CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN FSL ON THE PATH TO CHANGE AT GLENDON FORUM ON IMMERSION, OTTAWA Françoise Mougeon Interim Director, Centre for Studies in French Glendon College Glendon College is a bilingual Liberal Arts Faculty of York University, in Toronto, established in 1967. All students have to achieve a second year level competence in their second official language (French for most) in order to graduate with a BA or iBA, either through taking language courses or by successfully completing a discipline course in their second language. Most students acquire French through formal instruction in FSL classes. Forum on Immersion, Ottawa FSL PROGRAM AND CHALLENGES From the present stage to a different future Current practices to meet the College requirements Critical look on current practices by concerned participants Suggested and forthcoming changes Forum on Immersion, Ottawa HOW DO THEY LEARN? In class: mainly formal French, no direct exposition to informal speech Many do not link French with their major area of study, and lack confidence to engage in taking a course taught in French, fearing poor grades. Attendance in courses taught in French is low. Some make personal commitments to learn French through experience, but mostly in their third or fourth year. A few take advantage of opportunities to use French on campus. Some attend immersion Summer sessions in Québec or Explore Forum on Immersion, Ottawa HOW ARE THEY TAUGHT? More and more students have no previous knowledge of French. Those who attended Ontario high schools stopped taking French after grade 9 or 10 and have to start again from the basics. Communicative approach but mostly based on grammatical progression, targeting four skills. No task-based approach to teaching. Testing practices focus on the knowledge of discrete points of the grammar and lexicon and is not discourse-based No meaningful integration of discipline-related content and language. Low relevance with the discipline chosen as a major. Forum on Immersion, Ottawa STUDENTS COMMENTS My experiences with FRLS at Glendon illustrate some of the problems with the program. I came to Glendon starting at the elementary French level. In FRLS 1510, I began to receive . The marking scheme was not appropriate to second language learners. Penalising 1 percentage point for every accent not included (and removing 1 percentage point for the same mistake every time it was repeated throughout the evaluation). I decided to drop the class and take a sociology class in French. I received an 'A' in the sociology class. To me, this demonstrates that the FRLS program is not sufficiently evaluating students ability to effectively read and communicate in French. Is it attempting to create or grammar experts? Forum on Immersion, Ottawa Students perceptions research paper (2011):main themes Unmet expectations regarding bilingualism at Glendon Need to connect formal and naturalistic extracurricular learning and use of French Satisfy the L2 disciplinary courses is a challenge Program coherence issues Teachers unaware of students needs Weak student motivation. False perceptions Lack of meaningful learning opportunities in current program resulting in poor confidence Forum on Immersion, Ottawa Enrolment in courses taught in 2010-11 data French Increase enrolment Increase need for Growth of L2 students in courses in French courses taught in •Better offer triggers •More variety more L1 and L2 French students Forum on Immersion, Ottawa Knowing oneself and objectives Experiential Using learning of effective informal language variety Globalized strategies language transfer classroom Content learning of relevant to formal variety discipline Academic major French Forum on Immersion, Ottawa Working CHALLENGES FOR A NEW toward a new model MODEL current proje (2011) (201 Time-bound Task-ori Not specific Discipline- Not realistic Language use an Not measurable Adapted tes Forum on Immersion, Ottawa New Plan Bringing change… 2014 Testing what really matters Integrating experiential learning Applying academic literacy to discipline-oriented tasks A new task-based curriculum Raising language learners’’awareness Today… Forum on Immersion, Ottawa Knowing oneself and objectiv es Experien Using tial effective learning languag of e informal Globalized strategie variety language s transfer classroo PREDICTABLE IMPACTS OF CHANGE m Content learning relevant of to formal disciplin variety e major academi c French Curriculum (partially) revisited. This may impact on the general placement and the various levels in the program. So will the intensified pace of learning (ideally 12 months in first year). Student motivation level and retention expected to increase. Motivation maintained and raised through better understanding of the learning process by students New more relevant placement test. This is expected to impact on student confidence in their acievement potential and in turn engage them more actively in taking disciplinary courses in their L2 Sustainability plan needed Evaluation scheme to be developed to assess the efficiency of the new model. Françoise Mougeon Directrice intérimaire Centre pour les études en français Collège Glendon, 2275, avenue Bayview Toronto, M4N 3M6 416-736-2100 (poste 88333) Forum on Immersion, Ottawa.