The following is an interview with French instructor Maud Maillard about a project she directed between two French classes and of the newly invented French and Spanish tables.
Q: What does your project consist of?
A: The project consisted, for the French 3 Honors, of creating a survey in French for our Francophone/phile students, asking them about their tastes and life in general.
After they answered it, the French AP class collected the answers of
the four French students, who were interviewed, and wrote an article like a journalist.
The best article was selected in agreement with the French AP class, published in its original version and retranslated in English by my great student Jacqueline Berci.
Q: How did you come up with this project?
A: I was so excited with the AP results of my students last year and also by the arrival of new Francophone students (Rose, Theo). I wanted to have them integrated in our school and know more about them through this project.
I also wanted my French learners to collaborate at two different levels (French 3H and AP) and interact with French speakers.
They used their French to create the survey and interview and write the article, so the project had a social and linguistic purpose.
Q: How do you think this project helped the students?
A: It helped the students realize how to use French in a collaborative project while learning about peers from abroad. I really think Laguna Blanca is taking the path of becoming a global school.
By teaching at UCSB, I see how much being trilingual even polyglot
will be more and more important in the future, since we have foreign students who already know how to speak two to three languages and most of them want to start a life in the U.S.
As a language teacher, my mission is also to emphasize the importance of languages and not only mine!
I am always trying to make my stu- dents aware of this aspect and to make them open-minded.
Speaking languages makes you a more intelligent person according to science studies! I am from Europe, and, there, people feel more like global participants. I try to introduce this notion here.
Q: What is your opinion of the French Table?
A: The French table is a great innovation! My students review/learn from our wonderful native tutors and AP
students. They are on a mission on both sides. I think they have fun being with students of their age and working together.
I love putting my students in pairs or in groups because I want them to experience the use of communication. I believe a lot in the fact that our stu- dents learn more from each other than they do from the interaction with the teacher. Why? Because they approach the learning in the same way, and so my tutors might have better answers than me, actually! They might replace me at some point. Just kidding!
With the help of instructors Maud Maillard, Arturo Flores and SheriAnn Simpson, French and Spanish-speaking students have created the ‘French and Spanish tables.’ This peer-to-peer tutoring was created to make an “opportunity for peers to collaborate in a new language or even discuss culture in English,” Simpson said.