Parlez-vous Francais? Milton teachers make language practical, fun
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Under a map of France, Milton Middle School students Dean Adrion (l) and Cole Dutcher work on a class project involving a pretend trip to The Louvre museum.
MILTON — Michele La Pean-Usher studied French for years before her first visit to France.
But when she had a medical emergency there, she wasn’t sure what to do, she said.
“I knew how to say, ‘I broke my leg,’ but I didn’t know stuff about insurance papers because I’d never had a unit on that in school,” she said.
Anyone who has studied a foreign language knows the frustration of learning how to conjugate verbs or say “The book is blue” without really learning how to use the language.
La Pean-Usher and her fellow French teacher, Alissa Bratz, are trying to ease that frustration for Milton students with a new program based on real-life simulations, technology and cultural immersion.
“The emphasis is the student being able to function in France,” Bratz said. “So if they woke up in France tomorrow, they’d know what to do.”
Before, students’ grades depended on written tests, worksheets and memorized speeches. Now, the teachers put more emphasis on how well students carry on conversations and think on their feet.
The high school has partnered with a middle school in Marseilles, France. La Pean-Usher set up an online chat room where students from both schools can post messages. She hopes students can exchange video postcards this semester, she said.
Sophomore Becca Dutcher said she loves the new program.
“It’s a lot more practical,” she said. “When you go to France or you go to any French-speaking country, you’re not going to be handed a worksheet.”
Becca plans to go on the next school trip to France in 2010. She’s thinking about joining the Peace Corps or becoming a missionary, two areas where knowledge of another language would be helpful, she said.
The French program starts at the intermediate school with a voluntary after-school program and includes a nine-week “exploratory” class at the middle school.
Last week, middle school students finished their class with an imaginary trip to Paris. They pretended to be secret agents hot on the trail of “Madame Fifi,” who stole France’s national croissant recipe.
The students “visited” landmarks such as the Louvre and Eiffel Tower as they gathered clues. Their grade was based on a French conversation with Madame Fifi—Bratz in sunglasses and a baseball cap.
“She (Bratz) makes it all fun,” said seventh-grader Dean Adrion as he tried to discover the “treasure” of the Louvre.
“She makes it so we have to think,” added his classmate Cole Dutcher, Becca’s younger brother.
Bratz and La Pean-Usher hope elements of the new program eventually make it into other language programs. They both teach Spanish, the district’s other language offering, in addition to French.
“Our French program is really poised to be on the cutting edge of language programs,” Bratz said.
Why French?
Ask Michele La Pean-Usher and Alissa Bratz why students should learn French, and you’ll get an earful.
Why not French? the Milton School District teachers ask.
In an age when many school districts are building up programs such as Spanish, Arabic and Chinese, La Pean-Usher and Bratz believe French still matters.
“There is a false assumption in the conventional world that French is useless,” La Pean-Usher said. “French is spoken on every continent. It’s the language of diplomacy. It’s one of the main languages of the European Union.”
French is spoken in 80 countries, they said, including Canada and many African nations.
“We have native French speakers here living in the Milton School District,” La Pean-Usher said.
Focusing exclusively on the languages of international hot spots, such as Arabic and Chinese, is shortsighted because by the time high school students enter the workforce, the world’s attention could have shifted, they said.
What’s important, they said, is that students have access to many languages and choose to learn at least one of them. After that, more languages will come easily.
“It’s more important that students learn how to learn a language,” Bratz said.
Jan 28, 2009 at 9:18 p.m.
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I think it has more to do with wanting students to have lots of choices of languages to take, not so much that it's a "French only" stance. Quite often, public perception being what it is, French gets the short end of the stick. Districts very often look at what language seems useful now, and add it while cutting other languages already offered, and this is short-sighted. I think the argument is rather, the more languages a school district can offer, the better; so therefore let's not be hasty in assuming that French (or any other language) is "useless." ANY language will be of use to a student, no matter what it is. So why not ensure that they have an array of languages to choose from in school? And yes, the most-studied secondary language in the world is in fact English. However the second most-studied secondary language in the world is French. Considering the fact that the number of monolingual people in the world is currently in the minority (and this trend is expected to continue), students have to have at least one other language to be able to compete on the world stage. Which language it is doesn't matter so much as that there is a second (or third, or fourth...) language studied.
Lastly, I don't see it as self-serving for a teacher to be excited about his/her subject. Of course this teacher is going to be jazzed about French--at least one should hope so. How many of us have sat through classes with teachers who aren't excited about teaching the material? What a disservice to students! I think it's exciting that these teachers are passionate about their subject and sharing it with students. It's tough to blame someone for being passionate about something they care about, and you can definitely read that excitement coming through in the students' comments in the article. I think that's great for Milton students.
Jan 27, 2009 at 1:13 p.m.
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*Let us not forget that most of the world outside the US speaks more than one language, and so the number of secondary speakers of a language is a significant factor in determining a language's influence.*
Good point, althought I'd temper it by saying that quite often, the "second language" that non-Americans speak turns out to be English.
My point was that it's really self-serving of this French teacher to poo-poo learning other languages because "attention might shift". The Chinese are not going away. The influence of Arabic language may decline when the oil finally dries up and with it the megabillions of dollars involved in business contacts in that part of the world. Spanish is spoken by an awful lot of people.
Unless you are studying primary sources in French history, there's not an awful lot of call for French speakers.
Jan 27, 2009 at 8:09 a.m.
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I had French my freshman year in high school. I hated it. I wanted to take Spanish; but my high school didn't offer it back then. French still is of no use to me. Whereas, Spanish would be. And I do believe that other countries require English. So more than likely you will be able to find an english speaking person outside of the US.
Jan 26, 2009 at 9:27 p.m.
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The usefulness of learning a langauge has for me extended far beyond being able to order dinner in another country.
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For instance, a hobby of mine is ancient history and reading source material can be far more enjoyable than reading someone else's history book; so Latin, Greek, Arabic, Old English, etc. would make smart choices.
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My primary interests lie in mathematics and physics. I took French at Milton High School and it turned out that allowed me to start reading not only your typical French fiction but, more importantly to me, nonfiction. So French or German still make a great deal of sense since there was a considerable explosion of knowledge that took place in the great learning centers of Northern Europe from the 1660s (breakthroughs in mathematics and basic sciences) to about the 1920s (quantum mechanics and relativity). Those scientists and mathematicians, primarily German, French, and Russian (Euler, Lagrange, Descartes, Maupertuis, Mechain, Laplace, Bernoulli, Riemann, Galois, Godel, Hilbert, Gauss, Einstein, ...) wrote not in Latin but most often in their mother tongues.
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Other members of my family are in business and again German and French (the two biggest languages other than English in the EU), Japanese, (some form of) Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic (oil and banking) make sense depending on where one's other interests lie.
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If interested in current events in Central Asia or the Persian Gulf, Russian, Arabic, or Urdu might be the best languages at the moment.
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Learning a foreign language not only opens up vast new sources of information but forces a strengthened command on one's mother tongue.
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This new program in the French department sounds very innovative; I hope it is a great success.
Jan 26, 2009 at 8 p.m.
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Two comments:
First, to the respondents who took French in high school but find they no longer use it today, congratulations! Since you have learned French, then learning any other language you might need will now be easier. Language learning is not restricted to high school. If you find that you need to know Spanish or Urdu or any other language for your job, there are tons of great places to learn these languages, and the fact that you learned French before only means you will have an easier time of it.
Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with knowing more than two languages. After you've learned the Spanish you find yourself needing, on top of the French you already know, then you will know not one, not two, but three languages, which will make you more marketable in the job sector and will make you a better-prepared global citizen for the 21st century. I think knowing French and being motivated to learn Spanish or any other languages is a fortunate situation to be in. Go for it!
My second point is that it is a narrow view to decide that a language's influence or importance is determined solely by the population of speakers. Let us not forget that most of the world outside the US speaks more than one language, and so the number of secondary speakers of a language is a significant factor in determining a language's influence. Also, we must examine that language's impact on current events, history, and commerce.
Urdu and Pashtun do not rank anywhere on the list that the user known as "no" posted, because the population of speakers of these languages is quite low. However the US government has listed these two languages as "critical" for the past 5 years or so. So judging simply by population is not a good measure of a language's "importance".
Here are two articles which illustrate this idea in more detail:
http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/...
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/web...
On a final note, I echo and applaud the comments made by "biggirl," above. I think the more languages we can offer students, the better.
Jan 26, 2009 at 5:07 p.m.
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*Focusing exclusively on the languages of international hot spots, such as Arabic and Chinese, is shortsighted because by the time high school students enter the workforce, the world’s attention could have shifted, they said.*
Well, the world's attention certainly will NOT shift to FRENCH, that's for sure. Chinese speakers number about 20% of this planet. 1 billion Muslims all know at least SOME Arabic.
Francophones? They rank 18th in world population, behind:
Mandarin
Hindustani
Spanish
English
Arabic
Portuguese
Bengali
Russian
Japanese
German
Punjabi
Jan 26, 2009 at 4:03 p.m.
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I took Spanish in high school and wish I would have taken French. So I asked my little sister to teach me. She really got a kick out of me trying to pronounce the words. It was brutal. But I still think it's a beautiful language. Maybe someday I'll actually learn it.
Jan 26, 2009 at 3:38 p.m.
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My grandson took French as a summer school course with Michele La Pean-Usher. She is a wonderful teacher! He loved the class and he wants to learn more. He's in second grade.
Jan 26, 2009 at 10:58 a.m.
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The same argument for Latin is pertinent to French. Our language derives from German, French, and Latin. You learn a lot about it by knowing each of these languages, and yes, if you want practical, each of those languages will help you on the SAT. However, the reasons to learn a language are much greater than any such "practical" outcomes. It teaches you how to think critically; it teaches you grammar; and it helps you understand our own culture and language more profoundly. Unfortunately, we're becoming a culture that just cares about insurance papers. As long as they are in order, our lives are assumed to be full.
Jan 26, 2009 at 10:40 a.m.
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Yes, Latin! Let's give children a serious chance to prepare for college.
Jan 26, 2009 at 10:14 a.m.
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What I would really love to see is for students to be taught latin again and in the earlier grades. Kids today don't have solid enough grammar skills to attach any new language to. Latin is one sure way to nail down grammar and making it so much easier to pick up other languges, especially the romantic languages such as french, spanish, italian, etc.
Jan 26, 2009 at 10:11 a.m.
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I agree Michelle. I took several years of French. French is a beautiful spoken language but not useful unless your neighbors are Quebecois.
What can I say?
French - pas tres nécessaire.
Spanish - muy necesario.
Jan 26, 2009 at 9:47 a.m.
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I took french in high school. Useless knowledge. I should have taken spanish.
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