Strengthening English-speaking students’ second-language communication skills through experiential learning

What motivated me to start research on experiential learning in French as Second Language classes?

Let me start by clarifying that before my role as an education researcher, I am first and foremost a teacher of French as a second language (FSL) in the English-language CEGEP sector. I started there about fifteen years ago with a burning desire to share my passion for learning languages and cultures with my students.

From my earliest in-class experiences, I was confronted with a lack of motivation, and even a certain resistance among my students to improving their French – a language that they often considered too difficult, and more importantly, as an imposition. Intrigued by this reaction, and in cooperation with a colleague who shared similar experiences, I decided to explore the underlying reasons for English-speaking students’ limited interest in learning French, even though they recognized that the language was important for their social and professional development.

The study, entitled Perceptions et motivation à l’égard du français langue seconde (Gagné & Popica, 2017) and conducted with over a thousand students at English-language CEGEPs, identified a low level of motivation for learning French as a second language. A third of the respondents even said they had been resistant to learning French because of its required status. The interviews and group discussions revealed other factors contributing to this resistance: the political context, linguistic anxiety exacerbated by a demanding Francophone environment, unexciting teaching methods, peer influence, etc. The study also identified negative attitudes towards the French-speaking community and its language. However, the study revealed that the more friendships Anglophone youth form with Francophones, the more their motivation to learn FLS increases, the better their attitudes are towards the Francophone community, and the less resistance there is to learning the language.

These discoveries clashed with my unshakable conviction that languages were a bridge between people from different cultures, and they lit a spark in me.

To face the challenges of the present and the future, and to prepare us to live in a society rich in both cultures and possibilities, living together in a multilingual and multicultural society like ours requires the ability to learn together and act together. In this spirit, it is essential to acquire a deep understanding of the language and culture of the other.

The second essential question that I asked myself was: How can we kindle students’ desire to learn French as a second language, bypassing the challenge of imposed requirements and offering them an opportunity to meet the other face to face?

Part of the answer was given to me by a student during a museum outing, followed by a theatre performance in French: “We learn more when we get out of the classroom.”

And indeed, while verbal communication in a second language to meet functional needs can be successfully learned in the classroom, a true meeting with the other requires skills far beyond mere verbal expression. These skills can only be acquired through direct experience with otherness. It is therefore essential to proceed “from the primacy of experience and the search for deeper personal investment […] to design concrete activities aimed at facilitating ways to approach the other” (Beacco, 2018, p. 49).

It was with this perspective in mind that I developed multiple pedagogical tools for experiential learning in FLS classes, studying their impact on students’ motivation to learn the language and on their attitudes towards the Francophone community.

I will mention two of these tools here:

One was implemented at John Abbott College in 2017-2018 and has undergone continuous improvement since then. It consists of a French course based on the approach of learning through community involvement, during which students, whose French is at the intermediate level, are immersed in the community (schools, facilities of the Montreal West Island CIUSS, etc.) where they provide services in French for three hours a week over a period of 10 weeks. This approach encourages students to engage in interpersonal relationships with Francophones by performing tasks that strengthen their language and intercultural skills, as well as their sense of belonging within the community.

A second tool was developed in the fall of 2023 in partnership with the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. It consists of a French course in which we explore the pedagogical potential of theatre practice in and outside of class, with the goal of encouraging students to express themselves in a playful, friendly and exciting environment where creativity is at centre stage. In this way, I hope to encourage the development of self-confidence, an essential ingredient in second-language practice, while also facilitating students’ interactions with Quebec culture.

In conclusion, my research process emerged from my experience as a teacher in Quebec’s English-language CEGEP sector. My primary goal is to explore solutions to awaken students’ enthusiasm for learning French, often perceived as an arduous and restrictive process. Based on my firm belief that languages can act as bridges between individuals from diverse cultures, I have developed pedagogical tools for experiential learning to give my students the opportunity to live and experience otherness in real time. My ultimate objective is to transform the process of learning French into an enriching experience that encourages interactions in a second language and the development of intercultural skills, while also strengthening students’ sense of living together within our multicultural society.

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References: 

Beacco, J.C. (2018). L’altérité en classe de langue. Pour une méthodologie éducative. Paris: Didier.

Gagné, P. & Popica, M. (2017). Perceptions et motivation à l’égard du français langue seconde enseigné au Québec. Montréal: Vanier Press. URL:
eduq.info/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11515/34764/784777-gagne-popica-perceptions-motivation-cegepiens-fls-vanier-john-abbott-PAREA-2017.pdf