Lylia Schoepp

Reflection #6
9/28/2017
French

1. How does the teacher use the target language?

a. The Professor used the target language the majority of the class period. She
engaged students in creating the correct verb conjugation with fun texts that are
popular today, and with video guidance sheets that the students filled out while
watching an older French movie.
2. What opportunities are provided for students to communicate in the target language?
a. Students are asked to respond to the Professor in French, and while working in
groups to compare work (which is done often). Not all students would stay in
the target language while working in the small groups, though I did hear some
groups trying to communicate only in French with one another.
3. How are the 5 Cs incorporated into the class? (This may be different at an immersion
school.)
a. Communication was incorporated constantly through the use of classroom
collaboration, student-made videos in French, and the use of authentic
materials.
b. Cultures were incorporated in the lesson through the use of a PowerPoint that
had pictures and brief explanations (that the Professor elaborated on), that
discussed why jazz is/was so popular in France. She then used the authentic
movie to reiterate this point.
c. It was harder for me to see the connections students made because I did not
understand what was being said. The students were connecting what they were
working on with verb conjugations while actively listening and assessing the
actions of the characters in the movie.
d. Comparisons between cultures were made for students during the PowerPoint
through comparison and contrasts of jazz culture in France and the U.S. Again,
language comparisons were hard for me to see but I was able to notice that
when there was a new vocabulary word or when there was confusion about a
word, the Professor would say the word in French, then ask the students what
the word was in English to clear up confusion, before continuing on in French.
e. As I was only in the classroom for one day, I am unsure if the students set goals
for language use in the classroom, or monitor their language levels. I also was
not aware of any interaction that the students had with the community and the
globalized world.
4. How do students get to work on presentation, interpersonal and interpretive
communication?
a. The students were engaged in presentational communication through the video
presentations that they made that were then presented in class.
b. Interpersonal communication was used when students collaborated on the
answers for their activities that went along with the movie. They also were
engaged in interpersonal communication with the Professor when going over the
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Reflection #6
answers for the texts that the students did outside of class. In both activities,
students were negotiating the meaning of the content with one another and
coming to correct conclusions by piecing together what each knew.
c. Students were engaged in interpretive communication when watching the movie
that the Professor had in French. They were listening without asking questions.
5. What is the level of anxiety in the class about students using or understanding the target
language? Why?
a. I did not sense any anxiety by the students in the classroom. I felt as though the
students were engaged and wanted to participate, as many different students
would respond to what the Professor was asking. Even though I dont
understand French, I felt like the students were trying to pronounce the words
properly, and wanted to show the Professor that they could do so.
b. The only time I sensed minor anxiety from students was when a video was being
played of a small group of students from the class reciting something in French
(honestly I was not sure what it was, as I do not speak or understand French).
But I believe that the students were just nervous about hearing their own voices
speak French, as their classmates watched them. This is a common reason to be
embarrassed, therefore, it did not surprise me. The students were reassured
when the Professor complimented them on their pronunciation and fluency in
the video.
6. How does the teacher incorporate error correction?
a. When a student gives an answer to a classroom activity that is incorrect, the
Professor would respond by asking the whole class if the answer was what the
student had said, or another option (which she gives them-this is the right
answer), and facilitates discussion as to why the correct answer is correct.
7. How does the teacher facilitate student comprehension of the target language?
a. The Professor facilitated student comprehension of French by using authentic
materials in the classroom for students to work with to improve their learning of
different pronunciations and verb conjugations.
8. If there are native or heritage speakers in the class, how are their language learning
needs addressed?
a. I was not aware of any heritage French speakers in the class.
9. Does the CT correct pronunciation? What is his/her philosophy about teaching
pronunciation?
a. The Professor did not just give students the answers to assignments right away.
She first asked the whole class what the correct answer was, and when a student
responded, she would reiterate the answer (in this case, verb tense) in French,
so students would hear the correct pronunciation. If she felt a word was
particularly difficult to pronounce, she would slowly pronounce it, then ask the
students to repeat her slowly, then quickly.
10. Additional observations/comments.
a. The only time the Professor used English in her 50-minute class period was to
explain the homework assignment for the following day. I was very impressed
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Reflection #6
by this, as this is only the second year of French for these students (unless they
took it in high-school, which still would have been at least one year ago). The
students also seemed to be understanding what she was saying, even though
she only spoke in French, because they were able to respond, even if it was in
broken French or English.