Copyright by Florence Marie Lemoine 2012 The Report Committee for Florence Marie Lemoine Certifies that this is the approved version of the following report: Using Multimedia to Teach French Language and Culture APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Carl Blyth Elaine Horwitz Using Multimedia to Teach French Language and Culture by Florence Marie Lemoine, B.A. Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin December 2012 Dedication To all French learners, may you have fun along the process of learning this language! Acknowledgements I would like to thank all of you who have made this career switch to French teaching possible, in particular my professors at UT - Dr. Blyth, Dr. Horwitz, Dr. Sardegna, Dr. Pulido, Dr. Schallert, and Dr. Tissières - and all my friends in Foreign Language Education. I also wish to thank my husband Roland and my two sons Théo and Marius for their help and support during the past two years. v Abstract Using Multimedia to Teach French Language and Culture Florence Marie Lemoine, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Carl Blyth In order for the study of French to survive in American higher education, it will be necessary to adopt a pedagogy that motivates learners as well as teaches them both language and culture. I argue that the judicious use of visual materials (film, video and graphic novels) is ideal for this undertaking. I further assert—based upon numerous sources from fields such as Second Language Acquisition, cognitive psychology, anthropology and sociolinguistics--that language and culture are inseparable, and that visual materials provide the necessary context to facilitate the teaching of both. Visual materials present both problems and opportunities. I discuss such difficulties as cognitive overload (i.e., students’ being overwhelmed by too much information in too short a period of time) and suggest practical solutions. I also present criteria for the selection of films, such as appropriateness, learning goals and appeal to US university students. I also show how authentic media such as video can be adapted for all proficiency levels (e.g., assigning beginners’ simple word recognition tasks). In considering graphic vi novels, I suggest a familiar comic strip, Tintin, which is appropriate for beginning to advanced students, and which is likely to appeal to all students, given its American film adaptation. In the appendices, I include applications of the points presented in this report. In the conclusion, I argue that, regardless of the length formal instruction in French, this pedagogy can support practical skills (for example, dealing with people from other cultures) and lifelong learning (for example, staying involved with French culture through the aforementioned media). vii Table of Contents List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... xi Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 - What Do We Teach? ......................................................................................... 3 ACTFL Standards ........................................................................................................ 3 Can We Separate Culture and Language? ................................................................. 4 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis...................................................................................... 6 Languaculture ............................................................................................................ 8 Teaching Culture ........................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 2 – The Importance of Context ............................................................................ 11 Using Authentic Movies ........................................................................................... 11 Defining Culture with Movies .................................................................................. 13 Using Video to Teach Culture .................................................................................. 14 Teaching Stylistic Variation ...................................................................................... 17 Intercultural Competence ....................................................................................... 18 Chapter 3 – Use of Multimedia ......................................................................................... 21 Multimodality .......................................................................................................... 21 The Dual-Coding Theory .......................................................................................... 23 Implications of DCT for Foreign Language Education .............................................. 24 Limitations of Multimedia ....................................................................................... 27 viii Chapter 4 - Implication for the Teaching of French .......................................................... 28 Using Movies in the Foreign Language Classroom .................................................. 28 How to Integrate Movies into French Courses ........................................................ 30 The Fun Factor ......................................................................................................... 31 Input Enhancement ................................................................................................. 32 Focus-on-Form ......................................................................................................... 33 Guided Induction ..................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 5 - Pedagogical Applications ................................................................................ 37 French in Action ....................................................................................................... 37 Courses and Activities for Beginning French ........................................................... 38 French Bandes Dessinées ........................................................................................ 41 Intermediate French Courses .................................................................................. 43 Advanced French Courses ....................................................................................... 45 Cultura ..................................................................................................................... 45 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 48 ix Appendix A ........................................................................................................................ 51 Appendix B......................................................................................................................... 54 Appendix C ......................................................................................................................... 69 Appendix D ........................................................................................................................ 74 Appendix E ......................................................................................................................... 79 Appendix F ......................................................................................................................... 85 Glossary ............................................................................................................................. 95 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 97 Vita ............................................................................................................................... 100 x List of Figures Figure 1 - Blended Learning Methodology. ....................................................................... 22 Figure 2 - DCT Verbal and Nonverbal Systems. ................................................................. 24 Figure 3 - Saussure’s Linguistic Sign. ................................................................................. 25 xi Introduction In this report, I propose ways to teach French as a foreign language with multimedia—films, videos and bandes dessinées [French graphic novels]. Using materials that will attract and motivate students is especially important for those promoting the teaching of French for several reasons: 1) English has become the economic and cultural lingua franca. It is the language of globalization. Even in France and other Francophone countries, proficiency in English is essential to communicate with those speaking other languages. 2) Students in English-speaking countries are less likely to study foreign languages. In the UK, in August, 2011, the BBC1 reported a 22% drop in the numbers of teenagers taking foreign languages at GCSE2 between 2006 and 2011. French enrollments dropped more than those of any other foreign language: the number of French exam entries fell 29% in that short time period. In the US, the situation is quite similar3. 3) Spanish is, by far, the most popular foreign