french films: pre-texts for teaching syntax

1 In a Class by Itself

French Films: Pre-Texts for Teaching Syntax

Marie-Jo Arey Gettysburg College

ABSTMCF Many language professors agree that we have to find a radically different way to teach grammar if it is to be taught at all. This paper presents and comments on an experiment that was started at Gettysburg College in 1989. Using a proficiency based approach, this come uses films as texts, that provide a cultural, visual and linguistic context in which the class functions. Various actioities are organized around two films every semester; before the viewing, during and afterwards. This article also explains the articulation and purpose of such an organization by themes and units where the students’ personal experiences meet French culture from within. Challenged in this way, students enjoy the creative experience of learning while they do not always notice the skill they are acquiring in French grammar.

From time to time, the question arises: Should we teach grammar? During one of those depart- mental meetings full of questions without answers, two of us were requested by our colleagues to design a new grammar course. The resulting new course has been taught here since 1989.

Challenge and Review of Previous Literature

We agreed that the greatest problem was to find a way to have students spontaneously motivated. We decided that they had to be immersed in a context as naturally as possible. A French film could be that context.

There is a substantial amount of research done on the use of video and TV in the classroom. Much less has been done about the use of film in the foreign language class. Manning and other specialists “call for the integration of sensory visual and oral language alongside print language in language teaching and suggest that the new technologies can provide this integration” (6, p. 455). Most studies dealing with “film in the

Murie-JoArey(Ph.D., Duke University) is Assistant Professor of French at Cettysburg College, Cettysburg, PA.

classroom” try to fight off two major reception and practice difficulties. On the one hand, in too many learning institutions, film has not yet reached the respectable status of literature. On the other hand, and maybe as a result of such discrimination, film has been considered quite often as a reward or mere pastime to be shown before vacations or after exams. In a proficiency-oriented classroom, as well as in any diligent teaching and in any well made film or book, each activity, image or word counts, and has its particular reason to be, and to be where it is placed. The studies dealing most closely with our idea are the ones where film is the very text of the course. According to Carrity: “For teaching foreign languages, there are at least two approaches to film use: 1) teaching discrete points of grammar and 2) teaching language globally for proficiency” (3, p.8). Carrity’s book provides many specific creative activities designed around films as texts: .!Argent de poche, La Crande illusion, La Belle et la b2te, Jeux interdits, La Boum, Diva, and films from Quebec: Le Chandail, La Vie heureuse de Lkopold Z and Mon Oncle Antoine. Lesson plans are written out in great detail for La Grande illusion. Carrity also offers suggestions about the use of films made from comic strips (Les Daltons, Lucky Luke,

Foreign Language Annals, 26, No. 2 , 1993

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - SUMMER 1993

and Asferix). The lesson plans and suggestions follow excellent guidelines for explication de texfes applied to visuals and point out grammar questions with specific exercises springing from the movie itself.

Another very interesting study is the article by William Costanzo: “Film as Composition” (1). A film study can provide literal visualization of the composition process. As students learn about “montage,” says Costanzo, they will be more aware of the organization of a written vs. image text. Recogniz- ing along with most scholars, that “the power of images has never been greater,” the author offers a new insight: “It now appears that the act of writing involves more visual thinking than we recognized in traditional composition classes” (1, p. 86).

A third relevant aspect for the presence of foreign film in the foreign language class is its humanistic and cultural dimension as noted by Elgabri (2), Carrity (3), Lacey (4), Lonergan (5), and Manning (6). It is well in line with contextuaVproficiency teaching to immerse students into a visual experience that brings them in contact with all aspects of a culture. Besides language, the film presents the very physical and spiritual environment in which particular characters behave, feel, or react in ways that our students are going to interpret as familiar or unfamiliar. Wondering is the beginning of learning.

There is research, experimentation, and evidence that using film as text in the French classroom has great potential. Particularly, it appears that a grammar course designed to utilize films should be tried out and that it would offer several advantages. An obvious one is to remove the words “grammar,” “grammar course,” and “composition course” from their set of negative con- notations. Another advantage is that, providing a context, a carefully designed course can be an excellent response to the demands of teaching syntax, grammatical forms and the parts of speech in accordance with the contextual proficiency teaching approaches. From this advantage derives a great number of others: more chances of success, and an understanding of a language within its very soil and life, to name but a few.

The Experiment: Setting and Purpose Two basic principles guided our experiment at

Gettysburg College: 1. Students learn best what they discover

themselves, teach themselves and then share with each other.

2. Students, like most people, assimilate a whole language (with its syntax) when plunged into a “cultural bath.” It was also agreed that our goal would be to have our “advanced” students (in their third year of French at the college level) able to write and speak using proper moods, tenses and pronouns. Films, along with extra texts and exercises, would provide ample vocabulary and idiomatic experience. Students in their third year have already formally studied most grammatical structures in their first year, and have reviewed them in their second year. In this Advanced Grammar Course, also called Composition/Conversation, students are to refine and practice their knowledge of the most important grammatical structures. For that reason, we decided to concentrate on verb forms and tenses, and on the pronoun system. This is not to say that any incor- rect use of any other aspect of the French discourse should be ignored: such problems appearing in oral or written forms are to be handled by students en- couraged by the professor’s suggestions or the classmates’.

All of these principles guided the reorganization of the Department’s Advanced Grammar course (CompositiorKonversation) into a new one entitl- ed Grammaire appliquPe, where our majors discover the underpinnings of French grammar by creating and working on collective texts. They “live” their class all year long within the scope of four French movies.

Each semester focuses on specific grammatical clusters and themes encountered in two films. Dur- ing the first semester, we cover the verbal system using the double theme: Childhood and Separa- tion. The films are Au Reooir les enfanfs and Le Grand chemin. In the second semester, we study the use and placement of all French pronouns, the indirect discourse and other grammatical forms that require attention in the actual class. This may be the present participle, or extra work on the past participles, idiomatic forms like “il y a/depuis,” a better understanding of the passive voice distinguished from thepassPcompos6, the place of adverbs or adjectives, and/or more practice of the

253


passe‘compose‘and imparfait in reading and speaking. The themes at that time are psychology and sociology: questions about the Self and Society are discussed with the films Mon Oncle dAm6rique and La Boum. Each semester is divided into units organized around a particular situation illustrated by one of the films. A unit evolves as follows: 1. Mise en situation (or intuitive approach)

The class is divided into small groups (3 to 4 students for a class of 10 to 12).

a. Compositions Collectives Each group discusses and writes its own text

responding to a series of questions directly related to a situation students will eventually see in the movie. Each group has to choose a narrative voice (elle, il, je) and to construct a corresponding character as well as to illustrate the person’s response to a given situation. For example, to prepare for the first scenes of Au Reooir les enfunts, the questions (in French, naturally) follow along these lines: “When you were 12, where and how did you live? What was your apartment/house like? Reconstruct your family environment. What did you like and dislike? Did you like to be separated from your family? Why? Did that ever happen? In what circumstances? (if not, make it up). Where did you have to go? Why? Did you ever return home?’, etc. This elicits the “intuitive approach’ in the use of induction to the understanding of past tenses in the indicative mood (imparfait, pas4compose‘and plus-que-parfait). To introduce the conditional mood, the questions may be: “If you had a 12-year- old child and your country were invaded, what would you do?” For the reflexive verbs, indicative past tenses and conditional mood: “Did you ever get lost (vous etes-vous jamais perdu) when you were (imparfait) a child? Why? How? If you were to get lost now (si + imparfait), would you have the same reactions? What would you do?’ These questions are used to prepare for the scene of the two lost children in the woods in Au Reooir les enfants.

Students enjoy creating characters, talking about themselves and working together. The professor visits groups responding to questions with questions: “What tense should I use? Why?’ Students become aware of what they know and don’t know, and since they are involved in their own story, they become very motivated to write a good one. When the texts are about two paragraphs long (less than

a page), each group gives a reading to the rest of the class, which debates and judges the correctness of sentences. Most sentences are correct by then since the professor, using Socrates’ maieutique, has already helped the groups with their texts. However, there may still be mistakes and the students are made aware of them if they do not notice them themselves when reading out loud or hearing their classmates.

The interest and understanding is maintained in the whole class for two reasons. First, the group presenting their work (one to two sentences at a time per student) is naturally interested and the members do not hesitate to correct or question each other. Secondly, the rest of the class is listen- ing eagerly, comparing their own creativity to their classmates’. Ideally, students who could not hear or interpret a sentence properly ask the reader to repeat. It does happen! More often, students ask questions and say that they did not understand when the group stops talking. In that case we generally start over, speaking more slowly.

Group discussions and oral comments made after seeing the films are only part of this class’s oral activities. As will be specified later, there are three formal oral presentations made by students to the class throughout the semester. This is grammar come to life.

b. Dictations The texts are collected and used as dictations for

the whole class. At times, we might have to reorganize those texts, trim or compact them. What matters here is: 1. to retain students’ creations; 2. to emphasize the specific grammar structures worked on at that time. Those dictations are ex- changed and corrected by classmates, then reviewed by their original scribes. When correcting, the professor only underlines the mistakes and in- dicates the type of error in the margin according to a list of coded abbreviations (Orth=spelling, Tps = tense, Voc =vocabulary, Pro = pronoun, A=agreement, Pp=past participle, Ge=genre, Mm=missing word, etc). Every text in this class (collective text, dictation or individual composition) has to be rewritten by the students until it is perfect.

2. Theory While students are motivated and become

curious about specific questions, they are given

254


theoretical instruction. They must systematically study specific pages in La Grammaire 21 lbeuvre (Barson, Stanford University) and do exercises that will be discussed in class. At times, the professor procedes to oral drills. As we correct the assigned exercises, the professor asks students to justify the response, whether it is right or wrong, but always if it is wrong. Now is the time to have students recall whatever rules apply to the material on which we are working. At this time the professor proceeds to theoretical explanations of the particular grammar problem. This theoretical presentation remains fed by students’ input and questions. Supplementary exercises and texts are given to the students for extra practice in the complicated questions of pass6 compose and imparfait, or for the use of all pronouns (personal, possessive, demonstrative, relative and disjunctive). Very often, students are asked to point out in a text or script of the current film, such tenses, pronouns or whatever grammatical forms. Here is an example about how a chart is made by students. Two people are at the board writing down the pronouns identified in a text by their classmates. There is some agreement on the way to divide the assignment: one student will write only the plural and/or neutral forms; the other student will be in charge of the singular and/or feminine and masculine forms whenever applicable. There will be a class discussion then, about the best way to organize those pronouns in- to a chart with columns and titles. Such visual organization is to help students review and remember. In the next class, the professor will hand out that very chart, printed for that particular group of students (see appendix).

These techniques are used especially during the first two weeks of the second semester to review coherently and thoroughly past tenses and the French dderminants. Most students are not aware of those small words and of their importance in “determining” which pronoun will be used subse- quently. The class is asked to find all the words preceding nouns in a specific scene of the script of Mon Oncleditm&ique. Students then have to put those words in some visual order, that is, to place them in different categories (definite and indefinite articles, prepositions, partitives, demonstrative and possessive adjectives). The chart thereby generated will be an invaluable help for the study of French

pronouns: a good understanding of such dpler- minants greatly facilitates the manipulation of pronouns. The professor is guiding such activities and will then hand out similar printed charts made specifically for the class.

3. Film a. Scripts Whenever possible, students are given the script

of each movie! They must read assigned pages (those related to the situation chosen) and answer questions prepared by the professor in order to guide such challenging reading. The following class is then devoted to an explication de texte and the students try to imagine the scenes described in the script while comparing them to the ones of their own childhood and their collective creation ses- sion. At this point, a composition is assigned, dealing appropriately with that same theme and situation (‘As a child, you were separated from your family ...” or “If you had a 12-year-old who did not return home one day, what would you do?” etc.).

b. Film showing Impatient but also highly sensitized to specific

themes and syntax questions, the students are then ready to watch the beginning (or whatever particular sequence) of the film with much greater at- tentiveness. However, in order to respect the moviemaker’s creation and the students’ interest, the beginning of a film is chosen first. After a first uninterrupted showing of a whole or several sequence(s), some parts are shown again and a particular Scene or image is paused. Even though such practice should not be overused (it would ruin the videotape), it is useful in making students pay attention to some technical and/or metaphorical aspects of the montage. Such questions as these are then asked: “What a[e$he first images? (A detailed description is expected.) What appears several times? Why is the cemetery appearing so many times at the beginnihg of the movie Le Grand chemin?’ The pause button is also extremely useful for spontaneous practice of verb tenses and moods: showing the scene when Marcelle is attacked by her husband: “What would you do in her place?” Numerous scenes will generate abundant practice of the conditional mood. Any scene built on a con- tinuing action, interrupted and shown again, then interrupted again, and followed by consecutive

255


actions, will be a valuable visualization of the three French past tenses. For instance, in Au Revoir les enfants: “What was happening while Julien was in the bathtub? What was he thinking about? What interrupted him? What happened then?” Again in Au Revoir les enfants, the sequence of the jeu de piste ending with Julien and Bonnet lost in the woods and picked up by German soldiers, lends itself to practicing past tenses: “They were walking when a boar appeared; they were singing while walking (option for use of the participeprdsent); they were arguing on the road when a car interrupted them; they were afraid and Bonnet tried to escape. What happened when they arrived at the school? Why did Julien lie on the following day? What had ac- tually happened in the woods?” Such questions provide opportunities to practice the French past tenses. The biographies of the main characters in the film Mon Oncle dAmdlique provide another excellent way for students to recreate texts and pick up proper use of past tenses. In that case, they are to use both the video and the script.

Most situations in any feature film allow for practice of the participe present and discours indirect. In Mon Oncle dAmdrique, there are many instances when the characters talk or think a certain way while they remember specific scenes from movies or from their childhood or vice versa. In Le Grand Chemin, the dialogues between Martine and Louis provide an excellent base for natural practice of discours indirect. La Boum is an excellent film for grammar review. Most of the dialogues may be transcribed in indirect discourse from the point of view of the teenager: the dialogues with the grand mother, for instance, work very well.

4. Journal-Dialogue From time to time, but particularly after watching

a part of a film, students make a journal entry that will be collected. Without editing, marking or in any way correcting the students’ writing, the professor reacts personally to each one of them and finds some ways to emphasize the proper French structure or spelling whenever faulty. This can be done either through repetition of the students’ ideas, with questions, or in any other non- judgmental way. A personal dialogue is thus begun between the professor and the individual student who can be assured that her/his creation will re-

main private. There is no grade, no ridicule, no penalty of any sort. The journals remain in the professor’s office. The journal writing usually takes place in the classroom, immediately following the showing of a film sequence, and lasts up to 20 minutes.

It is easy to see how a second unit may follow the first: the next class will include a discussion about what was just seen on the screen and a hypothesis about the future of each character. The second unit will then structure itself around the future and con-’ ditional, for example. Students respond well to visual practice of the conditional. When they see scenes of the young boys lost in the woods, scenes of rejection (Bonnet or Joseph), or the children play- ing underground and hearing the bombs in Au Revoir les enfants, it is always the right time to pause and ask them what they would do or how they would feel. The subjunctive is introduced somewhere in the middle of Le Grand chemin: “What should Pel0 and Marcelle do to resolve their problems?Que faut-il qu’ ils fassent? ..” Questions about sex education for children are ideal for treating the subjunctive mood: A quel dge est-il ndcessaire que les en fants sachent les vdritds de la vie? Is it necessary for parents/children/to understand/know/say/ask/respond, etc.” In the second semester, the personal pronouns are easily covered by using questions dealing with human relation- ships and issues about the self and society. As already mentioned, the second semester starts with a comprehensive study of French ddterminants which is helpful as a base for the study of all pronouns. Professor Laborit’s speech uses ddterminants very clearly. This speech calls for a good review and practice of the French partitive. Even more remarkably, the relative pronouns seem to have been waiting for Alain Resnais: in Mon Oncle dxmdrique, students are asked to reconstitute the whole uninterrupted discourse of the scientist Henri Laborit, which is filled not only with con- troversial ideas but also with numerous relative pronouns. Another advantage in watching this film is that Docteur Laborit speaks very slowly and very clearly using quite sophisticated language. For this very reason, some movies by Godard (Musculin- Fdminin, Je bus salue Mane), or Rohmer ( U m i de mon amie, Les Nuits de la pleine lune) could be considered for this course.

256

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNAIS - SUMMER 1993

Grammaire Appliquke is a course where students are made aware of themselves, of important con- cepts affecting their lives, in that they are to ar- ticulate their own questions and answers, and understand that the structures of a language are just as important as any other structure. Students come to realize that writing a text together is comparable to creating a montage. They become eager to enter at the same time into the movie and into a language practice leading to communication and/or to art.

The class has no mid-term. Instead, students have to perform three formal oral presentations spread throughout the semester: the first one is a dialogue with a classmate; the second one is a presentation by two or three; the third one is a final, individual project. The topics are totally open but they must be approved ahead of time, and the written copy is corrected with the professor beforehand. The main objective is to hold the interest of the class, a goal measured by the number of questions and comments generated by the presentation. There is a short quiz after each unit and a final, comprehensive exam which includes grammar questions, a composition, and questions about the films. In addition, the students are required to watch three foreign films from the different series presented on campus, and to write a one- to two- page commentary about each. Needless to say, before the class begins preparing for the second movie, the first one is shown in its entirety at a time convenient for all (outside of class time). At least one week before the final exams, students see the second movie in its entirety. Both videos remain on reserve in the library until the exams are over.

Conclusions Students’ texts (syntax and semantics), their

ideas and their emotions are the springboard of each unit. The written and visual text of the film meets students’ texts, ideas and emotions. Com- parisons give rise to a new understanding of perspectives. The journal and other individual writings give students extra room for practice and personal expression.

At all times, positive feelings, group spirit and a desire to achieve are maintained. This is not done through competition but, on the contrary, through valuation and protection of each person’s work, creativity and ego as well as enhancing the enjoy-

ment of group work. Students learn to read their own texts and those of their classmates: they are placed in situations where they want answers. Whether in an emotional, intellectual or grammatical context, it is only when students are sensitized about a question that they listen to an answer and remember it. Readiness here means that students ask themselves and each other questions. Students are more likely to remember grammatical points worked on from texts and charts they organized themselves than from texts and charts handed out to them. This is not to say that extra texts are never used in this class. They are used precisely as extra practice and as links between this course and a literature course. Extra texts and film scripts are mirroring materials. But the live materials from where students apply, try out, use and combine grammatical and emotional informa- tion are their own texts. This basic principle is the main justification of the title: Grammaire Appliqde.

According to all the professors teaching thegram- mar course, the new method is both more effective and more pleasurable. We might decide to find a way to do some testing following the Proficiency Guide Lines. To this day, no such testing has been done. We would be quite reluctant to spend a year or two teaching again some “control” group in the previous traditional method to compare students’ progress with the ones of the new course. Even though we do not have such “objective” informa- tion at hand, we are able to make some remarks.

We feel comfortable in stating that students learn more and participate much more in activities of- fered in and out of the classroom. Two sets of ex- amples may be given here, pertaining to oral and written activities.

a. Oral example In the traditional grammar classes, as in some

cases of literature classes, the professor has to ask a good number of questions before more than one student could find something to answer. This prob lem is totally resolved in our present classroom: after seeing a movie sequence or the whole film, after and during small group work, dictations or the making of a chart by the class, any question asked by the professor receives many responses from several if not all students. It happens that a class

257


following the viewing of a whole movie (especially Legrund chemin) is literally started by students: they initiate the discussion and the professor needs to organize or guide it at times in order to help in the discovery of themes and motives. In most cases, students spontaneously proceed to continue a conversation among themselves (keeping an eye on the professor), asking each other more questions, agreeing with or challenging each other. Constant checking on the correctness of French also becomes spontaneous among us. The main role of the professor is then to help the shy student get a chance to talk, and to be the resource person for sentences that seem to hesitate about how to end. In a specific and common context to which they all relate, students are spontaneously speaking. As they are less afraid to talk, they take pride in checking their correctness and their classmates’. When students talk about themselves and have their own texts used, they are more motivated and interested in expressing their ideas in correct French. They become curious and involved with each other. In the situation of collective compositions, they all tutor each other. They seem to be able to identify the very simple reason that might keep a classmate from understanding a grammatical question.

b. Writing and Reading About previous grammar courses, we often ex-

changed similar comments regarding the following problems:

1. The students who did well on the final exams were generally good students at the beginning of the semester.

2. Some students seemed to make %me progress in intense grammatical work and in quiz, and then again made the same mistakes in compositions and/or in the final exam.

3. It seemed that any kind of improvement visi- ble in some cases was not particularly due to explanations or grammar exercises, and that those improvements would have occurred with any literature or conversation class. This was due to circumstances, favored by good chemistry or many extra hours spent in the professor’s office.

Those comments eventually led us to question altogether whether teaching grammar was not, to some degree, a waste of time. In the new course, there is a striking difference between the beginning

and the end of the semester in about 98% of the students we have taught in the last four years. Not only is their speaking obviously more fluent at the end of the semester, but their writing and reading abilities are dramatically improved, regardless of the level of that particular group at the beginning of the semester. The results at the end of the semester (Fall 1992) were again spectacular, even though this particular class was quite weak in September compared to previous classes. There is a striking difference, in most students’ cases, between the first and the last journal entries, and between the first draft of the first and the last compositions. There was a striking improvement in the final project compared to what they were able to produce in their earlier presentation. Finally, they read with great ease whatever text they could not understand at the beginning of the semester; these texts are some of the extra texts mentioned earlier, and are unrelated to the films. In all instances, the personal involvement of each student is much higher, and personal progress seems to be very motivated by group work.

Using film as text is very inspiring to all of us. As students realize the weight and value of written words and sentence organization, they also learn to see and “read” images. Even the study of the semiotics of films, albeit on a very elementary level, finds its way into the discussions and perhaps this area could be further developed. Film study and language study might have even more to gain by being treated simultaneously.

At the beginning of the school year, students stay actively involved in their own texts and usually keep their distance from the “film as text,” but by the end of the semester a shift occurs: they show less attachment to their texts and are manifestly more involved in the films. By the second semester, students become highly aware of the relationship between creator and spectator, and between writer and reader. Much discussion then revolves around the power left to the reader/spectator and around the role of the individual in a society where s/he is bombarded with all sorts of images. A new look at texts and images evolves from such reflections.

At this point, a word must be said about the intense creativity exhibited in students’ presentations: one act plays, poems with music, songs (their own), travel recounts (with maps, photographs and

2 58


other materials), recipes (with shared dishes), ex- planation and demonstration of special skills (dance, martial arts, sports, juggling, etc.), video shorts (humoristic reinterpretations of fairy tales, TV shows, film and book reviews, interviews, etc., where students are French creators, narrators and actors). Finally, presentation topics have also in- cluded any sort of personal experi’ence as well as surveys, reports and debates organized about dis- eases, wars, and social, historical or metaphysical issues (i.e.: especially, death penalty, abortion, sex- ism/racism/homophobia, homelessness, Native American culture). In each case, the students are required to do a minimum of research in history, art, geography or any relevant cultural area. They bring audiovisual aids and all sorts of objects. They wear costumes as well. The presentations are always highly informative and entertaining events. While creating a special learning and sharing spirit within the class, they are used outside of the classroom by the French Club and International Club for their activities and shows throughout the campus.

What is language learning? With this question, we challenged the very teaching of grammar. French babies do not one day learn the subjunctive and the next day the adjectives or determinants. So we must provide a context. But adults in their third year of French need a comprehensive and ex- planatory course allowing them to ask questions. This is precisely the grammar course we designed: a French course where students feellike talking, get feelings and images from France, and want to find answers about syntax.

Learning how to watch images and people around them is a felicitous by-product for our

students. In learning about the language of images, in reflecting about authorship and creation, they prepare themselves for advanced literature courses as they become more equipped to deal with our world.2

NOTES Many French film scripts may be found in Uuant

Scene Cinema or obtained from Facets. * My thanks go first to my infinitely patient and efficient

co-worker, Fred Michelman. I also want to say to all my colleagues of the French Department how grateful I am to them for the constant support and encouragement I received from the very beginning of our project. Thank you, Elizabeth Richardson Viti, Amie Tannenbaum, Laurence Gregorio, Robert Viti, Sue Welsh, and Ginny van Gulick for all the time and attention given to this work, which would have been impossible without you.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

REFERENCES Costanzo, William. “Film as Composition.” College Composition and Communication, 37(1986): 79-86. Elgabri, Ali. “Foreign Films: Studying Culture from Afar.” Instructional Innovator, 25( 1980): 20-21. Garrity, Henry. Film in the French Classroom. Cambridge, MA: Polyglot Productions, 1987. Lacey, Richard. Seeing with Feeling: Film in the Classroom. Philadelphia, London, Toronto: W.B. Saunders Company, 1972. Lonergan, Jack. Video in Language Teaching. Cam- bridge, London, NY, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Manning, Jeanne. “UsingTV/Video as Primary Text in a Foreign Language Classroom at the Universi- ty of Colorado, Denver.” Foreign Language Annals, 21( 1988):455-61.

SEE APPENDICES ON NEXT PAGES

259


APPENDIX Samples of charts made by students

ARTICLES INDEFlNlS

un, une, des

NOMBRES

deux, trois, dix

QUANTITE IMPRECISE

Q IANTITE PRECISEE

DETERMINANTS

pas de, un peu de, trop de, assez de, beaucoup de, un litre de, un paquet de, une douzaine de, une tasse de, un kilo de, une cuillere de ...

CES DETERMINANTS SUIVIS DE LEURS NOMS SERONT REMPLACES PAR LE PRONOM

EN

ARTICLES DEFINE

le, la, les, 1’

ADJECTIFES POSSESSIFS mon, ton, son ma, ta, sa mes, tes, ses mon, ton, son notre, votre,leur nos, vos, leurs

ADJECTIFS DEMONSTRATIFS

Ce, cet, cette, ces

CES DETERMINANTS SUlVIS DE LEURS NOMS SERONT REMPLACES PAR LES PRONOMS ORJETS

LE, LA, LES

260

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - SUMUER 1993

APPENDJX

Samples of charts made by students

PRONOMS RELATIFS

Fbur remplacer on utilise: exemples: utilisez un relatif

U N NOM

U N PRONOM SUJET

J’ai u n ami, I1 habite en France. Vois-tu ces enfants? 11s se penchent 6 la fen6tre.

U N NOM

U N PRONOM OBJET QUE

Annick regarde une robe. Elle veut acheter cette robe. ou: Elle veut f acheter.

U N NOM ou PRONOM

PRECEDE d’une PREPOSITION

cette PREPOSITION ornbinee avec LEQUEL

a + lequel = auquel

a + laquelle = A laquelle

aux + lesquels = auxquels

aux + lesquelles = auxquelles

aux + lesquelles = auxquelles

de + laquelle lequel lesquelles lesquels

=dont

dans + laquelle lequel lesquelles lesquels

= OU

Elle a une arnie au Canada. Elle veut ecrire ij son amie

Voici le professeur. Je t’ai parle de ce professeur

Ouvre ce sac. Duns ce sac il y a un tresor.

Nous irons voir mon frere. I1 y a des oeuvres d’art chez hi.

J’ai des bottes; je ne peux vivre sans mes bottes.

261

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - SUMMm 1993

Qu'elle se promhe

T

E M

P

S

S

I

M

P

L

E

S

Elle se promenerait

Indicatif

'resent

'u rends

llle part

Ye se iromkne

mparfait

ru prenais

Zlle partait

Zlle se iromenait

sutur

Iiu prendrai

Elle partira

Elle se promhera

Passe simp

Tu pris

Elle partit

Elle se promena

TEMPS ET MODES

MODES

Subjonctif Conditionnel ImpCratif Infinitif Participe

Que tu Prends prennes prendrais prenons

Qu'elle I Elle partirait I I Partir I Partant I

i i:ornener I Eornenant

262


Qu’elle soit partie

T

E

M

P

S

C

0

M

P

L E

X E

S

Elle serait partie

I ndicat if

Etre parti Ws)

Passe compose

parti (e/s)

Tu as pris

S’Bre promene(e/s)

Elle est partie

promen6 Elle s’est promen6e

Qu’elle se soit

Plus-Que-Parfait Tu avais pris

Elle 6tait partie

Elle s’etait promene

Futur ant6rieur Tu auras pris

Elle sera partie

Elle se sera Dromen6e

Elle se serait promenee

Pass6 antbrieur Tu eus pris

Elle fut partie

Elle se fut promen6e

Futur proche Tu vas prendre

Elle va partir

Elle va se promener

MODES

Subjonctif Conditionnel

Passe

Que tu aies Tu aurais pris pris

I

lnfinitif Participe

Pass6 Pass6

Avoir pris

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - SUMXfER 1993

MODES:

TEMPS=

Indicatif Subjonctif Conditionnel Infinitif Participe Imperatif

Present Present Present Prbent Prbent Present

Pass6 Compose

Plus-que- parfait

Futur

Futur proche

Futur anterieur

Pass6 simple

Passe anterieur

Pass6 Passe passe passe

MODES TEMPS

Infinitif

Participe

SIMPLES

lndicatif Present Futur Imparfait Passe simple

Present

Present

Subjonctif I Present

Impbratif -

Conditionnel I Pr6sent

Present

COMPLEXES

Passe compose Futur anterieur Plus-que-parfait Passe anterieur

Passe

Passe

Passe

Passe

264

french films: pre-texts for teaching syntax

Documents