LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND PEDAGOGY: A STUDENT TEACHER COURSE IN FRENCH

Known for its avant-garde approach to education, Bennington College (Vermont, USA) has offered for almost a decade an innovative program for French and Spanish teachers, the Master's in the Art of Teaching a Second Language. This session deals with "Experience et Analyse", one of the main courses offered to French student teachers. This content-based course combines the study of three subjects: language, culture and pedagogy as reflected from the translated titles of courses offered between 2002 and 2008 : "Understanding Hugo's Les Miserables", "Francophone identities in question(s) and evaluation", "The mind and the Enlightenment". Student teachers model their own learning philosophy through concrete innovative learning experiences that include technology projects, object-based cultural explorations, and peripatetic "promenades" on campus. Over the years, our student teachers have proven to broaden significantly their critical perspectives on French literature, cinema, and culture but have also demonstrated an impressive ability to apply in their own classes the most significant findings in Second Language Acquisition. The presenter will give examples and provide hand-outs.