Adapting and Writing Language Lessons/Appendix L
APPENDIX L
NCOMPLETE MATERIALS FOR DISCUSSION (FRENCH)
With two exceptions, the appendices in this report are intended to be, on some scale, complete illustrations of points that were made in the chapters that they follow. It is hoped that they will provoke some discussion, but they do not demand it. This appendix and Appendix F, however, are deliberately incomplete. Instead of suggesting answers, they raise questions.
Material for this appendix is drawn from materials prepared at the Virgin Islands Training Center of the Peace Corps, under the direction of Allen Brooks, in late 1970. The starting point for this series of problems is an exchange sequence of six lines, which the student might meet after perhaps 50-100 hours of study:
| Qu'est-ce que c'est? | What is this? |
| C'est la suspension. | It's the suspension. |
| Où est la suspension? | Where is the suspension? |
| La suspension est fixée au chassis. | The suspension is attached to the chassis. |
| Quelle est la fonction de la suspension? | What is the function of the suspension? |
| La suspension est pour absorber les chocs. | The suspension is for absorbing the bumps. |
1. To what degree would this exchange sequence have 'strength' (Chapter 3, p. 46) for:
a. Adult students already familiar with automobile mechanics in their own language, who plan to teach that subject in French?
b. Adult trainees who know little about auto mechanics, but who will need a knowledge of it in their future work?
c. Junior high school boys with an interest in mechanical things?
2. The sequence obviously calls for use of visual aids. What would be the advantages and the disadvantages of two-dimensional aids (diagrams, etc.) and three dimensional aids (models, or an actual car)?
3. What 'payoffs' (p.23ff) might this exchange provide, either practical or psychological?
4. Are any parts of the exchange prohibitively 'heavy' (p. 47) or 'opaque' (P. 48)?
The object of the game in writing a lesson that will include this exchange sequence is to find ways of increasing the payoffs, or strength, with a smaller increase in weight and opacity. In the materials from which this example is taken, parallel sequences cover the names, locations and purposes of a chain of items: the axles are attached to the suspension, the brakes and the wheels to the axles, and the tires to the wheels. A total of five substitution tables provide some of the routine vocabulary needed for talking about these parts of a car. They may be summarized as follows:
A. Qu'est-ce que c'est?
B.
| C‘ | est | le chassis | chassis |
| Ce | sont | la suspension | suspension |
| l'essieu avant | front axle | ||
| l'essieu arriere | rear axle | ||
| les roues | wheels | ||
| les freins | brakes |
C.
| Où | est | la suspension? |
| sont | l'essieu avant | |
| etc. |
D.
| La suspension | est | fixé(e)(s) | au | chassis. |
| Les roues | sont | a la | suspension | |
| etc | aux | essieux |
E.
| Quelle est la fonction | de la | suspension? |
| du | chassis | |
| des | roux | |
| etc. |
F.
| La suspension | est | pour | absorber les chocs. |
| etc. | sont | fixer les roux a la suspension | |
| rouler | |||
| arréter le véhicule |
The possibility of talking about five (literally) interconnected sub-topics more than quintuples the strength of the original exchange sequence.
5.Or does it??
At the same time, the 16-word vocabulary of the first sequence has been increased to only 25, an increase of only. 50 %, and the structural additions are either nil or very slight, depending on one's point of view.
6. How would the above exchange sequence have to be modified in order to incorporate basic facts about
(a) mechanic's tools?
(b) kitchen utensils?
(c) equipment used in stamp collecting?
7. In the following drill, the cue words are underlined. What is the purpose of the drill?
| C'est | le chassis. |
| C'est | la suspension. |
| C'est | l'essieu arrière. |
| C'est | la fonction du chassis. etc. |
8. Given the material quoted above, and given the desirability of 'drilling the negative,' what would be two ways of writing such a drill?
What circumstances--or what theoretical convictions-would make one of these ways preferable to the other?
What would be two ways of administering each drill in class?
What circumstances--or what theoretical convictions--would make one of these ways preferable to the other?
9. The correct placement of object pronouns causes trouble for most students of French. HOW, principally within the vocabulary of the above example, could students be led to improve their speed and accuracy in the use of this feature of the language?
10. Write another exchange sequence, in French or in some other language, which would reflect other basic facts on this or some other topic.