Course: French 3/4

Instructor: Alison Dykman

Learner Level: Novice-High to Intermediate-Mid
Class Length: Just shy of one hour
Background: Students have not directly studied phonemes. Students do have a bit of a background with Canadian French, but have not directly studied it.
Context: Students are in a mixed French 3 and 4 classroom, but are lacking in a phonological background due to teacher focus in previous years.

Institution: Haslett High School, Haslett, Michigan

Students: Students have been studying French for two to three years and range in ability from Novice-High to Intermediate-Mid. I have some very
strong French 4 students and some quite low French 3 students. With activities such as these, I would absolutely have them work together,
despite their disparate abilities.

Overall course goals: Overall, my goal is for students to leave French 3 and/or 4 ready for college French, whatever level they or their college decide they are ready
for. Some students are really ready for upper level work; some really require some more elementary review. (Some, even after 3 years of
coursework, really just leave me with a love of language and French culture. And I consider that a success as well.)

Texts/Materials: We do not have a text, but will use strictly online materials to complete our goals for this lesson. These materials will be listed below.

Lesson aims: My goal is to improve student pronunciation of sounds in French as they reach this higher level. At the novice level, students make these
distinctions, but they are sometimes hit or miss with some students. At the higher levels, I want them to be deliberate about these more
complicated distinctions.

Additionally, I have included a short lesson for when I begin to introduce dialects to my upper level students.

Previous classwork / Student background knowledge is strictly based on the input they have received for the past two to three years, not on any strict phonological
background knowledge: instruction.

Lesson One Procedures:

Activity/ Objectives Materials/ Step-by-step details Interaction/ Contingency plans/
Timing equipment seating other notes
Pronunciation Students can begin to Students will 1. Students will begin class by talking about Students will If technology is not
and Listening differentiate between the ou have different kinds of vowel sounds and remain in their available the day we
Practice. This and u sounds in French Chromebooks. pronunciations. I will have them begin by normal seats, need them, we can
introductory words and pronounce them Additionally, pronouncing the English words kit and father to with the class simply use my computer
phonology themselves, noting the they will have feel the difference between open and closed split into two and speakers and listen
lesson will distinct and present headphones vowels. halves, each all together. My
likely take an difference between the two with 2. Then we will discuss further tongues positions facing a middle intention is to do some

From Purgason, K. (2014). Ch 23: Lesson planning in SL/FL teaching. In Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Snow, M.A. (Eds.), Teaching English as a
second or foreign language (4th ed.) (pp. 362-379). Boston, MA: Heinle. 1
Activity/ Objectives Materials/ Step-by-step details Interaction/ Contingency plans/
Timing equipment seating other notes
entire class necessary when speaking microphones with front and back, by using the words set and aisle. This is the work together and some
period. French. attached to goal. only productive independently to give
hear their own 3. The last discussion will be about arrondi, way I have students a diversity of
voices. whether your lips are rounded or not when found to fit experience throughout
speaking. To demonstrate this, we will use the thirty-four the class period, but as a
English words nut and croak. desks into my backup, working
4. We will then revisit a trick they learned in classroom. together all hour would
French 1 for pronouncing the French letter U be fine.
correctly. (This YouTube video is a very simple We will interact
version of what we review in French 1 for this as a class
trick: throughout the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCF2Dw8t class period, as
PA8) students try out
5. We will then move into the difference between the sounds.
the ou and u sounds in French and how Students will
important the difference can be. I will start by work directly
playing this brief video of words that, if with partners
pronounced without the distinction would be for part 8 of the
homophones, but with the distinction mean very lesson plan and
different things: depending on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaFM81EK class needs, we
8hU may continue
6. With this video we will discuss how perhaps this for part 10.
some of us have been saying these words Students will
exactly the same, while others have been work
distinguishing and how this can be confusing independently
for the French when we mean to say Russian, will the listen to
but to their ears, we say redhead. the SoundCloud
7. Students will next be given a link to a file the first few
SoundCloud file of words the the ou/u times to really
distinction. Their Google Classroom account listen intently.
will have a list of the words (link here) and at
this first step, I would like them to listen a
couple of times to hear the difference between
the two sounds.
https://soundcloud.com/transparentfrench/u-vs-
ou
8. After each student has listened a couple of
From Purgason, K. (2014). Ch 23: Lesson planning in SL/FL teaching. In Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Snow, M.A. (Eds.), Teaching English as a
second or foreign language (4th ed.) (pp. 362-379). Boston, MA: Heinle. 2
Activity/ Objectives Materials/ Step-by-step details Interaction/ Contingency plans/
Timing equipment seating other notes
times, I will regroup and ask them to go back to
the document and try pronouncing themselves.
Id like them to try this with their seat partner,
so they are able to help each other and will be
able to unplug headphones and check the tape
for assistance if both partners are lost on a word.
9. We will come back together as a class and see
where we are struggling, where we are doing
okay and where we are succeeding. If we
require more practice, we will do the words
together as a class, using the SoundCloud file as
a guide, as necessary.
10. We will then use another cloud from this
SoundCloud account to test student
understanding of the ou/u distinction. They will
jot down the numbers 1 through 16 and listen to
this recording:
https://soundcloud.com/transparentfrench/u-vs-
ou-test Depending on how the particular class is
doing, we may do this as an entire class, or I
may have students do this on their own on their
computers or in pairs. Here are the responses: 1.
u 2. u 3. ou 4. u 5. ou 6. ou 7. ou 8. u 9. ou 10.
ou 11. u 12. u 13. ou 14. ou 15. u 16. ou
11. We will again come back together and reassess.
If students need more practice with the sounds,
we will continue practice on the second day
with additional sounds, listening, etc.
12. Once students are ready to assess their
understanding of the difference between ou and
u, in real French fashion, we will use a dicte
where students will listen for the difference
between the two sounds. It is a very long
dictation (42 words), so we will likely do it as
warmups for the next week or so.
http://www.lefrancaispourtous.com/dictee4.htm

From Purgason, K. (2014). Ch 23: Lesson planning in SL/FL teaching. In Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Snow, M.A. (Eds.), Teaching English as a
second or foreign language (4th ed.) (pp. 362-379). Boston, MA: Heinle. 3
Lesson Two Proceedures
Activity/ Timing Objectives Materials Step-by-step details Interaction/ Contingency
seating plans/ other
notes

Introduction to Students will We will 1. I will begin the conversation by discussing dialects of English, Students will none
Canadian begin to hear simply use asking for examples, experiences students have had with different remain in their
Dialect/Pronunciation differences online forms of English, etc. normal seats and
between materials of 2. We will then begin discussing different forms of French. I will practice
French native show them this map: pronunciation
Standard and speakers. https://languageblag.com/2015/02/05/caribbean-french-creole- with their seat
Canadian quebec-french/ I used this map in my lesson on Picard earlier this partners as
dialect in basic semester, so I have some information to share with students about necessary.
words and the languages of the country of France. We will then go further
phrases. abroad and discuss forms of French created during colonialism. We
will eventually focus in on Canadian French, a form with which
several of my students have a history.
3. We will start Canadian French as we do Standard French, with the
alphabet. Then, I will play them this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pJDQrz3wqI Students will
not notice a difference, save for a couple of letters at the very end.
This is a nice way to transition students into the new dialect. We
will practice listening and repeating, in large group and with
partners.
4. We will then move to another early French 1 basic, numbers. I will
play this video and stop around the number twenty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7dW5_AuvVk Students will
notice more differences here with numbers. We will again practice
listening and repeating.
5. This video is adorable and has a fantastic example of a Qubecois
accent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df_BjOaAp68 We
will watch and stop it periodically to discuss and practice his
examples.
6. I will assign as homework, a quick English video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TSQUbvyKc8 Students will
need to write a short English response to this video - what they
thought, how the differences sound to them, what they thought of
her analysis, etc.

From Purgason, K. (2014). Ch 23: Lesson planning in SL/FL teaching. In Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Snow, M.A. (Eds.), Teaching English as a
second or foreign language (4th ed.) (pp. 362-379). Boston, MA: Heinle. 4
 Rationale

I plan to begin my students study of sociolinguistics with simple phonology lessons. This is something that my self-made curriculum is really lacking. Some
textbooks do have built-in lessons, but they are not something that I have ever taken the time to include. I believe by starting with lessons on phonemes, students will have
the building blocks they need to expand their understanding of other issues of sociolinguistics beyond what we already do.
My curriculum already does a good job of introducing students to issues of register and politeness. Very early on in French study, students have to make a choice
of politeness when addressing others when they choose between the informal tu and the formal vous. (Wardhaugh, 2014, p. 263) So by French 3 and 4, this is not an
important point of focus beyond questions that come up in our normal conversations.
In the last couple of years, partly due to my time in the MAFLT program, I have increased incorporation of cultural aspects of language. We begin French 1 talking
about cognates, many of which are borrowed terms from English and other languages. (p. 198) Early on, we discuss the history of French language and how it has changed
and continues to change. We discuss the Academie Franaise and its influence, but we go beyond that. We look at verlan and how this form of street language is how young
people covertly rebel against a tightly controlled language. And when adults try to take those words from them, they take them and change them again. Students think this is
a cool way for young people to fight against the grown-ups, but really it is a lesson in the concept of power in language. (p. 32) All of these things together are the
beginning of their study of sociolinguistics.
There are other areas I would like to weave into my curriculum. My area of expertise is Metropolitan, or Parisian, French, though I have some experience with
Provenal. I do want to expose my students to some of these other dialects, beyond the standard. I have a small number of students currently who have personal exposure to
non-standard French in their youth and I want to honor their experiences by not only focusing on the standard form. However, as most of my students fall into this Novice
and Intermediate Low level, I simply want to introduce them and make them aware that it is there, as in my second lesson included above. I have begun to work in more
natural uses of informal language as students move on in my program. However, this communicative competence is something I would really like to work on with my upper
level students. (p. 5) After some time with the more formal constructs of this language that is so restricted, those are the students who are ready to explore these more
casual, informal speech patterns.
After I start with this one day lesson on two difficult vowel sounds in French, I would like to continue with phonemic practice, similar to this for the foreseeable
future. One day or a partial day on a lesson distinguishing sounds and then we will spend a few moments every day for several days revisiting those same sounds. This
keeps the idea of phonology fresh in our brains, even as we move back into our studies using other skills.

References

Wardhaugh, R., & Fuller, J. M. (2014). Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics : Introduction to Sociolinguistics (7). Somerset, US: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from
http://www.ebrary.com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu

From Purgason, K. (2014). Ch 23: Lesson planning in SL/FL teaching. In Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Snow, M.A. (Eds.), Teaching English as a
second or foreign language (4th ed.) (pp. 362-379). Boston, MA: Heinle. 5