bienvenue dans le monde francophone

As you can see from the above statement of inquiry, my French Phase 1-2 students have been investigating how different messages are structures in order to convey meaning. The cultural focus throughout this unit were case studies of the old district of Lyon and the city of Quebec.  To introduce the unit the students watched this video about Lyon and were able to answer simple comprehension questions about the video by applying their already extensive knowledge of vocabulary related to the topic of town.

After becoming familiar with places and culture unique to Lyon such as the traboules and bouchons, we looked at the text from page 14 of Le Mag 2 to identify the structure and types of language used in a persuasive text such as a brochure or poster, and then we looked at the qualities of a web page using the text on Le Périgord from page 62 of Expo 4 Vert OCR. We practised the following grammatical structures:

• Indefinite vs. definite article: c'est un théâtre vs. c'est le Théâtre Fouvière
• C'est + noun vs. il est + adjective: c'est une cathédrale vs. elle est magnifique
• Position of adjective after the noun: c'est une cathédrale magnifique
• Dictionary skills + adjectives that remain the same for masculine and feminine: moderne, historique
• Dictionary skills + adjectives that add e for feminine: charmant, charmante
• Dictionary skills + adjectives that change completely for masculine and feminine: vieux and vieille, ancien and ancienne
• BANGS + adjectives that are placed before the noun: c'est une belle cathédrale
• Imperative structures in the vous form: visitez, découvrez, ne manquez pas (to see the scavenger hunt activity that I did on the imperative click here).
  

Of course, as we were completing this unit there were high expectations to learn the relevant vocabulary and grammatical structures. The quiz sets that I created on www.quizlet.com are below and here is my post on how to make a Google Form into a Google Quiz.

• https://quizlet.com/257770117/adjectifs-1-flash-cards/
• https://quizlet.com/259200275/adjectifs-2-flash-cards/
• https://quizlet.com/259670630/adjectifs-3-bangs-flash-cards/
• https://quizlet.com/260677501/imperative-commands-in-vous-form-flash-cards/
• https://quizlet.com/261723618/on-peut-infinitve-verb-flash-cards/

With all of this completed, we moved on to look at a case study of Quebec. Although I would have loved for the students to have done individual research of a city or region in a Francophone country, it can be very difficult for them to find relevant specific information that they can simplify down into language that they can communicate effectively. As such, we looked at a case study of Quebec as a class.

This video is a perfect example of how a message can be structured to communicate effectively (see statement of inquiry above) and an excellent opportunity to analyse the conventions of a text:

• a persuasive and poetic introduction to the city of Quebec by the mayor (imperatives and adjectives!)
  
• simple text and change of audio track to reflect the different qualities and characters of the city
• interviews
• beautiful images
• maps and clear locations
• a closing comment and conclusion
  

After watching the video and completing the worksheet, the students did a simple activity matching pictures to the place names. The students were encouraged to search these places up online to learn more about them.

Finally the students were ready to prepare their persuasive text about Quebec City that they would write in exam conditions. Below you can see the task that there were given along with the checklist of things to include:

Here are some examples of the written work produced at the time of the in-class assessment.