“Parlez vous Anglaise?” Do you speak
english? It was the first sentence I mastered when learning
french. The second was, “Je ne parlez pas le Francaise.” I don't speak
french.
I had the wrong approach. Instead of asking people to speak to me in
english, I should have been trying to speak to them in
french.
I first studied
french at high school. We used a translation method. We also used tapes and repeated
french phrases which useful for pronunciation. We studied verb conjugation and vocabulary, always translating
english into
french. We were taught by a native
english speaker who had studied
french. Although I studied
french for three years I could speak very little.
When I started travelling in Europe, I studied
french again. This time I had a native speaking
french teacher, but she still taught in
english. We still translated from
english to
french and back again. There was little emphasis on pronunciation, and little student-to-student conversation in
french, and a lot of student-to-student conversation in
english. I progressed little, and when I travelled to
france I felt that I had gained little by studying
french.
Later again I took part in some
french conversation evenings with native
french speakers, and native
english speakers who spoke
french as a second language (many not very well). I understood quite a bit of what was said by the native
english speakers, perhaps because of the
australian accents, but didn't initially understand much of what was said by the native
french speakers.
Over the weeks I did start to understand and hear
french sounds and words. And I began to understand more and more, although I spoke little in those sessions.
Finally I studied
french, in
france. I completed a two-week immersion program in beginners
french, with the Alliance Francaise, and lived in home-stay accommodation with a
french woman and another student who was
italian. Most conversation at home was in
french.
The classes were conducted in
french. The class was made up of native speakers of
japanese, Korean,
thai, Russian, German and one
english speaker, me. Most of the students were university
french students who had good grammar knowledge but little experience with speaking the language.
The
teacher spoke fluent
english, but refused, except in rare circumstances, to speak to me in
english. I was envious of the
japanese girls because they helped each other in
japanese.
For the first couple of days I hardly understood a word that was said. I didn't even understand how to complete most of the exercises. By the end of the first week I understood enough of what was being said to begin to feel I could participate in the class. By the end of two weeks I could understand quite a lot of what was said not only in the classes but also in the supermarket and on the street. I completed all of the exercises, and the homework, without too much trouble. It was very difficult, but it worked.
I think it could have been done better. I think the
teacher should have explained the exercises more clearly, by showing examples on the board. She was enormously creative in her explanations, hand gestures, movement, charades and imitations - something that I will take with me into my teaching.
I have used the same principle teaching
english in
spain - native
english speakers and Spaniards lived together for a week. We spoke only
english from breakfast through all meals with a variety of activities in between. The students
english improved dramatically.
As a result of my own language experience I have an understanding of different methods of teaching and an understanding, from both a student's and
teacher's perspective, of the difficulties of learning a language. I feel this will help me to relate to students, and to be a sympathetic and caring
teacher.