French

A widely held principle of communicative language teaching is that instruction should be in—and should elicit from students—the target language as close as possible to language used by native speakers. This dissertation illustrates that the foreign language (FL) teachers do not employ the native-like patterns of discourse to create context for communication, but simulations of French discourse for the classroom. The purpose of the study was to investigate how two novice teachers of elementary university French classes created meaningful contexts for the development of authentic and sustained communication in the foreign language classroom. The notion of discourse is discussed, stressing its archeological emd orderly nature. Samples of naturally occurring conversational exchanges were collected during ten weeks of classes for two teaching associates, one American, one French. The samples were transcribed and analyzed, using a method that sought to expose the sequential structure of i...

Alors que nos classes de Francais Langue Etrangere (FLE) s'efforcent d'etre plus communicatives, comment deux nouvelles enseignantes negocient-elles communication orale et enseignement des structures grammaticales dans leurs cours respectifs? Des episodes representatifs de leurs experiences sont presentes et analyses grâce a une ethnographie de quatre mois pendant laquelle les sujets etaient filmes tous les jours et ont participe a plusieurs entretiens. Les plans de lecon et les journaux intimes donnent d'autres perspectives sur le meme phenomene. Les reactions des deux sujets sont opposees et suggerent de nouvelles mesures formatrices pour les vrais neophytes de l'apprentissage/ enseignement communicatif des langues etrangeres.

While it is common to assume that our current undergraduates are digital native who are naturally proficient and expect the use of technology, the research base that supports those assumptions is limited. This is especially true of students in foreign language classes. Much of the national research that has been conducted has not focused on specific subsets of students. It is important to address this paucity of research, as instructors, textbook publishers, and other stakeholders must make informed decisions regarding the design and development of curriculum and instructional materials. This article reports a study conducted in exploration of the ownership and use of mobile devices by students in foreign language courses. The study used survey methodology and focus group protocols to investigate what technological devices students have and use for personal and academic activities. Salient findings include the reaffirmation of the need to maintain appropriate pedagogy in light of th...