French as a Second Language

Correlations NCFS & Provincial Guides:Quebec

1. Does the guide refer to the development of an integrated multidimensional curriculum and how are the four major components in teaching a L2 addressed?

There is no mention of the NCFS, or the 4 components explicitly, however, they are addressed indirectly.

The Quebec curriculum explains the basis of the communicative approach, as opposed to the older Grammar-Translation. It is very evident that this curriculum follows the communicative approach.

Language -
(as a means of communication, examples of language functions, language within a context, student control of language learning)

The main emphasis of FLS in Quebec is placed on communication, the primary objective being to develop the students' communication skills to function effectively in a French linguistic community.

However, the attention is placed on the students as opposed to the language itself.

The focuses of the general objectives in French are both linguistic and cultural.

The schools must ensure that they students are capable of using the language in a variety of activities.

It is very important that the language studied takes place in real-life contexts.

The teacher should encourage the pupil to take advantage of the learning opportunities in the environment, by exposing the child not to the minimum linguistic content of this program but also to the language as a whole.

The teacher must tolerate phonological and syntactical errors if they do not interfere with communication.

Communicative/experiential learning -
(working by themes/fields of experience in a student-centred approach based on the physical, social, civil, leisure and intellectual domains; lessons developed with pre-activity, activity, and post-activity stages; post-activity stage highlighting student reflection and feedback)

The students are able to develop affective and social values and develop a sense of a social cultural. This is accomplished as the students take a broad interest in the world and people around then as they are enabled to communicate their experiences.

The teacher must integrate into the classroom setting certain elements characteristic of the language acquisition process as it occurs in a natural environment.

Speaks a lot about authenticity.

Culture -
(larger role for culture teaching, from local to broader understandings, concentration on present realities, links to real people and events relevant to the students)

There is an encouragement of a positive attitude towards the learning of French and toward the people that speak it.

General Language Education -
(encouraging students to engage in higher order thinking process on their language learning through reflection)

There is no mention of strategies.

3. Does it refer to evaluation as an integral part of the learning process encouraging the use of a variety of assessment and evaluation methods?

It is stated that educational evaluations provide the teacher with a set of techniques that will help make the decisions required to ensure the pupil's learning process. Therefore, educational evaluation is integrated into the actual learning process.

Formative evaluations are explained as being a dialogue between teacher and pupil. It is a form of an objective judgment made by the teacher and based on the info and observations compiled in order to make the most appropriate decisions concerning each of the pupils. It also states that formative evaluation makes use of a number of measurement instruments.

Summative evaluation provided a means of informing both teacher and pupil as to the degrees of mastery not of a single objective, but of a set of objectives; this type of evaluation if thus effected at the end of a series of task or learning activities.

5. Does the guide refer to the NCFS, a Model for Implementation, the CASLT Assessment Toolkit documents?

There is no mention of any of these documents.