Communicative teaching of French in upper secondary education and the improvement of pupils' interactive speaking proficiency through peer feedback

Abstract

Language teachers experience great difficulties in stimulating their students to speak the target language. In the Netherlands, this is certainly the case for French. Much time and energy are needed from the part of the teachers in order to engage their students in interactive speaking learning situations in which the target language is practised. From all the second language acquisition (SLL-) theories we know that exposure to comprehensible input and the production of messages in interaction are necessary for any language speaking learning to take place. Moreover, cognitive learning theories suggest that thinking about and reflecting on second language learning processes are important facilitators for the improvement of speaking proficiency. In addition, learners need feedback on their performances while learning the language and using it in different situations. All these different perspectives and insights have to be taken into account when teaching a language. In order to develop the pupils’ interactive speaking proficiency, a wide range of complementary activities is needed. In the newly designed experimental curriculum for the improvement of French speaking proficiency, we made use of different forms of feedback given by the students themselves based on observing each other during the speaking assignments. In designing our curriculum we made use of new insights suggested by the educational theories on task-based and cooperative learning. We are focusing on students of 16/17 years old, in upper secondary education (level A2), learning French as a foreign language with the help of a curriculum consisting of:  interactive and communicative speaking activities, based on:  a fixed format in which pupils, in groups of three, alternating execute the roles of interlocutor and observer;  use of a rubric which has been developed in order to support the process of giving feedback by the observers.