Page 39 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 to 12: French as a Second Language – Core, Extended, and Immersion, 2014

As facilitator, the teacher selects the communicative situation, models the effective use of language, and plans activities to enable students to continually develop their communication skills in various contexts.
By providing guidance to students as they carry out practice activities and work on tasks and projects, teachers also assume the role of coach. Teachers coach, for example, when they guide a group in a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of learning another language or when they model sentence structure and fluency while speaking with students.
Well-designed lessons include a variety of instructional strategies, such as structured simulations, guided inquiry, cooperative learning, and open-ended questions. Teachers should conduct frequent comprehension checks to ensure that students understand the information being conveyed, including both general concepts and specific vocabulary. Teachers can use various tools, such as body language, gestures, and auditory or visual supports, to support student comprehension. Teachers should encourage students to develop their self-expression in and spontaneous use of French, eliciting talk that increases in fluency, accuracy, and complexity over time. Teachers should also model a variety of strategies that students can use for requesting clarification and assistance when they have difficulty understanding.
As stated earlier, it is essential that French be the language of communication in class
so that students have constant exposure to correct models of the language and many opportunities to speak in French. To help students improve their ability to interact in class, teachers can:
• use a deliberate pace while speaking French to ensure maximum understanding, explaining explicitly and in various ways to address the needs of all learners;
• give clear instructions by providing them orally and in writing, taking care to meet individual needs (e.g., numbering and labelling the steps in an activity);
• present information in smaller, more manageable pieces;
• check often for comprehension using a variety of tools (e.g., thumbs up, thumbs down);
• allow sufficient response time when students are interacting in French;
• use a variety of strategies to selectively correct students’ errors in speaking and writing;
• offer ongoing descriptive feedback so that students are aware of which areas need improvement;
• scaffold and observe independent practice, ensuring that all students are able to communicate in French in both familiar and new contexts.
Teachers can employ a variety of instructional strategies to support French language learners in their acquisition of French. For example, teachers can:
• design meaningful lessons and activities that are achievable by students and that take into account their background knowledge and experiences;
• provide frequent opportunities for collaboration and practice in pairs, small groups, and large groups;
• provide targeted instruction for students during shared or guided practice, in which they lead students to explore texts or concepts;
SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR PROGRAM PLANNING IN FRENCH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
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