reflection 5: the chillins
my fifth blog: school visit with the chillins
To preface, my Dad calls children chillens, and since being home for Thanksgiving, I have taken on some of his lingo.
Last wednesday, I visited, along with five others, Belgo Elementary, a French Immersion school. I thought that was so interesting and such a good contrast between the high school visits, and my faith in teaching French was restored. These little children knew french songs and dances, and they seemed to actually enjoy learning the language. I asked a student in Grade 6 if they had to speak in French in class, and he responded with a “pourquoi pas?” we LIKE to speak in French, and we are good at it. After this response, I turned to one of the other student teachers and said “ah they have attitude in French too”. But truthfully, I think that this FI programme is awesome, and really wish I had the opportunity to have been in that sort of school too.
One of the things that seems so backwards about the french immersion school system is that there is an increasing demand for these programmes but it is so hard to get a student into them. And then even, students grow up asking why am I learning this, there is NO ONE french here to speak with. We were having a discussion about this in another class and our prof explained to us that it is all about relevancy: how much can we use such and such a language in our communities?
I grew up in a rural town where Russian Immersion is available (and very popular) from kindergarten to Grade 6. I always saw the validity in the programme. Although I was not in the programme (no russian grandparents, unfortunately) I was able to benefit from it by learning words that I could use to speak with my friends babas and dyetas. In addition, the town 20 minutes away has a very alive Italian culture: you can buy Italian wines, hear Italian in the Italian grocery store, eat Italian foods and it even looks a bit like Italy. Unfortunately, this town was denied an Italian immersion programme. They do have French Immersion though. I wonder how laughable it is for the parents and grandparents when the children, in a single day have to switch from their native English to French to Italian, learning none of them proficiently.
I sort of lost my train of thought, but what I have learned from being in the school system and learning more and more about it, is that in BC teaching French will be difficult, and I am going to have to realize for myself the validity of learning one language over another in this part of Canada. I definately enjoy speaking French and I think it is very important to learn another language no matter where you live, but I can understand why people in this part of Canada have a hard time accepting the French Immersion programme.
Anyhow, the school visits were very good, the children were so receptive to having us in their classrooms, and the teachers incorporated us either to read or help her with some tasks. Some teachers took us aside and showed us some of the texts etc that they use to teach their classes, and the rationale behind their use. Overall, I think that this visit will help us to understand students in the FI programmes at a higher level much better.
