Developing Advanced Literacy in French: An Integrated Approach to the Grammar & Composition Course AATF 2008 Heather Willis Allen University of Miami

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1 Developing Advanced Literacy in French: An Integrated Approach to the Grammar & Composition Course AATF 2008 Heather Willis Allen University of Miami hallen@miami.edu

2 Overview Introduction -- the advanced undergraduate FL curriculum & a multiple literacies approach Characteristics of a multiple literacies approach Example: Advanced French writing course Example: Sample course module Student responses to the course Conclusions Your questions

3 I. Introduction: Challenges in the advanced undergraduate FL curriculum Overcoming “dubious dichotomies” (Kramsch, 1993) “The language literature dichotomy has been institutionalized in departments of foreign languages and literatures at North American universities... [t]eaching language is consistently viewed as a less sophisticated, hence less difficult task than teaching literature” (p. 7)

4 “Replacing the two-tiered language-literature structure with a broader and more coherent curriculum in which language, culture, and literature are taught as a continuous whole... will reinvigorate language departments as valuable academic units central to the humanities and to the missions of higher education” (MLA, 2007) Issues: Articulating integrated language / content courses 1, Assessing FL development in advanced courses 1. See Berg & Martin-Berg, 2001 ; Byrnes & Sprang, 2004 ; Essif, 2002 ; Fonder-Solano & Burnett, 2004; Kern & Schulz, 2005; Paesani, 2006

5 II. A multiple literacies approach Question 1: What does LITERACY and being LITERATE mean for you? What abilities does it entail? Question 2: What situations, activities, or resources contributed most to the development of your literacy in your L1? What about in your FL? *please jot down your answers on your handout*

6 Defining literacy the use of socially-, historically-, and culturally-situated practices of creating and interpreting meaning through texts. It entails at least a tacit awareness of the relationships between textual conventions and their contexts of use and, ideally, the ability to reflect critically on those relationships... literacy is dynamic—not static—and variable across and within discourse communities and cultures (Kern, 2000, p. 16)

7 What does it mean to be literate? (1) i googled it posted it on my blog and then i IM’d my friends (Kern, 2006) -> literacy is anchored by time, context

8 What does it mean to be literate? (2) RépublicainLibéral La France qui se lève tôtLes people / pipole excerpts: “A French political lexicon for non-Francophones” -> literacy is tied to sociocultural uses of language in a given society (Kern, 2000)

9 What does it mean to be literate? (3) -> the ability to make meaning from a text depends on understanding much more than the words or the images...

10 Characteristics of a multiple literacies approach to FL teaching text-centered reading, writing as linguistic, cognitive, & social processes for designing meaning not skills for transferring information focus on integrative abilities rather than discrete skills focus on participation / engagement rather than acquisition

11 Designing meaning “We propose to treat any semiotic activity, including using language to produce or consume texts, as a matter of Design involving three elements: Available Designs, Designing, and The Redesigned” (The New London Group, 1996, pp. 73-74) Available Designs: L1 & FL linguistic & schematic resources Learning a FL involves both deploying existent Available Designs & learning new ones specific to the FL

12 A pedagogy of multiple literacies situated practice overt instruction critical framing transformed practice “[P]edagogy is a complex integration of four factors: Situated Practice based on the world of learners’ Designed & Designing experiences; Overt Instruction through which students shape for themselves an explicit metalanguage of Design; Critical Framing which relates meanings to their social contexts & purposes; and Transformed Practice in which students transfer & re-create Designs of meaning from one context to another” (New London Group,1996, p. 83)

13 Multiple literacies & FL writing Dominant approaches to FL writing instruction: product-, process-, genre-based Advantages & limitations of a process-based approach Characteristics of a genre-based approach: Writing as apprenticeship, focus on rhetorical “moves” considered appropriate in a given genre, focus on the social context / discourse community rather than the individual

14 III. An integrated approach to the advanced French writing course Context Course objectives Course materials M1 M2 M3 M4 l’art de la l’art de la la manipulation l’art de la description observation linguistique narration

15 Module organization Analyse des textes -> critical framing, situated practice Introduction à l’auteur et son contexte culturel -> critical framing Outils linguistiques -> situated practice, overt instruction Atelier d’écriture / brainstorming -> situated practice / transformed practice Première version du texte -> situated pratice / transformed practice Session de peer review -> overt insruction / situated practice Conférences individuelles -> overt instruction Deuxième version du texte -> situated practice / transformed practice Table ronde -> situated practice

16 IV. Sample module Materials: “Petites pratiques germanopratines,” “Le fait du jour” (Anna Gavalda, Je veux que quelqu’un m’attende quelque part) semaine 1introduction à l’auteur & analyse des textes outils linguistiques semaine 2atelier d’écriture 1version 1 du texte & session de peer-review semaine 3conférences individuellesatelier d’écriture 2 semaine 4version 2 du texte, session de peer-review version finale du texte &table ronde

17 Step 1: Introduction to the genre & author Materials: Interview with Gavalda (Muze), biographical information on Gavalda (Lire) Activity 1: Activating students’ existing knowledge about the genre of short stories (Qu’est-ce qu’une nouvelle? En quoi peut-on distinguer la nouvelle du roman?) Activity 2: Short presentation on Gavalda

18 Step 2: Immersion in genre through textual comparison Materials: the two short stories Activity 1 (at home): reading and analysis of texts Activity 2: échange des informations (S S) Activity 3: comparaison des textes (Ss Ss) –le conflit –l’intrigue –l’ordre du récit –le dénouement Activity 4: discussion des “aspects des deux textes qui vous intéressent le plus”

19 Examples: Student discussion questions Pourquoi est le sonne du portable au premier texte important a la femme ? - E Qu’est-ce qu’il cherche dans les journaux et les nouvelles sur la télévision après l’accident? -R Il me semble que les femmes que nous avons étudiées (Annie Ernaux et Ana Gavalda) s’intéresse dans la société en générale, la vie quotidienne, et la frontière entre la personnel et la publique. Qu’est-ce qu’il y a de similaire entre les deux écrivaines? - D à votre avis, quelle est la raison par laquelle l’auteur demeure assez vague dans la conclusion de chacune des nouvelles? - A

20 Step 3: Development of a metalanguage for meaning design Materials: the two short stories, lexicon for cultural terms Activity 1 (at home): stylistic and linguistic analysis of the two texts Activity 2: échange des informations (S S) Activity 3: discussion of key stylistic techniques & effects produced ex. énumération: “Je travaille, je réponds au téléphone, j’envoie des fax, je termine une maquette” vs. scène descriptive of 45 lines Activity 4: discussion of key elements of a “Gavaldesque” short story

21 Step 4: Creating a new text-- pre writing activities Activity 1 (at home): pre-writing--idea map –content only Activity 2: exchange of ideas, suggestions (S S, S Ss) Activity 3: continued elaboration of idea map –content + linguistic / stylistic elements Activity 4: writing the first paragraph, version 1.0 + 2.0

22 Step 4: Drafting & peer review Draft of text (at home) Activity 1a: Partnered peer review -- preparation –each partner completes a short self-evaluation of his draft including a list of difficulties he/she has encountered and two questions he/she would like his partner to address. In addition, each person circles the section of the text they like the most and underlines the section they dislike the most. they then read and evaluate their partner’s text using a similar form. Activity 1b: Partnered peer review -- exchange of ideas Activity 2: Round table -- sharing problems, questions, ideas in groups of 4-6 people

23 Step 4: Conferencing, revising, presenting Individual conferences with the professor Revision and refinement of the first draft Peer review session 2 (are all the essential elements included?) Round table –Each student presents an excerpt of his or her text –Students make comments on their colleagues’ texts & how they have developed over the course of the module

24 Student self evaluations il était plus facile à utiliser le style d’un auteur au lieu de commencer à zéro. - J je me suis rendue compte qu’il est tellement important de déconstruire un texte pour le comprendre. La lecture et l’écriture marche à l’ensemble pour aide l’écrivain à faire le meilleur texte possible. - D je peux écrire plus abstraitement et ou même temps plus concrètement. - E maintenant quand je lis quelque chose, je remarque toujours des figures stylistiques qu’avant je ne connaissais pas. - C il y a beaucoup de manières de dire une seule chose. - D avant j’écrivais seulement pour moi et pas pour les lecteurs... un bon auteur ne peux pas écrire sans penser à ses lecteurs. - B j’avais l’opportunité d’être auteur et lecteur. quelquefois il y a des choses qu’on ne peut pas voir dans notre propre travail, mais on peut l’identifier dans le travail de quelqu’un d’autre. - V

25 Conclusions Using a genre-based, multiple literacies approach to this course facilitated a number of outcomes: 1.Students better understood form-meaning connections, i.e., why certain Available Designs are used in certain genres. 2.Students learned to function as a discourse community and to mutually support each other in the writing and revising process--they weren’t just writing and being corrected by the professor. 3.Learning new Available Designs allowed students to play with language and further develop their own writerly voices.