Inquiry and Literacy
Many French teachers avoid using inquiry in their classroom. Inquiry is largely based on communicating with children and exploring their thinking and observations about the world around them. At this stage of development, children who are learning a new language have limited vocabulary to express themselves. Teachers fear inquiry will lead to spending time translating words rather than having a meaningful discussion. In order to use inquiry in a French immersion classroom for mid stage learners in Grade 1, a teacher must be patient and rely heavily on the integration of literacy. Literacy plays a major role during the inquiry period. Firstly, in order for children to communicate and thus participate in the exchange of ideas, teachers must model the French language. For example, at Valleyview School in Ontario, teachers Ogilvie and Huot spoke French 100 percent of the time in order to avoid teaching students to become reliant on waiting for the teacher to tell them the English translation. As fast as December, students were incorporating French vocabulary into their every day dialogue. Oral language development will come before reading and writing competencies, so developing strong oral language skills and vocabulary should be a large focus in the French literacy program. A great way to model oral language is through inquiry and therefore asking children to develop their ability to ask questions and explore possible answers to those questions. In addition, modeling the French language using strategies such as shared reading and read alouds, teachers can introduce new precise and technical vocabulary. These read alouds are meant to facilitate inquiry based learning and help students formulate questions that can then be investigated, discussed and reflected upon. Using language in meaningful contexts deepens the students’ knowledge and contributes to their continual proficiency in French. Critical literacy is a great way to foster inquiry-based learning. In the early years, students are able to access and refer to texts that are read by the teacher. This strategy promotes the introduction and use of content-specific language in an engaging and relevant way.
In French Immersion teachers can use a strategy called Accountable Talk. To do this, teachers set up a collaborative learning environment in which students feel confident in expressing their ideas, opinions and knowledge using French. Teachers can support Accountable Talk in French by paraphrasing and repeating student responses in order to provide students with appropriate precise language and to prompt and give feedback when necessary. Student responses can also be recorded and made available for reference. This process helps release the teacher from responsibility of always scaffolding children and thus encourages students to become more independent with their learning.
In the entry years of the French immersion programs, teacher might want to discuss topics that may be familiar to the students and are more concrete than abstract. Teachers can also use past discussions from the inquiry block to come up with future words of the week in order to foster more conversation. Finally, teachers must remember to encourage risk taking and view errors as part of the learning process. Performing more meaningful tasks through inquiry learning will only enhance language needs of second language learners.
RECIPES FROM THE BALANCED LITERACY DIET WEBSITE
Daily News: Encouraging Inquiry Current events are important to bring into the classroom. The daily news is a great way to bring those issues into the classroom with the goal of developing students literacy skills. Students will have the opportunity to learn new vocabulary words because of the caliber of how the articles are written. In addition, those vocabulary words are introduced with an interesting context which will help students intrinsically learn the new words. Placing the article on the door or around the classroom is also helpful for students when they want to look back and relate back to the words or the content of the article and use it in their own writing. Finally, this type of activity encourages discussion which expands oral development and many students are prompted to take risks with the new language they are learning form the article.
Curriculum Expectations
Literacy Integration Through the French as a Second Language Curriculum
Speaking
B1.1 Using Oral Communication Strategies: identify a few speaking strategies
and use them appropriately to express themselves clearly and coherently in
French for various purposes and to a variety of audiences
Listening
A2.1 Using Interactive Listening Strategies: identify and use a
few interactive listening strategies to suit a variety of situations while
participating in structured and guided social and academic interactions