitminuit. Cendrillon avait promis a sa marrainede rentrer bien avant. Elle s'est levee commeun ressort en disant:

- Oh la la, minuit! II faut que je me sauve,je ne vais pas reirouver mon Alpine. La policeva remporter!

Elle est partie si vite, qu'elle a oubliéd'appuyer sur le bouton de laminute:ie. Et comir i faisait tresnoir dam rescalier, elle a faith tomberet elle a perdu sa pantoufle de verre.

Le lendemain, le prince, qui avaittrouve la pantoufle de verre, aproclarné:

- Je vais chercher partout lapropriétaire de cette pantoufle, et je vaisme marier avec elle.

Peu apres, chez Cendrillon, quelqu' una sonne A la porte. Cendrillon s'est dit:

- ca c'est Hubert! Je reconnais son coup desonnette!

Quand 1e Prince Hubert est entre dans lamaison, it n'a pas reconnu Cendrillon, et il adit

- Comme c'est bizarre, comme c'estcurieux, et quelk coincidence! Je crois avoirvu quelque part la domestique de cettefamille! (Parce qu'il croyait évidemment, que

Cendrillon etait la domestique!)Et il a dit A Cendrillon et A ses deux soeurs:- Veuillez avoir l'obligeance d'essayer

cette petite pantoufle!

Mais le Prince Hubert, qui jouait tres bienson role de grand aristocrate, a regardeautour de lui et il a dit

- Que ces nanas sont mal habillées! Queltaudis infect! Ce n'est qu'une cage A lapins,cette HLM! Un logement pour des ouvriers!

Quand Cendrillon a entendu ca, lamoutarde lui est monte au nez. Et elle a dit auprince:

- Des nanas? Un taudis infect?! Desouvriers!!! Oui, mon pere est menuisier, maissachez, cher Prince, gull n'y a pas de sotmetier et que la classe ouvriere a les memesdrojs que les descendants des oppresseursdu )yen Age!

Puis, Cendrillon s'est retournee et, sans unmot, en trois gestes precis, elle l'a envoyerouler dam la poussiere en disant:

- Je n'aime pas qu'on se moque des gem!Et maintenant, je vais me marier avec un beaugarcon boucher, dans reglise de la Madeleine,A cause de l'escalier, vous savez. Au revoir,mon Prince. Tenez-vous bien, et soyez sage!

This composition was submitted byProfessor Will Browning of PrincetonUnversity, Princeton, NJ. It was writrsn by

ono of his students, Hikes r-,rnsiderls.

Hommage a Monsieur Capretz

Les cheveux gris, longs et dr:51esLes plus ridicules, comme d'unefolle

Un grand nez comme Astérix,Son cotps gros comme Obélix!

Il park beaucoup, plus que moi ou toi11 ressemble plutOt a Mme Courtois

11 me fait rire quand ii explique un motParce mouvoit ses bras comme unrobot!'

II n'est pas dam le vent, tu as vu ses lunettes?Elles sont si grandes comme les yeux d'uninsecte!"

Il est amusant parce qu'il croit qu'il estdistingué,Ca me tue quand ii dit "c'est utile pourapprendre le francais"!

...Para qu'il kve les bras comme un robot

*" ...Elks sonl suss; granites que les yeux d'un inset!

1 3

4 - Frendi in Action Newsktter

FiA, Fun, and French CultureProfessor Catherine ILeGouis currentlyteaches at Mount Holyoke during theacademic year anci at MiddleburyCollege during the summer. Here aresome excerpts from a recent interview:

My background was strictly literary. Iwasn't interested in teaching language perse. What happened was that I found FiA socompelling that I became very involved inlanguage teaching. As a Frenchwoman, Ifind FiA as rewarding to teach as literaturebecause it's really my culture that is gettingacross. It's so authentic, I can give studentsa general sense of the culture that isfundamental to any French person. To myknowledge, you just can't do that withother language teaching materials. When Istarted teaching with FiA, I would comeacross a scene in the video and think, "It isso true to life". FiA describes an entireatmosphere; an entire culture. And that'spart of what has made me like it so much.

Starting and Majoring in French inCollege with RA

With FiA, you can accomplish in two yearswhat takes at least twice as much timeifnot six yearsto accomplish with anothermethod. You can take students who havenever had any French and get them all theway into literature classes in four semes-ters. At Mt. Holyoke, we have studentswho are not starting French until collegeand then majoring in French, which wasmuch more difficult to do before. WithFiA, they learn very quickly. So, they areable to deal with literature much moreeffectively and iì&uch earlier on. What I seeemerging out of the FiA courses at Mt.Holyoke is a number of excellent studentswho can really do well in French literature.

FiA Students and French Literature

I started off a group of women last yearwho took FiA with me in a semi-intensivecourse. They are now im their fourthsemester of French (two of them went toMiddlebury this summer, and for them, itis the fifth semester). They are now takingmy course on decadence in the 1890sHuysmans, Mallarme, Verlaine: authorswho are notoriously difficult to read - andthey are doing fine. "; ney can participate.They have developed a keen sense ofcultural context. Some of my colleaguesfmd it difficult to believe.

Two years ago, at the end of theMiddlebury summer session, I took agroup of early intermediate students

through Huis Clos in two and a half days andthen through L'Etranger in about five days. Ithought they would be challenged by veryfactual, what-happened-next questions, butthey thought they could do better than that.They wanted a philosophical discussion, andthey were able to carry it off. It was amazing.

My students who have learned with French inAction really do better than those who havegone the traditional route. They speak better,they write better, and they understandeverything I say in clas . I get a lot ofstudents at the introduction to literature levelwho just can't understand the gist of what I'msaying. They seem never to have heardFrench spoken at a normal rate. The oneswho are coming from a FiA background don'teven bat an eye, because they are used tohearing French spoken at the regular speed.

Using the Video

I use it in class to present the teleplay,working on the text line by line. As I gothrough the teleplay, I present everything thatis going to be focused on in the audio tape

"My students who havelearned with French in Actionreally do better than thosewho have gone the traditionalroute."

and the workbook. I work on new exercisesas the situations arise in the teleplay. Forexample, in lesson 37, the point at which theouvreuse gives the movie tickets back toRobert, and Mireille says, "elk fe/es a rendus",is actually the beginning of a whole set ofexercises in the workbook. So when I get tothat sentence in the teleplay, I start theexercises in class. I do that for almost everyexercise. I know large portions of the text byheart now, so as soon as I see it on the screen,it triggers the exercise in the workbook in mymind. I also work on the vocabulary in thestory, so that when they leave my presenta-tion, the students have already started all thework on the audio tape. When they start

Sur le Carnet de Tante Georgette- Noel au balcon; Flques aux tisons

working on their own in the workbook,nothing is going to seem completely new.

Grammar and RA

The grammatical structures presented in the1....ssons give students a very wide range ofexpression, the maximum range at each level.With other textbooks, the student has a verysmall range of action because of the linearprogression. The grammar in other methodsis presented much more traditionally, and it isthe kind of grammar that corresponds to theneeds of native speakers or linguists, not tothe very different needs of people who arelearning a second language.

We learn French, or whatever our nativelanguage is, without a theoretical grammarbook. We didn't start with the passe composeor the futur anterieur or the present de l'indicatifor anything in particular. We were sur-rounded by large amounts of our nativelanguage. We listened and eventually wefigured things out and found our waythrough, learning to say as much as possiblewith the little that we had grasped. French inAction is not a disorganized presentation ofgrammarit's a different arrangement ofgrammar. It is extremely orderly, extremelyrational, and logical. Nothing has been left tochance in the way the students' encounterwith grammar is structured.

It is not as if FiA starts with the subjunctiveand finishes with the present indicative. It istrue that it does start with the futur immediatbefore the present. This is because thepresentation of grammar in FiA is not dictatedby tradition or theoretical considerations, butby the pragmatic requirements of communi-cation and acquisition. Yet from what I knowfrom other textbooks, I really find that FiAdoes present the general points of grammar inroughly the same sequence as other text-books, with only a few important differences.Hmiever, it is inside the sequence that it istotally different: the way it is presented, theway the student is made to intuitively graspwhat is going on instead of being told ("Youput the pronoun he-:e and the first part of thenegative there and the verb there and so on"),the way the student is given examples and isled to use the grammatical structures andthen realizes and understands how it works("Oh, thaes where the pronoun goes! That iswhere the first part of the negative goes!").

RA, Fun, and French Culture

FiA is fun, and that is a major difference from

14

Coottimed oft page 8

FiA

Bulletin eL

BoardWe love, nous adorons, the newsletter! Tout!Les interviews, les potins de la concierge, letableau d' honneur. Merci.

Claudine MarquetFalmouth Academy

Falmouth, MA

Merci d vous, Madame Marquet! Ed.

Once again I would like to express myappreciation of your program and share withyou the enthusiasm of my students for Frenchin Action...My classes have progressed furtherinto the program than I had originallypredicted.The benefits I have observed in regard tostudent performance are the following:

1. Improved listening comprehension skills.2. Reduced anxiety in regard to French being.used as the language of instruction within theclass.3. Improved pronunciation through workingwith the audio-tapes at home.4. Increased frequency of student-initiatedcomment in French, often those patternedafter expressions presented in French inAction.

5. Intensified interest in French speakingpeople and their culture.

As we all know, actual immersion in thetarget language is perhaps the best way tomaster it. Teachers limited to textbooks andthe classroom situation often fall short ofbeing able to provide the best environmentfor language learning, in spite of their sincereefforts to do so. French in Action is an excellentresource for bridging this gap.Thank you once again for providing us withthis program.

Gail StevensNewark Memorial High School

Newark, CA

P.S. I have also found the organization,presentation, and delivery style modeled inthe videos to be of benefit to instructors aswell.

Voile qui fait plaisir! Ed.

French in Action Newsletter .5

If you need help orinformation, or can provide helpor information to yourcolleagues, this bulletin board isfor you. Please address writtennotices to the French in ActionNewsletter at 111 Grave Street, New Haven, CT 06511

Please send me information about appropri-ate computer materials (IBM compatible). Irealize this is a "self-contained" program butwe would like to encourage the use of foreignlanguage software in our program.

Jana BrillGeorgetown College

Georgetown, KY

In your next newsletter, how about some inforegarding the availiability of FiA on laserdisk?

Ann HaufleWhatcom Community College

Bellingham, WA

French in Action was developed as a stand alone,self-contained program designed to serve as thebasis for a fully integrated, multimedia FLIP(Foreign Language Interaclive Program). Workon the program is in the research and develop-ment phase. Production is dependent uponavailiablity of funds. A few FiA laser disks havebeen pressed and are used for this research anddevelopment. However, they are not licensed fordistribution. Some FiA users have developedcomputer exercises on their own, and may bewilling to share their experience with others. NoHA computer software has been licensed fordistribution at this time. Ed.

I would like more information about French inAction. I teach first and second year Frenchcourses at the community college. I haveenjoyed reading your newsletter.

Mauricette MayGlendaleComrnunity College

Glendale, AZ

Qui voudra bien voter au secours de MadameMay et la renseigner? Ed.

15

I am interested in learning more about FiAand would consider it either as a telecourse oras core material. Do you have anythingsimilar for Spanish? Are any workshops/seminars scheduled soon in the midwest?

Sally BorgersonJefferson College

Hillsboro, MO

The AnnenbergICPB Project has funded a Spanishproject featuring video, print, and audio to bereleased in 1992. Call 1-800-LEARNER forinformation. Although no workshops arescheduled in the Midwest at this time, workshopsare now being planned for next year. Pleasecontact Mary Coleman at the Yale UniversityPress. Tel: (203) 432-0912.

Echangerais dictionnaire Gaffiot Latin-Francais, etat neuf, contre jean Lee pre-lave,meme usage. Ecrire a Marie-Laure Belleau, 18rue de Vaugirard, Paris 75005 ou telephoneravant 19 heures 43.26.88.10.

I am a new faculty member in the Frenchdepartment at Russell Sage College and I willbe teaching French in Action for the first timein the Fall of 1991. I have read the April 1991issue of the FiA Newsletter and have found itvery informative and inspiring.

My problem is that I have having a difficulttime preparing a syllabus for my beginners'course. Since there is so much material in boththe workbook and the textbook, I sometimeswonder if it is really possible to finish the firstset within a 15-week period. I realize thatthere are 52 lessons overall, which wouldaverage 13 lessons a semester. I have alreadymade a draft of the syllabus for my French101 course (beginners') which covers lessons1-13, but somehow I am doubtful about itsclarity and organization.

Thus, I would very much appreciate if youcould provide me with copies of carefully andconsistently arranged syllabi (covering 4semesters, from beginning to advan:ed) thathad been used over the ytars, with t gsuccess, by FiA instnictors. I would be truly

(continued)

1

6French in Action Nevosleuer

Bulletin Boardcontinued from page 5

grateful for your assistance.

Rafael Robert DelfinRussell Sage College

Troy,

13 lessons per semester seems to be adequate forregular courses in most colleges. Of course, thereis no expectation that students will assimilate allof the vocabulary and grammar contained in thetext. A considerable amount is there for globalcomprehension. How much is assimilated willdepend on the level and the ability of the studentsin the class. Does anyone want to share syllabiand suggestions with Professor Delfin? Ed.

I am delighted with the FiA Newsletter! I amvery interested in incorporating FiA in ourFrench program at Brescia. French in Action isa great breakthrough in education! Keep meon your mailing list!!!

Mary Ann SnyderBrescia CollegeOwensbona. KY

We will! Keep us up to date on what ,,nes ',n atBrescia et bonne chance! Ed.

What a great idea! Count me in as anenthusiastic participant. Each year I use FiA Idiscover new treasures contained in theprogram. Your newsletter will help me minethe rich lode even more successfully.

Clifton GarrettBakersfield College

Bakersfield, CA

When your newsletter arrived, I sat down andread it from cover to cover, saying over andover, "How wonderful!" What a great fobyou did in capturing a balanced coveragewhile doing something that is so desperatelyneeded. Foreign language teachers often feelso isolated because it is usually one personwho teaches a particular language at a school.I am "the" French teacher at BurlingtonCounty College. Because the tone of eacharticle and of the newsletter as a whole wasone of comraderie, one of genuine esprit decorps, I, as a lone user of French in Action, nolonger feel alone. How you did this is no"mystere et boule de gomme." You conveyedgenuine success stories. Quelle joie! Merci.

Carole A. GavinBurlington County College

Pemberton, NJ

11 n'y a pas de quoi! Et "Que votre joie demeure,"comme dirait Giono. Ed.

ViganoContinued from page 2

where the subjunctive is used several times,and suddenly it came alive! They saw thelady say, "II faut que vous attendiez encore unpeu," and "11 put tju Faille au theatre," andwe complemented this with the Pariscope andMinitel. The subjunctive is embedded in thediscussion about cinema and theatre in FiA.Suddenly, the subjunctive meant something.It was wonderful.

Training Part-Time Teachers in RA

I have a demonstration cassette that I show tothe part-time teachers. I give a workshop toshow them how it works. I don't hire anybodybefore he .sr she has watched at least two orthree lessons on how FiA is used in theclassroom.

I think it is easier to train teachers in FiA thanin other methods because the traininginvolves coming to see how it is done. Theysee it used in class. Before, with the traditionalmethod, part-timers were simply given thetextbook Now, they go into the classroommuch better prepared than with othermethods. Teachers who are not native-bornFrench speakers can learn from FiA.

Teachers embrace FiA very enthusiastically.We've been giving both teachers andstudents a questionnaire after six weeksand then again at the end of the semester.One teacher wrote, "I would never wantto go back to teaching with the textbookalone." The student responses were 83%enthusiastic and 16% positive with slightrestrictions. Usually, if they had acomplaint, it was that the tape was toofast. Only 1 out of 95 students whoreturned the questionnaire said it wasboring. He had had some French before.

Going to France After StudyingWith RA

As I was writing a recommendation for astudent, it occurred to me that FiAstudents are incredibly well prepared forgoing to France. I was writing for astudent who was not one of the very topstudents, but because he had gonethrough FiA and been very enthusiastic aboutperforming the oral skits and listening to thecat settes, he was prepared for the barrage ofFrench that he would be facing. He would beready to plunge in the first or second weekinstead of having to wait for five or six weeksuntil his ear was acclimeed to the Frenchway of speaking. Even if iA students haveonly had a semester of French, flit), are betterpreparei for going to France han if they had

studied a year of French with a traditionalbook: they are already immersed in theFrench way of speaking and behaving, andthey hear French spoken at normal speedsfrom the very beginning.

Sur le Carnet de Tante Anselie- Cette pauvre Georgette perd la tete; elle

ne sait plus ce qu'elle dit. Elle vieillit!L'autre jour elle disait "En Avril ne quittepas un fil..." Qu'est-ce que c'est ce ca? On

a toujours dit"En AvriL ne te decouvre pas d'un fiL

En mai, fais ce qu'Ll te plait."Du moins, c'est ce qu'on disait du temps

de mon pauvre mari.

CancansLes Cancans de la Concierge

fl parait que Hubert est passe A la telel'autre jour! Si, sil Une carte postale de

Geneve m'est tombee sousles yeux, par hasard. ca

disait "J'ai eu la surpriseagreable de tomber hier soir, A

la TV francaise, sur untéléfilm dans lequel

"Hubert"votre Hubert!tenait un petit role. Je nesais pas si c'était un filmtout recent ou unc reprise.Dans tous les cas, Hubert

paraissait un peu plus"empate." Le film lui,

etait rine comédie legere,amusante, et sans

pretention, au rythmeallegre. L'héroine de

l'histoire, Noelle (KarineViard) venait de se faire

plaquer par l'ex "Hubert," sonfiance jusque IA, et commeelle, conducteur de bus A laRATP... Le litre bilingue du

film, outre la parodie directe d'un filmaméricain celébre, est-il aussi un din

d'oeil A French in Action?"

Apres enquete, ii s'avere que FranckLapersonne (Hubert dam FiA), qui, en

fait, passe souvent A la tele, a bien un roledam Strangers dans la nuit, téléfilm de

Sylvain Madigan, passe sur F3 le mardi 8octobre a 20.45.

16

French in Action Newsletter-7

GehrContinued from page 1

students, in all that, if they come toclass and practice at hbme, after four years,they will be able to speak French very well.No matter which French-speaking part of theworld they go to, they will be able tosuccessfully communicate. I believe that withall my heart with this system. I could notmake this promise with something else, but Ifully believe in this system.

Success Stories

I had a level one student who was verymotivated; he came in on his noon hours, andI tutored him With FM. He went to Franceand did just fine. After one year of Frenchwith me, he tested into third semester Frenchin college, and did well, a B average. And thevocabulary stayed with him. When I see himtoday, he'll say different things that aredirectly from the program. I find myselfusing these little phrases from FM. They areso meaningful.

Another thing that I do is involve them in"French Forensics," a highly competitive statecompetition. They have done very well at theregional and state levels. All five students thatI have entered have received gold medals. Itis quite an honor for my students. I feel thattheir success is in large part due to Capretz.Capretz does not speak slowly. He speaks ina normal cadence and my students are usedto this. Last year, I went to Florida for about aweek, and a substitute teacher came in. Iguess my students had been taking me andthe Capretz system for granted, because theyjust felt that she wasn't speaking normally.They are used to hearing French as it shouldbe spoken. They could tell that she wasspeaking far too slowly.

CalendarEvents Featuring FiA

October 17, 1991WorkshopWith Pierre Capretz

University of Massachusetts at DartmouthDartmouth, MA

October 24-26, 1991Foreign language Associationof North Carolina

Research Triangle Park, NC-Yale University Press Booth

November 22, 1991Workshop for Secondany School TeachersWith Barbara Meister of the CollegiateSchool, New York, NY

Washington, DC3:00pm-5:00pmCPB Building, 901 E Street NW, 2nd Floor

April 2-5, 1992Northeast Conference on the Teaching ofForeign Languages

New York, NY-Session with Pierre Capretz, et al.-Yale University Press Booth

April 28, 1992WorkshopWith Pierre Capretz, et al.

Marywood CollegeScranton, PA

Noveevr 22-26, 1991Amerkan Council on the Teaching ofForeign Languages

Washington, DC- Yale University Press Booth

- Presentation by Carol Herron ofEmory University on acquiringgrammatical structures by guidedinductiona comparative study oftwo different approaches to workingwith students on grammaticalstructures that students actively use inFiASaturday, November 235:00pm-6:15pmWCC, Room 10

- Session T-ith Jeanne Manning ofNorthern Virginia Community-College, Pierre Capretz, and others onvarious ways to use FM to teachvocabulary, grammar, culture, andwritingMonday, November 2410:00am-11:15amWCC, Room 33

- Session with Martha PereszlenyiPinter of John Carroll University andJohn Savage of Kent State Universityon creative use of video to achieveproficiency in oral communication,reading, and writingMonday, November 2411:30am-12:45pmWCC, Room 33

Become an FM pioneer. Join the network of FA users.Keep in touch with FM and your colleagues. Simply 1111 outthis card, put it in an envelope, and address it to French lnA c t i o n N e w s i e t t e r , I I I Grove Street, New Haven, CT 065 I I

Do you use FiA as your core materials?

As a supplement?

As a telecourse?

Comments:

Name

Department

Institution

Address

City

State Zip

Phone

Fax

8 French in Action Newskter

Sur le Carnet de Marie-Laure- Comment vas-tu... yau de poele?

Two options concerning where to begin avideo presentation:

1) You may skip the beginning of the tapeand start with the actual beginning of th ,lesson; that is, right after the last frame of thebateau mouche on the Seine. You thus avoid theshots common to all lessons and the summaryin English.

2) Or, alternately, you may use thebeginning of the tape as a "mise en train". It isalways good to start a class with someexchanges "a batons rompus," using wordsand phrases that are, at that point, veryfamiliar to the students, so that they have achance to speak in a relaxed way and gear upinto speaking French. You can achieve this byshowing the tape from the very beginning, athigh speed, and asking them to identify whatthey see. You whiz through the countdownand ask them: "Quels sont ces nombres?"And they have to say them as fast as theyflash by. "Quels sont ces lettres?" W!.. G!.. B!..H!.. "Qui sont ces gens?" La famille deMireille! "Et ca?" Mireille! "Et ca?" Sesparents!... Son pere... Sa mere.. "Et ca?" Sasoeurt. Tonton Guillaume! Etc... Racingagainst the video usually wakes students upand gets them excited about their successes.

Ce tuyau nous a ite communique par Le VieuxProfesseur

Give students plentyof opportunities to re-enact scenes from thevideos, introducevariations, recombine what they have learnedto produce something new. They will surpriseyou with their creativity. When I asked my5th graders to think of some favorite scenesfrom lessons 2-5 and to re-enact them andemb !llish upon them, I was amazed by theirretention and ingenuity.

For instance, two boys pretended to beMireille and Marie-Laure. Mireille wasreading "un roman d'aventure" and Marie-Laure was annoying her with quiestions aboutit. Then another boy, playing the postman,brought a package and exclaimed: l'espereque c'est des chocolats!" Marie-Laure toreopen the gift. When Mireille asked if her sisterwould share, Marie-Laure touched Mireille'snose with the tip of her finger and said, "Je nesais pas, il faut voir, si tu es gentille."

In a shorter scene, one boy pretended tohold a machine gun and shouted, le suis uncriminel!" Three other boys lined up and,grinning, answered, "Nous sommes lesvictimes." The "criminel" proceeded to shootthem down and they collapsed laughing.

This tuyau was provided My Barbara Meister fromthe Collegiate Sc4aol, New York, NY

French in Action4.

Yale University Press92A Yale StationNew Haven, CT 06520

Continued from page 4

other methods. I have taught with othermaterials that are just deadly. They manageto take an exciting language and turn it intothe driest, dullest thing in the world. RA is alaugh a minute. I have taught the 52 lessonsmore than fifteen times now, and I know italmost by heart, and yet I am never tired of it.Just when you are at the end of the hour,everybody is tired, it's Friday, you press thebutton on the VCR and something so hilariouscomes on to the screen, and it is just so funny,everybody bursts out laughing and is totallyrefreshed and ready for another big effort. Ireally think that is how students can sustainthe effort of such intense learning: they'rehaving a great time.

The humor in FiA is one reason why it is agood introduction to French culture. If youcan understand the sense of humor of aculture, you are really coming very close tounderstanding some of the foundations ofthat culture. If you can start to understandhow some of the puns and punchlines ofFrench in Action work and apply them to yourown situation, as my students are able to doafter just a few lessons, you have reallyreached a level of understanding that isalmost impossible to attain with any of theconventional methods.

NonprofitOrganization

US. POSTAGEPAID

New Haven, C.Permit No. Si

French in ActionNEWSLET ER

No.III Special Membership Issue Spring '92

French in Action as a Modelfor Video Language Programs

By Deborah Fraioliand Mary-Ann Stadder-ChesterDepartment of Foreign LanguagesSimmons College, Boston,Massachusetts

French in Action,' the video-based coursedesigned at Yale University by PierreCapretz, began its first full 52-segmentseries on 120 PBS stations throughout theU.S. in September 1987. Within less thana year, textbook publishers began toinclude questions on their textbooksurveys asking to what degree teacherssaw video as a necessary component offinure foreign language programs. Someinstitutions immediately bought the fullprogram, pleased with what they hadseen and ready to be innovative, but the

In this issue:Feature Ardck:

French in Actionas a Model forVideo Language Programs

Feature Sections:

FiA News

Tableau d'Honneur

FiA Bulletin Board

FiA. Calendar

Tuyaux

Cancans

1

2

8

5

7

3

6

following year did not adopt NA as a corecourse. They sought to familiarize themselveswith the program before making a decision toadopt it to the exclusion of other materials. Inthe meantime, they introduced HA as asupplement to their traditional textbooks.Other institutions may have consideredpurchasing FIA, but they were unsure if avideo-based course would fit satisfactorily intotheir budgets or allow them to attain theirteaching goals.

At our institution, the French in Actionprogram was put into place, in toto, as a team-taught, intensive French course in 1988.2Thiswas to be the first team-taught course in thedepartment, the first intensive languagecourse, and the first requirement-level videolanguage course to be offered at the college.Anyone who watches the FiA videotapes canimmediately perceive the potential benefits ofa video-based language course. Television as alanguage teaching medium has the advantage

' Pierre Capretz, et al. French in Action: A BeginningCourse in Language and Culture. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1987.

The Frrndr in Action program consists of threeprincipal parts the video program, the audiopmgram and the study guide. Accompanying the 52video episodes is the tembook consisting of a saiptof the V iC1o0 dialogue, &strati= of principalwabulary and idiotns, questions on the gory "riir

own"), and a short cultural or literary-damning- ix oath Imo. The audio prowam,comprised of audiocassettes fix each lesson, brealcsthe video script into segnimts for oral make. Thewoddxiok, the astral grammatical cornponmt of theprogram, depends on au& cues fix many ccercises.Finely, the study guide directs the stucknt to makethe moat effective use of al pingram components.

19

over both the textbook and the classroom in anumber of ways. Television can be moreinteresting. faster-paced, more culturallyauthentic, and more entertaining. It can teachculture in the narrow sense, that is, cities andmomunents, or it can demonstrate the lessobvious cultural behavior of body language,including gestwes, facial expressions, andcultural mannerisms, in other wards, Frenchtruly "in action." Television has at its disposalmultiple special effects and productiontechniques that make it more efficient than theblackboard or the printed page, showingscenes that cannot be duplicated in theclassroom. But above all, perhaps, is its abilityto present a wealth of material, the breadthand depth of which is inconceivable in theclassroom. And the bonus is that a video-based program like FiA can convey contextsfor meaning that eliminate the need for theviewer's native language. This "methoderiferentielle," in which French words arematched not with their English equivalents butwith what they actually represent in the Frenchculture, allows work with the program to beconducted entirely in French.

This wealth of material may be seen by some asa disadvantage when considering adoption ofthe French in Action program as the core"text." While valuing it as a resource forenrichment, some may feel reticent orskeptical about switching over to the entireprogram, concerned that a video course wouldoffer exposure without mastery. They may beconcerned that the program would teach onlyslang and informal speech, or, conversely, thatthe videotapes would be at too high a level oflinguistic production to develop transferableskills in the student.' They may also fear that

BEST COPY MAIM

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2 - French in Action Newsletter

ModelContinued from Page I

Fa would prove useful only to the studentwho wishes to study abroad, and not providean adequate foundation for the future study ofFrench literature. They may wonder whetherstudents, while becoming more linguisticallyand culturally aware, would, nevertheless, bedeficient in spelling, accuracy, and knowledgeof grammatical snuctures, or be unable to reador write. In short, would they become passivereceivers of knowledge, unable to producecorrect, imaginative speech or writing of theirown?

In fact, Pierre Capretz's method' has answersto these concerns built into the program itself.His method incorporates many new creativeapproaches to language teaching and learning.It is designed to be used as a whole and whenemployed as such, we have found that it works.In adopting the Capretz approach, we havealso found that it is impirtant to follow theprognun closely to env:re its success.

Some of the greatest btnefits of French inAction occur in areas not always measured bytraditional testing, such as quickness ofresponse, ability to use humor, skill atcircumlocution, willingness to guess, andreadiness to take linguistic risks. Still, thestudents who learned with Flit at ourinstitution tested at or above average on theEducational Testing Service Placementexamination given at the end of the year, eventhough this type of test is not an appropriateevaluation tool for the program. Ourexperience has shown us that the French in

' Whereas Maric-Laure and Mireille often use slang,Hubert dr Pinot-Chambrun speaks in a formal andliterary French worthy of his greatest Frenchforebears. In fact,the construction "Poulet pourpouid je préfere..." (a construction he likes to use), isfound in the preface to La Fontaine's alga: "Fablepour fable, k kaeur préferera toujours celle de Planude111 la mienne." Jean de la Fontaine, vol. 1.Paris: Classiques Larousse, 1971 (p. 19).

4 11w French in Action method operates uniquely byrt. ring the student to images and actions withoutrecourse to English. Capretz has nonethelessintegrated elements from other methods into his ownmethodology, notably aspects of the audio-lingualmethod, functional-notional approaches, and aproficiency orientation. Moreover, the workbooksand audiocauettes take advantage of many of the bestfeatures ot programmed learning.

Caput; French ii Aakn, wedwelf. Inuodixtion,

P. 2.

Action method is highly innovative (even apartfrom its innovations in the field of video), andthat its methodology is often unusual, evenheretical. But the program, when taken as awhole, is as intelligently conceived anddeveloped for achieving the ultimate goal ofproficiency in a foreign language as any thathas appeared to date.

"For Capretz, to be plungedinto the foreign culture is tobe bombarded by an ocean ofrandom stimuli without a lifepreserver. "

Capretz's approach is, in essence, modifiedimmersion. Based on observation andinference, the method "gives you the advan-tages of the immersion method without itschaos."' For Capretz, to be plunged into theforeign culture is to be bombarded by anocean of random stimuli without a lifepreserver. The innovation of French in Action isto take immersion one step further, renderingauthentic speech comprehensible by breakingit down into structured components, in otherwords, to offer immersion coupled with asystematic way of coping with it. Bit by bit,using the arsenal of video techniques at hisdisposal, and a wealth of camouflagedoccasions for repetition, Capretz provides the

continued on page 3

French in Action

Volume II, Number 1Special Membership Issue

Contributors: Deborah Fraioli,Mary-Ann Stadtler-Chester,Barry Lydgate

Editor for Yale University Press:Mary E. Coleman

The French in Action Newsktter is pub-lished by the French in Action Project inassociation with Yale University Press andthe Annenberg/CPB Project. Subscriptionsare free, and can be obtained by completingthe form on page 7 and sending it to:

French in Action Newsletter111 Grove StreetNew Haven, CI' 06511

FiA

N EWSContribute to the FiA Newsletter

Do you belong in the French in Action Newsletter?We welcome written contributions, suggestions,comments, and questions for any and all of our

sections. We reserve the right to edit and publishall submissions without prior notice to their

authors, unless requested not to do so.

Please address contributions to:

The French in Action Newsletter111 Grove Street

New Haven, CT 06511

The State of Alabama has approved Frenchin Action for adoption by the State's publicschools. Individual school districts withinAlabama are now reviewing the materialsfor adoption at their schools.

Two recent workshops targeted to theneeds of pre-secondary and secondaryschool French in Action teachers were ledby Barbara Meister. On the first day ofACTFL conference (11/22), a three-hourworkshop was held for 25 teachers at theoffices of The Annenberg/CPB Project.On 1/13, Ms. Meister presented to 30teachers of French in Charleston County,South Carolina . Beverly Vamado,Coordinator of Humanities at CharlestonCounty School District reported that"(the) teachers were excited about thepresentation and grateful to receiveinformation about such an effectiveinstructional strategy."

Both the French Review and the ForeignLanguage Annals recent* publishedarticles concerning ;"-iA and currentissues in foreign language pedagogy. Thearticle in Foreign Language Annals (Vol.24, No. 6, 1991), "The Effect of AuthenticOral Texts on Student Listening Compre-hension in the Foreign Language Class-room," is written by Carol Herron andIrene Seay, both of Emory University.Rayiene Ramsay of Simmons Collegewrote the article in French Review (VoL 65,No. 2, December 1991) -ititled "French inAction and the Grammar Question."

This turns was provided byBarry Lydgate, Wellesley College

Wellesley College teaches French in Action in aclassic sequence: Part I (lessons 2-26) in thefirst year course (Beginning French), and PartII (lessons 27-52) in the second (IntermediateFrench). On average, 120 students a year electthe intermediate course. Of these, about halfare students new to Wellesley who have hadone or more years of French in high school,and have learned with methods and materialsother than Fa.

By the end of the fall semester, these newstudents are generally at the same level as theirclassmates who took the beginning course withRA. However, the first few weeks can be quitedifficult for them. Although our placementprocedure has assigned them all to theintermediate course, they are at wildly differinglevels of competence in the four skills. Theyneed to get to know the characters and thestory line, to understand the allusions and theinside jokes. Although many of them have hadas many as four years of high school French,they are faced with an unfamiliar pedagogicalapproach that obliges them to rethink theirrelationship with the language. They must alsolearn the habits, so basic to French in Action, ofhypothesizing about meaning and of main-taining an equilibrium between what isunderstood now and what is held in tempo-rary limbo, to be clarified and masteredanother day.

Here are two suggestions for reviewing lessons2-26 that will bring new students up to speedand, at the same time, benefit studentsreturning from the beginning course theprevious year:

1) The first solution involves re.iewing Part Iover a three-week period.

For review, an instructor might present thefeuilleton sections (story only) of Part I usingthe Short Cut to French videos, presentinglessons 2-11 in week one, lessons 12-19 in weektwo, and 20-26 in week three. In the classperiods following the presentations, instructorscan review both the story and the maingrammar points of each group of lessons. Inpreparation for class, students can be asked to

review the Short Cut segments inthe language laboratory, read thecorresponding portions of thetextbook, and complete a series ofwritten exercises.

This solution will producefamiliarity with the story and withthe major features of the pedagogi-cal approach.

2) Another solution is to spend thefirst three weeks reviewing Part Ithrough the use of abridged lessonswithout audio, interspersed withwhole lessons that include theaudio program. The advantage tosuch an approach is that it willfamiliarize students new to FiAwith the full panoply of material inthe course.

Devoting three full weeks to thereview of the 25 lessons, one mightspend one class period on each of 6whole ,essons: lessons 12, 14, 19, 22,23, and 26. These are six importantloci of grammatical points and lendthemselves flexibly to review ofother material. The three videopresentations would use Short Cutgrouped as follows: lessons 2-14,15-22, and 23-26. Students shouldhave videocassettes of Short Cut ,along with those of the six complete'lessons, available in the language orvideo lab. Sufficient copies of theworkbook for Part I can be put onreserve in the language lab and inthe library, so that instructors canuse written exercises for theabridged intermediary lessons.Students should work with theaudiocassettes of the whole lessons.

This method of review takesadvantage of the completespectrum of French in Actionmaterials, and immediately getsstudents doing more fully whatthey enjoy most: listening andspcaking.

21

French in Action Newsletter - 3

ModelContinued from Page 2

necessary life preserver. The student not onlycomes to comprehend a sophisticated level ofspeech, but also, by internalizing advancedlinguistic structures, to use difficult construc-tions creatively and naturally in speech andwriting.

In French in Acaon, each videotape begins withan immersion segment, a 10-minute dialoguein an authentic setting, followed by a 20-minute "lesson" orchestrated by Capretz. Thedialogue presents an episode, solely in French,of the ongoing narrative about the activities ofMireille and Robert. The students get the gistof the story by watching the auion and pickingup visual cues. The speech is authentic and atnormal speed, complete with slang, idioms,street noises and sound effects, and variationsin the age, accent, and social status of thespeakers. Few concessions are made to thebeginning language learner at this point.

The remaining lesson part of the tape breaksthe dialogue down into smaller parts which aredesigned to render it comprehensible and tohelp the student master the linguistic con-tentvocabulary, idioms, linguistic patterns,and grammar. The lesson is followed by asimple recapitulation quiz that bolsters thestudents' confidence by showing them whatthey now know. The video ends with a novelrecombination of elements from the lesson inan entertaining "guignol" skit. The material inthe videotape is then reinforced and expandedin the essential ancillary components thatmake up the program: the workbooks, audiotapes, study guides, and textbook.

The dialogue in the immersion segment is thecore from which the lesson's vocabulary,grammar, and idioms arise. It is the "sine quanon" of the ksson, in that all further worktends towards the mastery of this dialogue andits structures. What this means for the waygrammar is taught is ne and eminentlysensible since, in contrast to traditionaltextbooks in which the dialogue is written inconsideration of the grammar to bc learned,the Capretz method teaches the grammar to he

learned in consideration of the dialogueand with an eye to the students' needs for

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4 - French in Action Newsletter

ModelContbtued from Page 3

expressing themselves on the same topic. 6

In a lesson on fixing up the Belleau'svacation house, for example, studentsare taught the verb "moderniser," thevery useful expression "transformerquelque chose en quelque chose," andcausative "faire ." Although themeaning of the causative "faire"construction is not haul to graspintellectually, the crucial distinctionbetween doing something oneself andhaving it done for you is hard to pickout immediately in the target language, andharder yet for students to learn to use on theirown. But the Capretz method comes to theiraid offaing a multitude of opportunities tolearn the construction and to reinforce thatlearning. 7

Sin 111II IIIlilultilmum

) .rw,umr_amor

111

'p .

idiosyncrasies have beencarefully selected to allow

for unobtrusive andhumorous repetitions.Marie-Laure, forexample, the ten-yearold little sister, yellsinsistently, "C'est unbanc public...c'est un banepublic.." during a fightwith her sister Mireillein the LuxembourgGardens. This repetition,

tolerated by the audience in a child throwing atantrum, teaches that the "c" in "banc" is silent.In other instances, Marie-Laure is the mediumfor exposing potential misunderstandings inthe language when she confuses "belote" and"pelote" or "Armoricain" and "Américain."Similarly, Robert confuses "slip" meaningbriefs with the English word "slip" (feminineundergarment). Characters' obsessions, likeRobert's obsession with Mireille, are anotherway to introduce repetitions. The sentence:"Robert se demande si Mireille sera chez lesCourtois" becomes the linguistic leitmotif ofone lesson. His obsession becomes our chanceto hear numerous repetitions of the sentence.Although in Fa one is often aware of beingassaulted over and over by a particular phrase,there is a certain pleasure and security in therecurrence of the familiar phrase. And sincethe dialogues are done with wit and sophistica-tion, we willingly suspend our disbelief.Capretz sometimes even pokes fun at hischaracters and parodies national stereotypes(the aristocrat Hubert, for instance). $

In the pedagogical section, Capretz systemati-cally isolates sentences from the dialogue,repeating them more dearly and didactically,without the interference of natural

"The speech is authentic andat normal speed, completewith slang, idioms, streetnoises and sound effects,and variations in the age,

accent, and social status ofthe speakers."sonem..The dialogue segment of the videotape, likeany dialogue, includes the repetitions andredundancies found in authentic speech,which textbooks necessarily reduce in order tomaintain interest and economize space.Capretz has cleverly structured his dialogueswith pedagogical goals in mind, and he and hisassociates have capitalized on what is specifi-cally useful for language teaching in the videomedium. In FiA, the characters and their

However, the dialog= manipulate the =tentslightly so enhance iuralinity with certaingrammatical kens. For example, Capretz maysprinkle instances of a new granaratical fixm in thelemons whkh precede ks introduction a a formalgramma topic

To gin a matte idea cf how mach reinixcmientin the ken of repetkion actually ocars, we took theimpression lkire ornerier tease in lawn 34 andcanted eads instance si the vide% audinIxPes,maid:looks, and textbook. Students alter law theexpression or see it written n times (several timesthey see it written and hear it simultaneoudy) andthey at cad to produce the expresion six timesthemselves. This does not include, of cam theadditional production opportunities that arise ;71 thedasunom.

' The gentle ironic distancing of Pierre Capretz fromthe characters (for instance, he gently calls intoquestion Hubert's family's ownership of the chateauof Chambord) gives the videotapes an extraintellectual depth, which becomes a pleasure to beespecially savored by the teacher, whose own interestin the program is the best assurance that thestudents' interest will be maintained. Furthermore, itpermits the students to see that if Capretz canquestion his own characters, they also need notaccept all aspects of the story. The students' activeparticipation is further encouraged in the workbooksection 'Wise en scene et rtinvention de l'histoire"where they can deconstruct the original plot line andreinvent it .

conversation's idiosyncrasies or backgroundnoise. Sometimes this alone is enough to revealsomething that was missed in the dialogue.Additionally, facial expressions and theopportunity to lip-read can clarify sentencesnot previously understood. Gapretz himself,who recognizes the studem s' prodigious needfor repetition, always shows marveloustolerance for repetition in his lessons.

At this point also, the meaning of newvocabulary is clarified. In order to explain thedefinition of words without recourse toEnglish, video is put to its greatest advantage.For instance, to define"roman" as "novel," thefilm shows shot after shot of various novelsuntil the meaning is absolutely dear. By meansof a multiplicity of visual examples, the viewerarrives at comprehension of the word throughinduction. (It is hard to imagine a teachergoing to such lengths in the dassroom todefine one word.) In addition, while thepictures are changing and viewer interest ismaintained, the word itself is repeated overand over by Capretz with each new shot,attenuating, in effect, the deadliness of thenecessary repetition by the distraction of thechanging images. Clearly, the more sensesappealed to at once in the learning process, themore the student learns. Television also allowsvariations of word meaning to be presentedquiddy and methodically. Thus, "roman," oncedefined, can easily be expanded to "romand'amour" or "roman policier" by offering split-second shots of recognizable book covers.Figurative versus literal meanings can also betaught "referentially" on the screen as in thesentences "L'arc est tendu" (taut) and"Madame Courtois est tendue" (tense).

In acquiring a language, one needs to learnlanguage usage as well as the meanings of thewords. A textbook dialogue rarely offers aword in more than one context, but throughthe use of video, one can handily cover avariety of situations in which a word may beused. One learns, far instance, that "plonger"(to dive) does indeed coincide with the Englishmeaning in that it is not restricted to a dive offa diving board, but can indude a plunge froma burning building. Often a number ofidiomatic uses of a particular verb are subtlyintegrated into a particular lesson. In chapter8, students learn that Oncle Guillaume "a des

Continued on page 5

FiA

BulletinBoard

French in Action Nensktter S

If you need help or information, orcan provide it to your colleagues,this bulletin board is for you. Pleaseaddress written notices to theFrench in Action Newsletterat 111 Grove Stree4 New Haven,CT 06511

Many of our colleagues ask about French inAction broadcasts on public televisionstations. Is it broadost in my area? When isit broadcast? On which channel?

French in Action is broadcast on most majorPBS stations. However, programming at eachPBS station fluctuates considerably andschedules vary from station to station. Inaddition, PBS broadcasts are not always listedin the TV Guide. The best way to find outabout French in Action broadcasts in yourarea is to call the programmi tg director at yourlocal PBS station. IfFrench in Action is notaired in your area, you can ask your colleagues,friends, students and their parents to call orwrite to the programming director. This willserve to remind him or her that there is a stronginterest in the program.

Position open for school year '92-93

Saint Paul 's School in Concord, NH is lookingfor a teacher of French who has experienceusing French in Action. Applicant should havenative/near native fluency. Supervision in thedormitory is expected, as well as assisting insports. Flease send cover letter and C. V. to:Roberta Tenney, Dean of Faculty, Saint Paul'sSchool, 325 Pleasant Street, Concord,NH 03301

Workshops

Dear Readers:

This fall, we announced that Yale UniversityPress would be sponsoring teacher supprtworkshops. The response was overwhelming.Many of you expressed interest in attendingand even co-sponsoring workshops. We'd like tothank you for your thoughtful and insigh0t1responses.

We will be posting information about theworkshops in the "Calendar" section of the FiAnewsletter, as well as contacting those of you onour mailing list about workshops in your area.We already have several workshops plannedthroughout the country. If you are not on ourlist, please complete the form on page 7, markthe box about workshops, and return it to us.

Many thanks again. We appreciate yourresponses, and look forward to hearing fromeven more of you. MC

Change of Address

To order the French in Action videos orpreview videotapes, the new address for theAnnenherg/CPB Project is: The Annenberg/CPB collection, P.O. Box 2345, SouthBurlington, VT 05407-2345. They can still bereached by phone at 1-800-LEARNER.

ModelContinued from page 4

loisirs," "a du temps," "a de la fortune," "a de lachzrice," "n'a pas d'enfants" but "a beaucoup derelations."

Sometimes cultural usages are presentedsimultaneously with semantic usage. Forinstance, when the verb "embrasser" is taught,the video dips show not orly the traditionaltwo-cheek kiss, and the fact that friends greeteach other in this manner, but they also depictchildren endearingly performing this culturalact as they leave for school, thereby identifyingthe range of situations in which this activitycan be expecteci as well as defining the word

The pedagogical segment also offers theopportunity to clarify problems presented.by'faux amis." When Mireille and Robert areshown witnessing an accident as bystanders, itis understood that "assister a" does not meanto assist or help. In other instances, videoimages immediately forestall any confusionover the meaning of words such as "articula-tion" (joint), "circulation" (traffic), "pike"(room, coin), and "relations" (acquaintances).

Not everything that appears in the video isintended to be learned actively. Sometimesimages flash on the screen in such quicksuccession that viewers are not quite sure what

23

they have seen, yet they absorb the messagealmost sublimin illy. This information adds tothe students' stole of passive knowledge. Moviedips and adveitisements from Frenchtelevision change the pace, add interest, andheighten curiosity, demonstrating the actualuse of expressions and idioms that have justbeen presented pedagogically. Seeing theseexpressions used in real-life situations alsoconfirms to the student their verifiableusefulness in the language.

It is in the pedagogical section of the video thatthe student first encounters the grammar ofeach chapter. There is, contrary to what onemight expect, a formal grammar presentationin most of the video lessons. To enhance thelearning of grammar topics such as verbconjugation, tense formation, adjectiveagreement, and the use of pronouns, differentcolors and video techniques are used. Impor-tant endings flash on the screen to call thestudents' attention to them, and alternateflashings are used to contrast potentiallyconfusing elements. Essential grammaticaldistinctions are often enacted on the screenwhile the verbal equivalents are shown assubtitles. For example, images rapidlyalternate between "elk promEne Fido" and "elkse promene." Capretz repeats a sequence suchas this as many times as necessary for thestudent to assimilate it. Whereas in FIA thescreen time spent on a particular point isproportional to its importance or its difficulty,students faced with a textbook alone may notrecognize what is important and may notconcentrate their attention appropriately. Thespeed and efficiency of video grammarpresentations make them more effective thantraditional blackboard or textbook presenta-tions.

With the completion of the viewing of thevideo lesson, the student moves from the roleof language receiver to that of languageperformer. Repetition and reinforctment inthe form of active participation of the studentnow take place with the workbook and theaudiotapes. It is in the workbook thatgrammar is formally taught, with explat a-dons, charts, and exercises. Unlike othr.grammar books, the French in Action work-book de% not merely present a topic once,leaving review up to the initiative of thestudent. Instead, the workbook providessystematic review, optima.% spaced through-out the book so that the topic remains familiar.Also typical of the workbook is that the deeppedagogical purpe,e of some exercises is

continued on page 6

6French in Action Newsletter

Modelcontinued from page 5

agreeably hidden beneath the surface. 9

The audiotapes are coordinated with theworkbook. Together, the two offer, in additionto grammar practice, further opportunity forlistening, speaking, and writing, The studentgets essential practice in repeating, phrase byphrase, the basic sentences of the videodialogue. These basic sentences become theanswers to questions that periodically break up

"In traditional textbooks, weknow all too well what thegrammatical structure of thelesson is..."

the dialogue. The student moves quickly andconfidently through the answers , since theanswer to each question is always the materialjust uttered. By the end of the workbooklesson, the student is ready for "Liberation deregression," a section for free expression andcreative recombination of story elements. Thenovel use of open-ended questions in thissection furthers self-expression by invitingunlimited personal input. For instance, when -asked, "De quoi peut-on se tromper?", thestudent can answer, "de porte," "de numero deteliphone," "de planete..." Or, if asked, "Dansquoi peut-on se sentir bien?" the response canbe, "son short," "sa peau," "son fauteuil..." Evenwithin the limits of the students' experiencewith the language, the number of original,even humorous responses of which they arecapable is surprisingly gratifying. Ir. fact,originality and humor abound in the FiAclassroom.

After 52 lessons of French in Action, areasonable proficiency in speaking French canbe attained. This ability should allow thestudent to function almost immediately uponarrival in the foreign culture, but it is notlimited to French for travelers. Beyond themore obvious practical purpose of certainvignettes or exercises is the less evidentlinguistic structure that is being inculcated.RA makes no effort to expose its pedagogicalstrategies nor are they, by any means, always

9 in an early workbook lemon, emphasis is placed oninfinitive endings. This ensures that when the 'firtie

itrarddiat" is introduced in the following lesson, thestudent can focus on the forms of "aliee since theinfinitive forms are ahrady ingrained.

obvious. The linguistic goals of each lessonare dearly stated in the study guide, so thatdisguising the grammatical objectiveselsewhere in the lesson seems whollyappropriate, since undoubtedly the heart ofthe program's success is the feeling it generatesthat learning French is fun and entertain-ing. We should not assume that theprogram is in any way haphazard orsuperficial just because we do not see itsinner workings. In traditional textbooks,we know all too well what the grammati-cal structure of the lesson is and it wasdearly the intention of Fa to avoid thismode of presentation.

Through the Capretz method, thestudent of FiA has the potential tounderstand and use much moresophisticated language than does the userof a traditional textbook. The methodconcentrates on making language ofnatural complexity comprehensible andthen functional, instead of introducing awatered-down version of the language andthen expecting that somehow, although amodel for it has never been offered,students will arrive at speech of naturalcomplexity on their own. It is as if in FiAsomeone were given a puzzle, watched it betaken apart, and then received instruction onhow to put it back together again, not only inthe original way, but also in new combina-tions. Such a process would seem to havepositive implications for the students' futureability to handle the language of literary textsin upper-level courses.

CancansLes Cancans de la ConciergeVous ne savez pas? II parait que Hubertfait dans l'immobilier!

Hubert? Non, ce n'est pas lui, ce sont sesoncles qui contruisent des HLM!!

Non, non! Lui, Hubert, j'aientendu dire qu'il &aft

devenu agent immobiler, unveritable requin d'ailleurs, unmagouilleur qui chasse les

locataires qui le genent, relogeles vieillards en asile...uneordure!

The videotapes in FiA prove thatmost of the traditional functionof the language textbook can betaken over by video and that thevisual element can have a muchbigger role than previously thought inwhat is generally considered anessentially verbal process. Indeed, apicture can be worth a thousand words.Through visual means, the meanings ofwords can be established and their rangeof meaning, both figurative and literal,range of usage, and appropriate speechcontexts delineated. That all this informa-tion is imparted in the agreeable context of awitty and engaging story, aided by cartoons,television commercials, movie clips, interviews,and outstanding cultural footage, underscoresthe superiority of the medium.

Mais non! Ce n'est pasHubert! C'est FranckLapersonne...enfin, non,je veux dire: FranckLapersonne, l'acteur quijoue Hubert dans Frenchin Action, eh bien, II joueLeduc, un agent

immobilier pas tresscrupuleux, dans Pognon sur

rue, une comedic de LL.Bertucelli qui est passée a latelevision suisse, sur TSR, en

novembre dernier.

Ah bon! Je me disais aussi...un jeunehomme si comme il faut...

II ne faut pas croire tout ce qu'on dit!

Non...mais, quand meme, II n'j a pas defilm& sans feu, comme dit MademoiselleGeorgette.

lin agent eltar-bob:liefprat h tout pour fatIC

glasses Gnatault (DaniPrevos0. un veritable

telluaLdcputs des anntesic

quarks ou il a

Ouand te poVon a pignonruesur

The all-Frenchformat, which might seem

frightening to the students at first, becomesnon-threatening when they realize how much

24

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French in Action Newsktter-7

Modelcontinued from page 6

opportunity they will have to make educatedguesses before they are expected to under-stand. In fact, they will gradually see thatunderstanding is not dependent on knowingeach English equivalent and that failing tounderstand every word is not catastrophic.Since they are constantly analyzing dues forthe meaning, the students become willingguessers. Also, immersed as they are in theforeign language, they are not paralyzed withfear about speaking, and, in time, they become

"Using French in Action,students inevitably buildconfidence in their ability.The program is structuredso that they will rarely givewrong answers if they havefollowed all the steps."aiimexperimenters in the language and verbal risk-takers. Initially, they use mostly ready-madeexpressions from the lesson, but even at thebeginning they apply these to the expression oftheir own thought. Gradually, this kind ofresponse gives way to increased inventivenessas the students see which parts of a givenexpression allow novel recombination andwhich remain constant.

Using French in Action, students inevitablybuild confidence in their ability. The programis structured so that they will rarely give wronganswers if they have followed all the steps.Demands are not made on them until they arecapable of performing the linguistic task.

Because the various components of theprogram are so intricately balanced andcomplementary, and because the periodicreappearance of the various linguisticstructures is so pr dictable, learning thematerial seems na zal and perhaps eveninevitable to stude,us. There is a greaterchance of success in a program where all theparts work together to produce the finalresult and, in Fa, this integration seems tobe an important key to the students'achievement. Since all th onstituent partsof the program bear directly on the task thestudents have been set, that is to master thematerial in the dialogue, they have moreincentive than in other programs to do thework in the ancillary components.

At Yale, years of work went into the initialdesign of this French language program.Major funding from the Annenberg/CPBProject enabled it to become the videocreation known as French in Action. Theresult is a program of the highest productionquality, which not only gets the most out ofthe video medium, but also represents asynthesis of the best in foreign languagemethodologies. As such, French in Actionbecomes the standard against which futurelanguage programs should be measured.

The authors would like to express theirappreciation to Wilga M Rivers for readingthis article and making suggestions.

CalendarEvents Featuring FiA

toril 2-5, 1992NortheastConferenceontheTeachingofForeignLanguagesThe New York Hilton New York, NYYale University Press Booth

-Friday, April 4, 1992, 1:00 p.m.Session with Pierre Capretz:"The Teacher as Video Mediator"

-Saturday, April 5, 1992, 2:30 - 5:00 p.m.Workshop for Secondary School Teacherswith Barbara Meister at Collegiate School.

April 9-12, 1992CentralStatesConferenceon the TeachingofForeign LanguagesHyatt-Regency, Dearborn, MIYale University Press Booth

- Saturday, April 11, 1992, 1:30-5:00 p.m.Workshop for Fa teachers with PierreCapretz and Barbara Meister at theUniversity of Michigan, Dearborn

Apri128, 1992Workshop for French in Action Teacherswith Pierre Capretz and Barbara MeisterMarywood College , Scranton, PA

Become an FM pioneer. join the network of FIA users.Keep in touch with RA and your colleagues. Simply fill outthis card, put it in an envelope, and address it to French inAction Newsleuer, III Grove Street, New Haven, CT OBS I I

Do you use FiA. as your core nuterials?

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Are you interested in workshops?

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5

8 French in Action Newsieuer

Tableau d'HonneurThe following "reinvention" is adaptedfrom a writing exercise done by HakanAvci, a student in the introductoryigtensive French course at Yale(after lesson 34).

Li li

Robert arrive dans la rue de Vaugirard, trouvele numero 1 8, et entre dans le vestibule. IIcherche la liste des locataires mais ii ne latrouve pas ... parce qu'il n'y en a pas. Alors ilse dirige vers la porte de la loge de la conciergeet frappe. Une jeune fille souriante ouvre.

La concierge: Oui, Monsieur?

Robert Les Belleau s'il vous plait, c'est a quelétage?

La concierge: C'est au quatrieme &age adroite... Vous venez pour voir Mireille?

Robert Vous la connaissez?

La concierge: Si je la connais! Bien stir que jela connais! C'est une drôle de fille.

Robert Ah oui? Pourquoi dites-vous ca?

La concierge: Oh, je ne sais pas, moi... Cey a de stir, c'est qu'elle a des amis bizarres.Tenez, par exemple, elle avait un ami

norvégien qui etait etudiant a la Sorbonne,comme elle. C'était un peintre tout a faitextraordinaire mais, aussi c'etait unpsychopathe, vous savez. 11 venait souvent ici,avant. Mais plus maintenant. Parce qu'il est al'hôpital maintenant. Mireille m'a dits'était coupe un petit doigt et le lui avaitenvoy& par la poste, parce l'aimait.

Robt7r: Sans blague! Rien que ca? CA a dtietre horrible pour elle.

--incierge. Oh non, pas du tout. Elle a un.ere trth cahne. Meme que ce garcon

stupide avai; oubli son anneau sur le doigt.Elle l'a vendu, et avec l'argent elle a achetequelques souris vivantes pour Lili.

Robert Lili? Des souris? Je ne comprends pastres bien.

La concierge: Lili, c'est le serpent de Mireille,un boa. Il mange toujours des souris vivantes.

aime ca. C'est un animal enorme, mais iin'attaque jamais personne enfin presquejamais. Je dis presque jamais, parce qu'il y aun an, il a déchire le pantalon du plombier.Mais ii ne lui a pas fait mal. Enfin, pasvraiment...

Robert Oh, la, la, mais c'est inquiétant tout ca!

Je n'étais pas au couram, moi! Je viens derencontrer Mireille ii y a quelques jours. Jesuis invite a diner chez eux, ce soir.

La concierge: Tres bien, mais soyez prudent.Mme Belleau est une excellente cuisiniere,mais elle adore creer des plats extraordinaireset quelquefois dangereux. On dit qu'un ami deM. Belleau a failli mourir a cause des cepesaux framboises que Mme Belleau lui a servi.Enfin, Mireille m'a dit que ce Monsieur n'etaitpas exacteir.ent un ami de M. Belleau, maisseulement un autre ingénieur de chez Renaultque M. Belleau n'airnait pas beaucoup.

A ce moment la, Robert s'aperçoit qui'il n'apas tres faim. Ii remercie la concierge et il sedirige vers la porte de l'immeuble. Quand ii seretrouve dans la rue de Vaugirard il commence

courir dans la direction du Home Latin. IIne prend pas le metro parce gull a peur de seperdre, mais ii court, il court pour idler vitemanger au restau-U. Un repas simple maisequilibre, san cepes et sans framboises.

French in Action

Yale University Press92A Yale StationNew Haven, cr 06520

Nonprofit 7Organization

U.S. POSTAGEPAID

New Haven, CTPermit No. 87

French in ActionN E W, L E I E

No. IV "Creating a network of French in Action users" Fall '92

French in Action at Gallaudet:breaking language barriers

Professor Mark Weinberg and hiscolleagues are piloting French inAction at Gallaudet University wherea specially modified version of thecourse is being designed for deafstudents.Professor Weinberg and Gallaudet'sFiA team explain why FiA's visualapproach to language learning wouldbe so effective for his students:

Many students tend to regardlanguage acquisition as a compartmental-ized task involving memorization ofisolated vocabulary terms and grammati-cal rules. These students experiencedifficulty in the concrete application ofsuch information because they cannot

In this issue:

Features:

FiA at GallaudetFiA: The Distant Learner 3

Sections:

Tableau d'Honneur 2News 7Calendar 5Tuyaux 6Cancans 4Bulletin Board 8

always strike a working balance betwe'nabstraction and function. The conse-quences are twofold: 1. Frustration and afeeling of personal inadequacy to accom-plish what ?pears to be an overwhelmingand seemingly futile task, with ensuingloss of interest in the subject matter; 2.After some degree of grammatical masteryis achieved, a false sense of competencywhich inevitably leads to disillusionmentwhen actual communication is attempted.

Reading is often done word-by-wordrather than globally. Looking up each

"...a clearer understanding ofthe spontaneous nature oflanguage and... a sensitivity tothe functional application ofabstract grammatical no-tions..."

word in a bilingual dictionary, thenwriting down the first given Englishequivalent above the French text is acommon procedure. The inadequacies andtediousness of this approach are obvious.

In many insta....es no doubt, theproblems students face in languageacquisition stem from lack of exposure tothe interactive nature of language. Itseems only normal that misconceptionswould arise concerning the purpose oflanguage in general, the value of learninga language and the way to go about such atask. Despite the best intentions and

expertise, teaching methods, goals, andmeasurement of student achievement canfoster this situation. Cultural informationand much of the rapport between behaviorand the written or spoken code (the veryheart of language, what makes it aneffective means of communication) istypically difficult to integrate into thetraditional curriculum because of timelimitations. Such considerations oftenbecome an appendage rather than anintegral part of the course even thoughteachers and students alike agree on theirinstructional value and the personalenrichment which can be derived fromthem.

Instructional advantages of theFiA program for Gallaudetstudents

The FiA program represents a highlydesirable instructional program forGallaudet students for several reasons:Methodology and objectives focus on"total language teaching." Language andculture are presented simultaneouslythrough "planned immersion" whichclosely simulates the on-location experi-ence. The aim is the development of"communicative proficiency throughwatching real people interact in true-lifesituations." The video scenarios acquaintstudents with "linguistic distinctionsappropriate to diverse social exchanges."Most importantly, the FiA program makesstudents realize that "the acquisition of alanguage does not merely entail learninggrammatical structures but depends on acomplex system of verbal and non-verbal

continued on page 4

27

This "reinvention" by Tessa Crowley. PollyMarkos, and Nikki Mullaney, students at theAcademy of the Holy Cross in KensingtonMaryland, was submitted by their teacher,Sister Jeanne Buisson, C.S.C.:

LE PETIT CHAPERON ROUGE

II était une fois une charmante petite fillequi portait un impermeable rouge. Onl'appelait le Petit Chaperon Rouge. Unjour sa mere lui dit: "Ta grand-mere estmalade. J'ai fait de la soupe pour elle. Je teprie de la lui apporter."

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge dit:"D'accord, je vais la lui apporter. Mais, est-ce que tu sais oü je pourrais louer unevoiture?" (C'était une fine moderne!)

La Maman: "Oui, chez Avis! Vaau garage Exxon, en bas du BoulevardSaint Michel, si tu veux."

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: : "Merci,Maman. Au revoir!"

Au garage Avis.

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge :"Bonjour, Monsieur. Je voudrais louer unevoiture pour la journee."

Le garagiste : "Oui. Qu'est- quevous voulez? Une grosse ou une petitevoiture? Changement de vitesseautomatique ou manuel?"

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge :"Donnez-moi la moins chere. Par exemple,cette R5, la-1ms."

Le garagiste : "D'accord! Je peuxvous la donner."

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge :"Formidable! C'est combien pour lajou rnée?"

garagiste : "500F."

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge : "Tresbien, je la prends." (C'était une petite filletres riche!)

Le garagiste : "Si vous voulez bienme donner votre permis de conduire...Ah,merci."

Quelques minutes plus tard.

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge : "Merci!Au revoir!"

Le garagiste : "Au revoir! Bonneroute!"

Pendant que le Petit Chaperon Rougepasse devant le lion (de la place DenfertRochereau), qu'est-ce qu'elle voit? Unloup! Un grand méchant loup horribleavec un chapeau noir, dans une voiturenoire. Il se penche a la portiere et il luidemande: "Pardon, ma petite, est-ce que tuas un peu de moutarde?"

Lc Petit Chaperon Rouge : "De lamoutarde? Mais bien stir! J'ai de la Grey-

French in ActionF tti F Fl 1 1 R

Number IVContributors: Elizabeth Berwanger, TessaCrowley, Jeffrey Fox, Barbara Knauf,Jeanne Manning, Polly Markos, NikkiMullaney, Lynn Smith, Mark Weinberg

Newsletter Editor for Yale University Press:Mary ClemanThe French in Action Newsletter ispublished by the French in ActionProject in association with Yale Univer-sity Press and the Annenberg /CPBProject. For subscription information,please see page 7.

French in Action Newsletter111 Grove StreetNew Haven, CT 06511

Poupon."

Le loup : "Ah, tres bien. Merci. Etoü vas-tu, ma petite?"

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge : "Je vaischez ma grand-mere, lui apporter cettesoupe."Elle ne savait pas qu'il ne faut pas parleraux gens qu'on ne connait pas. Sa mamanle lui avait dit, mais elle l'avait oublié.

Le loup: "Et ou habite-elle? C'estpar ici? C'est par là? C'est a cote?"

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: "Non,c'est par la. C'est tout pres."

Le loup: "Faisons la course, tuveux? Tu prendras cette route -la et moi, jeprendrai celle-ci. Nous verrons quiarrivera la premier."

Bien sur, c'est le loup qui arrive le premiera la maison de la grand-mere. Il frappe a laporte et il parle avec une petite voixpointue. (II veut imiter la voix d'une petitefille, mais en realité, il parle comme TanteGeorgette!)

loup: "Ma chere grand-mere,c'est moi, le Petit Chaperon Rouge."

Un monsieur ouvre.

U, monsieur: "Qui cherchez-vous?"

Le loup: "Excusez-moi, Monsieur,Madame Chaperon Rouge, c'est bien ici?"

Le monsieur: "Ah, non, Monsieur,non! Mme Chaperon Rouge n'est pas ici,non, vous vous etes trompe de porte. MmeChaperon Rouge, c'est a cote, la maisoncote..."

IA' loup: "Excusez-moi, Monsieur,je suis desole de VOUS avoir derange,excusez-moi..."

28continued on page 5

French in Action Newsletter -3

French in Action: The DistantLearner

Since its premier in 1987, many collegesand universities have used French inAction as a telecourse for distant learners.These learners are usually older thantraditional students, and they cannot attendregular on-campus classes because ofwork or family commitments. Distantlearners work more independently,watching the television programs andreading the print materials at home orwork, with guidance from the coursefaculty through a variety of communica-tion and instructional techniques.

Distant learners have benefittedin recent years from the expansion of suchcommunication technologies as faxmachines, voice mail, and electronic mail.The real challenge, especially with foreignlanguage courses, is how to humanizethese electronic media and to createinteraction between faculty and students.What follows are two examples ofcolleges that have successfully met thechallenge of distance learning usingFrench in Action Northern VirginiaCommunity College and Colorado StateUniversity.

Northern Virginia Community College

In 1990-91, Northern Virginia Commu-nity College, which has five campuses and35, 195 students, offered French in Actionas its first foreign language telecourse.

FiA telecourse students had the sameassignments, the same expectations, andthe same course credit as our on-campusFrench course. However, we adapted thetelecourse by adding four, college-produced, 30-minute televised segments --an orientation and three review sessionsbefore major tests. We also made thetelecourse more flexible by encouragingstudents to fax us their compositions andto leave their dialogues and receiveinstructor feedback on our 24-hour voicemail machine.

From student evaluations, we havelearned that the major advantages of thetelevised course are flexibility andadaptability. One student wrote, "I can

view the lessons at my own pace and onmy own schedule. If this approach werenot available, I would not be able to beenrolled in the course."

But, do students learn from French InAction ? Yes! Their speaking skills arecomparable to my on-campus students.Their compositions are better, moreimaginative, perhaps reflecting the level ofmaturity of many telecourse students,Because I gave the same tests to threegroups of students on-campus, telecon-ference, and telecourse I know that thetest scores of the groups are comparable.

We feel we attracted students to our FiAtelecourses who would iiot have taken acourse at all, and we will continue to offerFrench in Action .

Students are enthusiastic about thevisual and aural approach of French inAction. One student wrote to me recently,"I'm moving and can't continue yourcourse. How will I know what happenedto Mireille and Robert? How will I findout who the Man in Black is?" Let's hopeshe finds another institution that will offerFrench in Action as a telecourse!-Jeanne L. Manning

Colorado State UniversityIn January 1988, I began developing

French in Action into four semestersof freshman and sophomore telecoursesfor Colorado State University. To dateover 120 students have taken I.hesotelecourses. In fact, I have been soimpressed by FiA's fascinating method, itsspectacular on-site filming, and itscompelling story line that I also use FiA inon-campus classes.

One of the strongest aspects of FIA is itstutorial. Each week students spend fromsix to eight hours on the video, audio, andprint materials before sending me a quizfrom the study guide, a short essay , and ashort tape. Thus, students must assumethe responsibility and work through anentire, carefully guided sequence before Iever see their work. My role is tutor,modeling phrases and taping suggestionsright onto the students' recordings.

Though I never see them, some of mytelecourse students take on more personal-

29

ity than some of my on-campus students. In aclass of 25, after all, it isnot very difficult to findanonymity. But with atape recorder, there is noanonymity...onlyaccountability.

French in Action has affected mytraditional, on-campus course. I nowrequire all my beginning and intermediateFrench students on campus to use thesame "dual recording" process we use fortelecourse students.

Instead of working to ensure a class-room standard for my telecourse students,I have found myself doing the opposite.The more accelerated proficiency expecta-tions in the telecourse have become thenew standard for listening and speaking inmy classroom on campus.-Eizabeth Berwanger

Jeanne L. Manning, now retired, wasAssociate Professor of French at NorthernVirginia Community College.

Elizabeth Berwanger is Lecturer, Coordi-nator of French in Action Telecourses, andCoordinator of Video-enhanced Instruc-tion in First and Second Year French atColorado State University.

French in Action is part of the Annenberg/CPB Collection. These two stories arereprinted from an article in the fall 1992issue of The Agenda, a publication of thePBS Adult Learning Service.

If you would like to receive a free copy of anew report containing five case studiesabout colleges that are using French inAction as a telecourse for distant learners(including longer reports on NorthernVirginia Community College and Colo-rado State University), please write to:Lynn Smith, The Annenberg/CPB Project,901 E Street NW, Washington DC, 20004.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

communication, gestures, looks, attitudes,behavior, intonation and cultural conven-tions and assumptions." (FiA Instructor'sGuide, chapter 1, p. viii)

Presentation and recapitulation ofmaterial during the video lesson iarecarefully sequenced, yet give the impres-sion of being nonlinear. The viewer hasthe feeling that several things are happen-ing at once, as they do in real communica-tion. The program makes use of multi-media. Both these facets of the FiAapproach reinforce the notion that lan-guage is made up of diverse elements.This should give students a clearerunderstanding of the spontaneous natureof language and help them develop asensitivity to the functional application ofabstract grammatical notions.

Thanks to FiA's contextual approach,stuck ,ts should gain a better understand-ing of how languages work within socio-cultural frameworks. Additional benefitscould include: development of betterstudy habits through increased motivation,improvement of deductive skills, greaterconfidence and self-reliance in problem-solving and in dealing with unknownsituations, and heightened awareness ofthe advantages of learning a foreignlanguage as a means of communicationand as the key to a different culture.

Two other important considerations arethe visually attractive quality of the FiAvideo component and the fact thatcharacters in the scenario often make useof nonverbal communication. Moreover,the combination of the mock classroomscenes and the storyline scenarios is aningenious way to allow for the use of tw%-:levels of French: Characters in the storyline scenario communicate at a normal ratewith true-to-life French, while those in theclassroom use simplified French at aslower rate. Students are thus exposed tothe language in its natural form throughthe storyline, yet gain a sense of peerpresence through the mock classroom:students in the video exhibit frustrations,humor and general behavior typical of theclassroom dynamic- The instructor in themock classroom is congenial and amusingyet displays an aura of expertise. Thesebehavioral elements could have positive

effects on students' attitudes toward theirown classroom, classmates and instructor.

Traditional and FiA approachescompared

Traditional approaches frequentlystress the presentation and study ofselected grammar points at the onset of agiven icrson. Assignmentand correction of written.exercises waich apply thegrammar in questionfollows. If assigned,readings are sometimesaccompanied by writtenexercises which testcontent comprehensionand are often grammar-based. Time permitting,cultural material ispresented. Correction ofexercises is often done asa group in the classroom,using student answers asmodels. On tests,students are to displaymastery of grammaticalpoints by completingexercises and answeringquestions similar oridentical to those done inclass and as homework.

Les Cancans de la Concierge--Vous avez vu Mireille a la red dimanchesoir?--Mireille? Non! Elle est pass& a la tele?--Oui, enfin, non! Je veux dire l'actrice,Valerie Allain. Elle était a TF1, dans un film,les nouveaux tricheurs, que ca s'appelle.--Ah, Les Tricheurs, je connais. Cest un vieuxfilm! Un film de Marcel Came. Cest pas mal

du tout...mais ValerieAllain ne joue pas la-dedans! Elle n'étaitsans doute même pasnee quand Came atourne ca!-Oui, mais ca, cas'appelle les nouveauxtricheurs, c'est autrechose!-Ah, bon! Vous m'endirez tant! Eh bien,

TF1 22.50Les nouveauxtrkheursCine-dimanche: 2° filmFrance 1987Comédie de mceursDurée 100'Réalisation de Michael SchockRérni Martin MarcValerie Allain ChristineLa vie amoureuse et tourmen-tee de Jeunes gens; Marc, undragueur impénitent, sème letrouble et perturbe les couples.Lors d'une course-poursuitesuicidaire avec la police, Marcse tue... Ces tricheurs-cl évo-quent ceux de Carné. Un cer-tain formalisme et des situa-tions etriquées.

The FiA program represents adeparture from traditional approaches inthat it places greater responsibility on thestudent. This encouragement of learnerautonomy does not, however, completelyabandon the student to cope withacquisition in isolation. Constant guid-an:e is given at every stage. Sinceco..itextual situations are presented beforegrammar, students are confronted withthe language as they would be in real life.Grammatical points are introducedindirectly at first during the videosegment through examples and repetition.When, following this preliminary phase,grammar notions appear in the workbookaccompanied by brief explanations,students should be able to grasp themmore readily because they will havealready been exposed to examples ofusage a number of times. This approachshould build confidence by reducing

non, je ne l'ai pas vu.--Dommage! Oh, lefilm ne casserien...mais elle étaitbien mignonne.

"grammar trauma"in students who arenaturally inclined toshy away fromanalyzing abstractlinguistic elements.

The focus on individual lab workpermits students to concentrate on theirown weaknesses and frees up class time.Exercises are designed to allow students tocorrect most of their own work, leavingclass time for more stimulating andchallenging activities. Classroom interac-tion thus becomes an extension andenhancement of individual work, ratherthan the opposite (more traditional)format. Instructors are advised to stressthe participatory, collective nature of suchactivities and aim at creating a natural,relaxed atmosphere in order to lesseninhibitions and fears of making errors. Aremark in the Instructor's Guide bearswitness to this positive, open pedagogicalstance adopted by the authors of FiA:"Teacher and students need to rememberthat in communication any response is agreat triumph, and the only defeat issilence (p. xxvi)."

French in Action Newsletter -5

Tableaucontinued from page 2

Quelques minutes plus tard, le loup frappea la porte et park avec une petite voixpointue.

Le loup: "Ma chere grand-mere,c'est moi, le Petit Chaperon Rouge."

La grand-mere: "Ah, ma petiteMinouche! C'est toi? Mais, ça fait uneéternité qu'on ne t'a pas vue! Entre, s'il teplait."

Alors le loup entre et il mange la grand-mere, parce avait tres faim. Mais iln'est pas content parce que la vaisselle estsale! La fourchette est pleine de jauned'oeuf. Ii dit: "Qu'est ce que c'est que ça?On ne lave plus la vaisselle dans cettemaison! C'est incroyable! Et les couteauxqui ne coupent pas! Oh, la la! Si on ne peutplus manger une grand-meretranquilement maintenant! On va-t-on!"Quelques moments apres, le Petit Chap-eron Rouge frappe a la porte de la maison.

Le loup: "Entre, ma chere enfant.Appuie sur le bouton et la portes'ouvrira."

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge pense:"Tiens, Grand-mere doit avoir tres mal a lagorge."

Elle entre et met la soupe qu'elle avaitapportée sur la table.

Le loup: "Bonjour, Bibiche.Comxnem ça va?"

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: "Grand-mere, vous avez l'air bien &range."

Le loup: "Ah, oui?"

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: "Grand-mere, que vous avez de grands yeuxnoirs!"

Le loup: "C'est pour mieux te voir,mon enfant."

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: "Grand-

mere, que vous avez une grande mous-tache."

Ix loup: "C'est l'age, ma petite!"

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: "Grand-mere, que vous avez de grandes dentspointues!"

Le loup: "Oul, c'est pour te man-g ."

Et le loup bondit sur le Petit ChaperonRouge pour la manger. Mais, a cet instant,un jeune homme, appele Robert, passe etentend les cris de la petite fille. Il seprecipite dans la maison juste a temps poursauver la petite fine. ça, c'est un hommecourageux!

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: luste aumoment ou vous etes arrive, j'ai realise quece n'était pas une vraie."

Robert: "Qu'est-ce que tu veuxdire, 'ce n'était pas une vraie'?"

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: "Cen'était pas une vraie grand-mere."

Robert: "Comment le sais-tu?"

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: "Parcequ'elle avait de la moustache."

Robert: "Ce n'est pas une raison.II y a sürement des grand-meres qui ontde la moustache...."

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge: "Peut-etre, oui. Mais elle, elle avait unemoustache...comme ça!"

Et la grand-mere? Ah oui, la grand-mere,c'est vrai! Eh bien, la grand-mere, oui,oui, on l'a retrouvee vivante...quand on afait cuire le loup au barbecue. Elle était apeu pres intacte, juste une petite &alluresur la joue gauche...(Mais le loup était unpeu dur. Trop cuit!)

Ca endarEvents F eaturing FiA

October 9, 1992 - 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.Workshop for FiA Teacherswith Pierre Capretz WVIZ-TV 25,Cleveland, OH

October 22-25, 1992Foreign Ilinguage Association of NorthCarolina (FLANC)Holiday Inn Four Seasons, Greensboro,NC-Thursday, October 22,1992 8:30 -11:30 a.m.Half-day workshop: Video: Changing theway languages are taughtwith Pierre Capretz

October 23-24, 1992Mid-Atlantic AATFHoliday Inn, Independence Mall,Philadelphia, PA-Saturday, October 24, 1992 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.breakfast presentation by Pierre Capretz

November 2 , 1992Georgia Independent Schools Association

Sessions with Barbara Meister (Colle-giate School), Peggy Beauvois (Univer-sity of Tennessee), and Anna Boller(Westminster School)

November 19-22, 1992ACTFLHyatt-Regency, Rosemount, IL-Sunday November 22,1992 11:30 a.m.12:45 p.m.Session with Pierre Capretz

For more information about these andother FiA events, please contact Mary

3 1

6-French in Action Newsletter

Tuyaux

This tuyau wa', provided by BarbaraKnauf of Yak University

Having your class write a collective novelis a good way to give them a sense of theircollective achievement -- and to create agreat imparfait vs. passe compose exerciseby the way:

I. Announce to your class that, as a devoirecrit, everybody will write a chapter for acollective novel. Together, choose namesfor a hero, heroine -- or both, and decideon chapter titles. A roman de formation ,

spanning the heroes'adventurous lives from birth tomarriage, death or mysterious disap-pearance, works well to assi,re somecontinuity (souvent saugrenue!). Everystudent picks one chapter heading, andwrites the chapter (really just aparagraph) for the next day.2. Students are asked to obey two

rules for the composition: 1) employonly the present tense ; 2) make surethat their chapter contains both someaction or event, and a description of thearriere-plan.

3. Collect the chapters, correct them,and put them together (typing it upworks best).4. Hand out the corrected "novel" and

use it as an Mzparfait vs. passe composeexercise by reading it together in classand transposing it into the past (that'swhy you want both events anddescriptions).Chances are that the "novel" will behilarious, and that the whole class will

COURSE OBJECTIVESThere is a theory about learning

a foreign language -- acquire it first, andthen learn it.In our class we do exactly that, byimmersing ourselves in a story aboutpeople who only speak French. Indeed,we watch a movie -- an on-going story--about some French people -- Mireille, apretty young woman; Marie Laure, hercute little sister who is always gettinginto trouble; Robert, the handsomeAmerican who falls in love with Mireille;Jean-Pierre, the obnoxious pick-up artist;

go over some of the Mise en oeuvre inclass. Tuesday night, you can continuethe Workbook. Listen carefully to the tapeand do the exercises.

On Wednesday, I'll show you passagesfrom the movie, and we'll start preparingto read and write the words.

I'll assign you a role to play for Thurs-day that you can practice speakingWednesday night.

On Thursday, we act out the movie ingrWItgroups in front of the class. You cansee how everything fits together Thursdaynight, and we have a small quiz on Friday.Leave your Workbook with me. There is

no homework on the weekend.

PROFESSOR FOXS SCORE-CARD

In Class At HomeMonday Watch the Movie. Listen to tape

"workup"

Tuesday Get involved in the Listen to theMovie, rest of the tape

Wednesday I'll help you Prepare Sketch.the Workbook

Thursday Perform Sketch. Workbook and Textdrill.

Friday Summary Quiz in classHand in Homework.

NO HOMEWORK ON THE WEEKEND

be impressed by and justly proud of thiscollective chef d'oeuvre!

This tuyau (syllabus) was provided byJeffrey Fox of the College of DuPage

FRENCH 101SyllabusCredit: 5 hours.Pre-requisite: None.

and family, friends and others who makeup the cast of French in Action.COURSE SCHEDULE

Every Monday we watch themovie -- one lesson every five-day week. Iask you some questions when the movieends. You do the part of the audiotapecalled Mise en oeuvre at home on Mondaynight.

On Tuesday, we go over the movieagain, and with our portable language lab,

GRADES30% Participation in Class307t Attendance20% Friday Quizzes20% HomeworkGrade yourself, too...keep score, andhand in your score-card with theWorkbook on Friday!

FINALLYIf you're having problems

understanding me or the movie,don't worry. You're not meant toundersand everything, or even mostof what you see and hear.

So observe, listen, and getinvolved. Try to figure out what'sgoing on. You'll soon find out thatyou can guess correctly most of thetime...and say a few things in Frenchyourself.

My class is relaxed and informal.There's no reason to feel embarrassed.You have to try to speak, and don't forgetthat you learn by making mistakes. Soloosen up!

If you have questions in English -- writethem down, and come see me after class.Don't introduce English here, because inthis class, everybody speaks French! BONCOURAGE!

kl 2

French in Action in Australia

Melbourne - French in Action , currentlyscreening on the national ABC (AustralianBroadcasting Corporation) TV network,is broadcast throughout Australia as partof the pilot "TV Open Learning" Project.The Australian government is funding theproject to provide wider access to highereducation, particularly in rural a.d remoteareas ("the outback"). The French in Actioncourse is being offered throughout thecountry by the University of New En-gland, located in Armidale, New SouthWales.

The program was launched here in earlyMarch by the Australian Minister forHigher Education along with other TVOpen Learning courses. French in Actionhas by far been the most popular OpenLearning course, with about 2,000 peopleenrolled. Enrollment is at least five timeshigher than had been expected. Theprogram has even provided television

A

rating points and vied heavily with thepopular breakfast show,"Good MorningAustralia."

Yale University Press to pablishtests for French in Action

New Haven- Yale University Press ispleased to announce the Novemberpublication of French in Action Test Banks.Written by Beatrice Abetti, ElizabethAnglin, Elizabeth Berwanger, and CarolynDemaray, the tests represent a range ofdifficulty and appropriateness for variouslearning situations, from secondaryschools through four-year colleges. Thereare four tests for each lesson, and they aredesigned to allow the instructor maxi-mum flexibility in adapting to the needsof individual classes.

The Test Banks package consists of acomplete set of teacher's scripts for eachtest, with guidelines for administering the

a

French in Action Newsletter -7

lik

tests and answer keys, or suggestions foralternate responses, where appropriate,and a complete set of students' tests,suitable for duplication.

The price of the package is $100 andincludes permission to duplicate thestudents' test for classroom use.

FiA Test Banks ordering information :Address your order on official schoolpurchase order or school letterhead to:

Yale University Press92A Yale StationNew Haven, CT 06520Attn: Special ProjectsSorry, no phone orders.

Become an FiA pioneer. Join the network of users. Keep in touch with your colleagues.Simply fill out this subscription form and send it to:The French in Action Newsletter111 Grove StreetNew Haven, CT 06511

Name Institution Department

Address

City

Phone Fax

FiA4 1 2 3

State Zip

Do you use French in Action as: a core course? a supplement ?

Check here if you would like to receive more ihformation on the French in Action Test Banks:

a telecourse?

33

8-French in Action Newsletter

A la recherche du numéro 18

On a recent trip to France, a group of mystudents took an hour off to hunt down theinfamous 18, rue de Vaugirard, hopingsans doute to catch Mireille qui sortait dechez elle...or at least to have their picturestaken in front of this apartment with sucha beautiful view (except for the TourMontparnasse quelle horreur!) of theJardins du Luxembourg.

Please make note for future tourists thatthis new Mecca (which proved more of adraw than Jim Morrison's grave), is,however utile pour apprendre le francais, asfictitious as the rest of the story!

Dr. Casey BlackNorthern State UniversityAberdeen, SD

Yes, indeed number 18, rue de Vaugirard isfictitious; for the veny reason illustrated inProfessor Black's letter. Before FiA was filmed,we at Yale and at a few other institutions wereteaching with a prototype course. So many ofour students would rush to the real building onrue de Vaugirard and ring the bell, hoping thatMireille would open the door, that we wereobliged to move Mireille and her family twice.

When we made preparations to film French inAction, we anticipated the problem would be, ofcourse, worse after the program was seen bytens of thousands of students and millions ofhome viewers. So, we had to find a number onrue de Vaugirard that would not pose aproblem. I selected number 18 precisely becauseit does not exist. (If it did, it would be the backof the Odeon Theatre.) This solution createdonly a minor difficulty: whenever we wanted toshoot in front of Mireille's house, the crew hadto bring a ladder to take down the actualnumber, replace it with number 18, and putback the right number when we were through.

PJC

We have been told many times that switchingto French in Action has boosted enrollments.We received a letter from Professor Weinstockat Rockland Community College in Suffern,NY. who says: "Grace A votre French inAction vous avez ressuscité notredepartement de francais. Avant French inAction, 28 étudiants dans le cours defrancais; apres French in Action, 125étudiants. Les nombres s'améliorent desemestre en semestre. "

Qui dit mieux?

Congratulations to Professor Weinstock andthe French department at Rockland for a jobwell done!

Des itudiants nous écrivent:

Cher M. Capretz,Je ne peux pas vous dire com-

ment votre cours, French in Action , m'aideA comprendre et a étudier le français .

avant cette année, la langue ne me plaisaitpas beaucoup, prolxiblement parce que leslivres que nous utilisions étaientennuyeux. Ils n'avaient guere d' humour,pas de personnages intéressants. radmirevotre énergie. Je regrette de ne pas avoircommence A étudier le francais avec Frenchin Action. A propos, mon frere Fred estalle a Yale, mais c'est dommage qu'il n'aitpas étudié le français quand ii était al'université vous awiez été sonprofesseur!

Erik Campano

Notez Bien:

Effective 1011192, the price for the FiAaudiocasssettes is $60.00 per part.

MEC

French in Action\ \ I . Fl I I. II R

Yale University Press92A Yale StationNew Haven, CT 06520

NonproftOrganization

U.S. POSTAGEPAID

New Haven, CTPermit No. 87

1) 4

French in ActionNEWS ET TER

Number 5 Creating a Network of French in Action Users Fall 1993

New Zealand's Educational TVJackie-Ann Ross explains why they chose FiA

In 1992, the Auckland Institute ofTechnology decided to run French inAction as part of Educational Television(ETV), a telecourse program sponsoredby the university in conjunction withTelevision New Zealand (TVNZ). Thefirst broadcast was made in April 1993.French and psychology are the first twosubjects being offered and so far, theprogram seems to be generating a lot ofinterest. As of April, ETV had receivedabout 2,000 inquiries, over half of themfor French in Action.

Jackie-Ann Ross is teaching the Frenchin Action telecourse at Auckland, inwhich 150 students are currentlyenrolled. The following is an abstract ofa presentation about French in Actionshe recently did at the New ZealandAssociation of Language Teachers'Conference:

in this issue:

Articles:

New Zealand's Educational TV 1

Feature Sections:

FiA News

Tableau d'Honneur 4

FiA Bulletin Board 6

Calendar 3

Tuyaux 5

1. The story behind the scenes

Pierre Capretz started teaching in 1949and was dissatisfied with the methodsat his disposal right from the start. "Isoon became convinced a radicallydifferent approach could and should befound," he said. "I was privileged toparticipate actively, in the sixties, in the'audio-lingual' revolution in thiscountry but felt all that time thatbringing authentic spoken language tothe students was not enough, and thatwe had to show them the speakersspeaking the language, the circum-stances in which it is spoken, and thecultural reality it refers to." To this end

"What attracts students tothe study of a foreignlanguage is ...the opening upof a new world by theforeign language..."

Capretz used films or excerpts fromfilms. But the problem every teacherfaces with native language documentsof this kind is the level of languageused. The teacher has no control overthe input, and always ends up havingto explain far more vocabulary than isdesirable. That is why Capretz decidedto create his own film, in whk h hecould control the vocabulary ..,ndgrammatical and situational input. TheFrench in Action program was pub-lished in 1987 and was incrediblysuccessful. In 1989, the whole series wasbroadcast three times in a row. By theSpring of 1990, an estimated 8.5 million

35

people had watched the program.Though the success was rapid, thegestation and elaboration of theprogram was slow. The product wenow have is the outcome of nearlythirty years' work. Six prototypes weredeveloped and tested in a dozen or soAmerican institutions over twentyyears. An additional three years weretaken in the hunt for funding and incontract negotiations. Another threeand a half years then were needed tofinalize the project: scripts had to bewritten, situations filmed and edited,support materials written and pro-duced. In all, over three hundredpeople worked on this project either inthe States or in France.'

2. Thmn thodology

So what makes French in Action sodifferent from other methqds? Well,let's look at some of the general notionsupon which the course is based.1. Learning is a function of motivation;2. A printed text in a foreign language(by itself and in itself) is not particularlymotivating, especially for beginners;3. The simplified language proposed bymost textbooks turns students off;4. Students are equally turned off byunnatural language that does not carryactual information;5. I.earning the transformational rulesthat enable one to decode a foreignlanguage into one's own may be anexciting intellectual exercise but thiskind of activity is not particularlyfascinating for students who have notvet opted for careers as cryptologists;b. What attracts students to the studyof a foreign language is not its appear-

Con t inued on page 3

1.- French in Action Newsletter

We welcome any and all news of interest tothe conununity of French in Action users.Please send newsworthy items that u'cilike to share to the French in ActionNewsletter,111 Grove Street, New Haven,CT 06511

Capretz receives honorary degreefrom Middlebury CollegeMiddlebury,VT In August,Middlebury College granted anhonorary Doctorate of Letters to PierreCapretz in recognition of his extraordi-nary contribution to and leadership inthe advancement of the teaching ofFrench. Professor Capretz received thiscitation (see right) from the l'resident ofMiddlebury College. Congratulationsto Professor Capretz on this well-deserved honor!

Meister and Juhel wedCoral Springs, FL On December 27,1992, Barbara Meister of New YorkCity's Collegiate School and Jean-MarcJuhel of Trinity School, also in NewYork, were wed at the home of thebride's sister. The two veteran FiAteachers were introduced in June 1992when the director of ColumbiaUniversity's Klingenstein Centerinvited them to co-present a workshopon video pedagogy. A long-distanceromance ensued (Jean-Marc wasteacning in Colorado until recently).Comic' c 'est curieux, coimne c'est bizarre,et quell,' coincidence!!

Pierre Capretz, Doctor of Letters

Pierre Capretz: teacher, cineast, father of Robert and Mireille, educator from the future.

You have shown your colleagues that future in creating the first truly video-based method for teaching a language. You have shown us as well the rich results ofpedagogy developed over the longue durée, and have made us keenly aware of thebenefits indeed the necessity of hunwr in language learning. You have provokedus into remembering that contact with another culture does not always comfort one'sown cultural assumptions and practices. In short, you have shown us that in learning aforeign language one can and must remain a thinking adult. At Middlebury we havenever doubted that premise, and in honoring you tonight we celebrate our own stronglykid beliefs and traditions.

It is therefore my privilege, by virtue of the authority vested in me by theBoard of Trustees of Middlebury College, to confer upon you the degree of Doctor ofLetters, honoris causa, with all the rights, honors, privileges, and responsibilities hereand everywhere appertaining to this degree.

August 13, 1993Office of the PresidentMiddlebury College

French in ActionNEWSLETTER

Number 5Contributors: Jackie-Ann Ross, CliftonGarrettEditor for Yale University Press:Mary E. Coleman

The Ere .tch.M. Action Newsletter ispublishoc: ey the French in ActionProject 'n association with YaleUniverg ty Press and the Annenberg/CPB Pr o;ect. Sucriptions free andcan he ob,aiett.v: by ccmpleting thr. formon page 7 ank: re;urning it to:

French in Action Newsletter111 Gri..,ve Stre0No, Haven CT WI I

Manning retiresBoulder, CO Jeanne Manning hasretired from her posilion at NorthernVirginia Community College inAlexandria. Jeanne helped create a verysuccessful telecourse program at thecollege, where they usea technology toteach distant learners. Jeanne now livesin Boulder and is still very active withFrench in Action.

Epp receives award for excellencein teachingLincoln, NE Anthony Epp ofNebraska Wesleyan University hasreceived the Burlington NorthernAward for Excellence in Teaching. Ourcongratulations to Mr. Epp! (Be sure tosee Mr. Epp's letter in the "BulletinBoard" section.)

36 continued on page 5

French in Action Newsletter - .3

New Zealandcontinued from page 1

ance as an abstruse code saying thevery same things that are said moresimply in their mother tongue butrather, the opening up of a new worldby the foreign language;7. Understanding is a prerequisite tospeaking;8. Students, at any point, can under-stand much more than they can say;9. There can be no understanding oflanguage without a knowledge of thecontext in which the language occurs;10. Language cannot be invented by thelearners; it can be imitated and adaptedto individual use through recombina-tion of observed segments.3

The questions that were raised were:How, then, do we keep the studentsmotivated and interested? How shouldwe introduce new language? How canwe talk to aur students without babyingthem? How can we revise vocabularyand grammatical structures withoutboring them? The format that answeredthese questions was the soap. Soapshave the ability of hooking people.There is satisfaction in seeing the same

"...How, then, do we keepthe students motivated andinterested? How should weintroduce new language?...The format that answeredthese questions was thesoap. "

people week in, week out, in followingtheir adventures. Though the focus inFiA is on two young people, Mireilleand Robert, Mireille's family is alwaysin the background and introducespeople of all ages. This makes the storymore "realistic" and interesting.

The soap format with which TVviewers are familiar enables the teacherto stop the video at critical moments. Itcreates suspense between episodes andthus maintains the students' interest.Soaps also allow the presentation of awhole series of culturally relevantvignette situations in which naturalFrench can be spoken and understood.They are ideal for the introduction andsystematic repetition and revision of

new vocabulary and grammaticalstructures. The HA soap parodiesconventional soaps thus creating therequisite emotional distance betweenthe viewers and heroes that freesstudents in their reinvention exercises.

This medium presents students with aninteresting and large corpus of words.Because students can understand moreat any one time than they can say, themedium allows the teacher to talk to thestudents, using complex structureswhich the students can understand

because they are contextualized, and towhich they can respond using simplelanguage. The visual approach istherefore a great help in excludingEnglish from the learning process.Indeed, French is not a coded version ofEnglish. In putting new words inconcrete situations, students learn to dowithout English. They are trained toguess at meanings from the context.This stresses a more active role in thelearning process for the student.

What the students experience with thiscourse is controlled and guidedsequential immersion. "For Capretz, tobe plunged into the foreign culture is tobe bombarded bv an ocean of randomstimuli without a life preserver. Theinnovation of FiA is to take immersionone step further, rendering authenticspeech comprehensible by breaking itdown into structured components. inother words, to offer immersioncoupled with a systematic way ofcoping with it. Bit by bit, using thearsenal of video techniques at his

continued on page 7

October 15, 1993Oklahoma Foreign LanguageAssociation, Tulsa, OK

October 21 - 23, 1993Illinois Council on the Teaching of ForeignLanguages, Peoria, IL

October 27, 1993Workshop for French in ActionTeachers*with Barbara and Jean-Marc JuhelNew Trier High School, Winnetka, IL

October 28 - 30, 1993Foreign Language Association of NorthCarolina , Greensboro, NC

October 29-30, 1993Massachuset Is Formgn Language

sNic io n , Sturbridge, MA

November 19-22, 1993American Council on the Teaching ofForeign LanguagesSan Antonio, TXYale University Press booth

Monday November 22, 19933-5 p.m.French in Action workshop*with Alan Astro of Trinity University,San Antonio

December 28-10, 1993Modern Language AssociationToronto, Ontario, CanadaYale University Press booth

'Advance registration is required. Formore information, please contact YaleUniversity Press at (203) 432-0912.

37

4- French in Action Newsletter

Tableau d'Honneur

The following work of art was composedand recited by a chorus of students at DarienHigh School in Darien, Connecticut, on the occasionof Professor Capretz's visit:

Bonjour, Monsieur Capretz et comment allez-vous?Nous voulons vous souhaiter la bienvenue!Nous soinmes etudiants en derniere annéefiers d'avoir fait cinq ans de français.

En y refléchissant, nous sommes contents de vous direqu'apprendre le français était un plaisir.

Quand nous partirons pour l'universitéNous n'oublierons jamais Robert et Mireille.

Et nous nous souviendrons toujours du professeurQui nous a souvent mis de bonne humeur

Avec vos histoires si dreiles, si utiles, si raresEt ce monsieur en noir: bizarre! bizarre!

Quand nous ferons des voyages, n'importe obVos lecons de French in Action seront toujours avec nous.

Nous connaissons Paris, les Francais, et la France,Grace a notre prof de francais par excellence.

Votre visite aujourd'hui nous donne do la joieMerci, Monsieur Capretz, merci mille fois!

This reinvention de Phistoire was completed by Cristinaand Jose Salinas, a husband-and-wife team at NorthernVirginia Community College whose child was bornduring the Spring '93 semester. Little Daniel wascompliant with his parents' wish that he be born duringSpring Break , so that neither parent would miss a classof French in Action. He inspired the following (afterlecon 10):

José: ca fait quatre heures qu'il pleure! C'est ton tour!!

Cristina: Mon tour! 11 est trois heures du matin.

Jose: Tu es sourde ou quoi? Je dis que c'est ton tour.

Cristina: Je ne suis pas sourde. Ce n'est pas dejeu....Alors, va chercher du lait.

Jose: Je ne suis pas la bonne.... (De la cuisine) Je netrouve pas de lait. Oa est-ce qu'il est?

Cristina: Ce que tu peux etre bete! Dans le réfrigerateur,evidemment!

José: Idiote! Je ne vais pas lui donner de lait froid!

Cristina: Oh la la! Tu as sale caractere a trois heures dumatin. (A Daniel) Allez, Daniel, ne pleure plus. Je vais tedonner du lait, mon petit garcon.

José: II est tres beau. Je l'adore.

38

Newscontinued from page 2

Yale University Press to releasenew edition of French in Action

New Haven, CT - Yale University Pressis proud to announce the forthcomingpublication of the second edition of theFrench in Action print and audiomaterials. Copies of the materials willbe available for review next Spring.The new edition will make FiA'sinnovative methodology even moreaccessible and flexible. New featuresinclude more workbook exercises, all-new audiocassettes, and new sectionsfor reading and writing exercises.To receive review materials nextSpring, complete and return thecoupon on page 7 or contact YaleUniversity Press, 92A Yale Station,New Haven, CT 06520, Attn: French inAction.

New Test Banks well received byFrench in Action community

The recently released testing programcontinues to grow in popularity amongFrench in Action teachers. The TestBanks by Beatrice Abetti, ElizabethAnglin, Elizabeth Berwanger, andCarolyn Demaray are a complete set oftests for lessons 2 through 52, coveringthe entire sequence of instruction. Thereare four different test-3 for each lesson.The tests represent a range of difficultyand appropriatenes^. for variouslearning situations, from secondaryschools tu four-year colleges. They aredesigned to allow the instructormaximum flexibility in adapting to theneeds of individual classes.The test bank package consists of ateacher's manual that includes completescripts for each test, with guidelines foradministering the tests and answerkeys, or suggestions for alternateresponses, where appropriate, and acomplete set of students' tests, suitablefor duplication. The purchase price of$100 includes permission to duplicatethe students' test for classroom use.

If you'd like to receive a samplechapter from the Test Banks for

French in Action Newsletter 5

TuyauxDo you have any helpful hints you'd liketo share with your colleagues? We'd loveto hear about them! Please submit youroriginal tuyaux to the French in ActionNewsletter, 111 Grove Street, NewHaven, CT 06511.

This tuyau was provided by CliftonGarrett of Bakersfield College inBakerfield, CA.

For instructors who have access to avideo camera or mini-cam, here's asuggestion to "prime the pump" forstudent responses to the Mots enliberte section in each FiA lesson.These sections pose questions whichprovoke responses that activaterecently learned structures andvocabulary.

Compile a list of these questions and,when travelling in a Francophonecountry, carry them along with yourmini-cam. When you make theacquaintance of French speakers, letthem know that you are working on alittle project to enliven your instruc-tion of the language by videotapingpeople responding to the questions. Itdoesn't take long; a ten- to fifteen-minute session of taping can encom-

pass many questions. Then, afterediting, the results when played backto a class provide authenticity to anexercise that may sometimes seem toounreal and academic for somestudents.

Almost without exception, mysubjects responded warmly and withanimation. To one little old ladywhom I met at a senior citizens' centerin a Provencal village, I posed aquestion from Lesson 11: "Qu'estqu'on peut faire quand il fait beau, enété?" She answered with a twinkle inher eye and without the slightesthestitation: "On peut faire dunudisme!"

review, please complete and return thecoupon on page 7 or contact YaleUniversity Press, 92A Yale Station,New Haven, CT 06520 Attn: French inAction

Australia now broadcasting Part IIof FiA

Melbourne In our Fall 1992 newslet-ter, we reported that, as part of thegovernment-funded "TV Open Learn-ing Project" to promote wider access tohigher education in remote parts of the

39

country, ABC (Australian BroadcastingCorporation) began broadcasting Part Iof French in Action in April 1992. Theseries has been so popular that it hasprovided stiff competition for thepopular breakfast show, Good Morn-ing Australia. Due to its enormoussuccess, ABC is now continuing withthe second part of the program.

French in ActiQn in Taiwan

Taipei, Taiwan - French in Action isnow available in the Far East throughCentral Book Publishing Company inTaipei.

6 - French in Action Newsletter

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41-

e esifits,/ IF(vick, -to 1-c-t. OS r . yPostcard to Barry Lydgate from a former student at Wellesley College

Dear Professor Capretz:

I attended a French in Action work-shop at the University of Tennessee inKnoxville this spring and it hascompletely revitalized my use of theFiA program. I learned so much fromthe UTK workshop and feel muchmore confident about my use of thematerials. I am in my 20th year ofteaching French and cannot imagineever going back to a non-videoprogram. Thank you for yourbrillantly and creatively craftedprogram. You have revolutionizedlanguage teaching and learning as faras I'm concerned.One last remark: I was at a summerinstitute for French teachers 11 yearsago when you and Professor Lydgatemade a presentation about yourproject. I knew then that I wanted tochange over to your materials, but ittook me eight more years before gotthe courage to do so.

N

(Cf%..tte

*LA",; .

-1".St1

Thank you again, Professor Capretz. AsI'm sure you've heard before, one of mystudents said last week: "I've learnedmore in thiee weeks than I learned inthe two years I took French in highschool."

Anne F. CurtisChattanooga State TechnicalCommunity CollegeChattanooga, TN

Intemsted in meeting other FiAteachers in your area?

Several teachers have expressed interestin contacting others in their area whoalso teach with French in Action. Ifyou'd like to form a group or just get intouch, please let us know by callingYale University Press at (2(13) 432-0912.

Position wanted

Teacher with many years' experiencewith French in Action at Yale, MountHolyoke, and Middlebury is relocatingto Chicago and seeks French teachingposition in the area. Please addresspossible leads to FiANewsletter, 111 Grove Street, NewHaven, CT 06511.

Dear French in Action Newsletter:

Very soon after I started using Frenchin Action in Beginning French atNebraska Wesleyan University,realize(' that it was enabling me toteach French the way I had becomeconvinced that it was best taught. Letme explain. In most texts, one hasexercises which one assigns and thenmust check in class. FiA bypasses thatstep, putting all the responsibility forchecking on the students. Thus, in classI am able to spend an entire hour everyday bombarding students with Frenchfor which they are prepared, yet whichthey do not see. In addition, I find akind of interest from students whichother texts fail to elicit. Students wantto know what happens next. They getaggravated with Robert. Althoughtheoretically turned off by Jean-Pierre,they openly admit that he fascinatesthem. After one year, I think thestudents have a wonderful feel for thelanguage. But in addition, they knowwhat France looks like. In terms of theQuarticr Latin, they know it all exceptfor the smells.

Anthon! EppNebraska Wesleyan UniversityLincoln E

0

French in Action Newsletter - 7

New Zealandcontinued from page 3

dis,osal, and a wealth of camouflagedoccasions for repetition, Capretzprovides the necessary life preserver."'

3. The grammar question

Some people have criticized FiA for thelack of grammar and grammaticalexercises it contains. All I can say is thatthey cannot have looked at it properly."It is in the pedagogical section of thevideo that the student first encountersthe grammar of each chapter. There is ...a formal grammar presentation in mostof the video lessons.... Essentialgrammar distinctions are often enactedon the screen while the verbal equiva-lents are shown as subtitles. Forexample, images rapidly alternatebetween 'elle promene Fido' and 'elk seprontette.'""

The tape and workbook exercisesensure that students can test theirunderstanding and grasp of this newform. 'New' in this method reallymeans that this is being focused on forthe first time. Capretz's way of famiL-tr-izing students with a new grammaticalstructure is to introduce it but not tofocus on it until the students haveheard it a few times. When he doesfocus on it, the students feel theyalready know it.

A brief study has been made of

grammatical ability and general resultsachieved by two groups of students,one using a traditional textboc:. and theother French in Action. The former is amore traditional grammar-in-contextcourse and grammar takes a centralplace in each chapter. In FiA, grammaris introduced in an original but totallylogical way. Structures are brought tothe students' notice when thev needthem and are constantly revised andrepeated. They are also introduced insuch a way as to give maximum oralflexibility. For example, alter + infinitifis introduced in lesson one. Thestudents do not know how to conjugateany verb other than oiler, yet they canalready express a lot. These two groupsof students both had had three terms ofthe traditional text. They were tested atthe beginning and at the end of theexperiment, which lasted one semester.They were taught by the same teacher.Although more data would be neededto verify the results of this experiment,the outcome of the tests showed thatthe French in Action group did signifi-cantly better in the grammar scores,although otherwise they only didmarginally better than their counter-parts using the traditional book.'

4. The level

The Capretz method was originallydevised for use at the university level,

but it is being used successfully in highschools throughout the US. It isinteresting to note that students havingcompleted two years of FiA at school"can safely be placed in advancedcourses" at university. This is due inpart to the vocabulary students aretaught. If the context calls for Avhatother programs would term advancedvocabulary, Capretz introduces it andthe students accept it without realizingits difficulty because it is "relevant tothe story and highly practical."

Added to their knowledge of vocabu-lary is the insight into French culturethe' obtain often subconsciously fromwatching the videos. This helps themtremendously and gives them a greatadvantage over other students when itcomes to dealing with French literaryworks.

5. How to use FiA in class

"The recommended procedure is for theteachers to show the video a briefsegment at a time playing backutterances several times if necessary, tomake sure that the students perceivethe sounds spoken and then gain aglobal understanding of what is said.Since the language used in the video isnatural and has not been simplified,students are, of course, not expected tounderstand everything at first; instead

continued on page 8

French in Action Newsletter Subscription FormHave you officially subscribed to the French in Action Newslettervet? If not, now's the time!

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8- French in Action Newsletter

New Zealandcontinued from fv.0

they get a general notion of what isgoing on. Comprehension will begradually refined as the spoken text ismanipulated further."'

Once they watch the video, students doa text work up using the audio tape.This covers the vocabulary from thevideo and requires students to repeatwords, then give brief answers beforemoving on to longer ones. It coverspronunciation and intonation as well ascomprehension.

The students then continue to listen tothe audio tape and complete theexercises in the workbook. These covera whole range of activities: observation,grammar rules, tonic stress pronuncia-tion, activation exercises right throughto self-tests and reinvention exercises ofthe story line.

The last step is the textbook itself, inwhich they read the text from the video.The words the students must focus onare illustrated to enhance understand-ing and retention. At the end of the textis a series of questions that studentsshould now be able to answer withoutdifficultv.

Last of all is a document relevant to the

subject matter of the lesson: a shortpoem, a cartoon, an extract from a song,a play.

Editor's note: Ms. Ross's original piececontinues with a sample lesson plan froman earlier issue of the French in ActionNewsletter (No.1). If you would like toreceive this or any other hack issue of theNewsletter, please address requests to YaleUniversity Press, 92A Yale Station, NewHaven, CT 06520 Attn: French in Action.

NOTES' Pierre J. Capretz: Unpublished PrivateCommunication to J-A Ross, April 15,1993

2 From Pierre J. Capretz: "French inAction sur PBS et sur Cassettes," p. 5

"A Video-Based System for theTeaching of French Language andCulture" Journal of EducationalTechniques and Technologies, Vol. 22,no.2/3, (1989), p. 3

4 "French in Action as a Model for VideoLanguage Programs" by DeborahFraioli and Marv-Ann Stadler-Chester,French in Action Newsletter 3, (1992),pp. 2-3

'"French in Action as a Model tor VideoLanguage Programs" by DeborahFraioli and Mary-Ann Stadler-Chester,French in Action Newsletter 3, (1992),

P. 5

6 From Raylene Ramsey, "French inAction and the Grammar Question"The French Review, Vol. 65 no. 2,(1991), pp. 255-266

'Antoinette Shewmake, The FrenchReview Vol. 3, no. 6, 1990, p. 1093

Francoise Watts, "Two Years Later, AnEvaluation of French in ActionForeign Language Association ofVirginia Bulletin Vol. 45, no. 1, (1989)

"A Video-Based System for theTeaching of French Language andCulture" lournal of EducationalTechniques and Technologies Vol. 22,no. 2/3, (1989), p. 4

"Watkins' Built-in Review System forFrench in Action", in: French in ActionNewsletter, Vol. 1, no. 1, (1991), p. 6

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