LEÇONS FRANÇAISES:    Hybridité, Métissage, et Diversité
Présentation du Projet

Metisse

     This web site was developed as a semester project for FRE 422/598 Applied French Linguistics, fall 2004, Arizona State University, under the auspices of Professor Helene Ossipov.

This website represents a first attempt at the application and implementation of a few of the linguistic and educational theories that we studied in the course. Listening, writing, reading and the comprehension of cultural texts (may they be the words of songs, film clips, or critical and literary texts), and critical thinking are emphasized.

My goal was to create an array of activities and of exercises that will enrich the experience of teaching and learning French as a foreign language. Through the selection, organization and juxtaposition of various current and classic cultural works - literary, musical, filmic, and critical - I hope to awaken a critical spirit and sensitivity towards social injustices as well as to deepen the students’ knowledge of the French language.

Multiculturalism and diversity are infused into the teaching and learning practices and environment in such a way that these concepts are woven into the very fabric of the lessons presented here. The central critical theme focuses on French colonialism/post-colonialism and its persistent effects that are manifest in France today. Contemporary popular culture – especially music and film clips– is used to motivate, attract, and seduce the students at all levels of language mastery. This site is primarily intended for professors and their students at the university level. It could equally address itself to high school students that are advanced and mature enough to profit from it, and more generally, to all those who take pleasure and are interested in the teaching and learning of a foreign language.

This is just the first step in the development of the site!