And the cycle continues…

[Lauren Bundy]

The lingering image from my tutoring experience that I’m about to describe comes from my very last day at Northfield High School, but I selected it because I’ve observed some version of it during many of the lessons I’ve attended. In this image, students are sitting at their assigned desks, lined up in rows. Their iPads are propped up on their desks; they almost remind me of the dividers some of my high school teachers would have us put up between our desks during tests so we couldn’t see each other’s responses. Of course, the iPads aren’t intended to divide students, but it’s nevertheless an effect of their presence. Most students have on their iPad screens the same textbook that’s projected on the big screen at the front of the classroom, although some are looking at their calendars, working on homework for other classes, or looking at social media by hiding their phones behind their iPads.

The teacher is standing at the front of the classroom, reading a story from the textbook aloud. Today, Friday, it was about a man named Charles from a rich family who decides he wants to live a simpler life after stumbling across a tiny house in the woods, but in the past it’s been a story about two students becoming friends despite their different cultural backgrounds or a description a “traditional Senegalese family.” The text on the screen is just small enough that it’s not quite comfortable to read from afar. As the teacher reads aloud, she stops to translate words she doesn’t expect the students to know into English. Sometimes she has students turn to a partner next to them to translate a word or a sentence themselves—”what does rendre un service mean?” Sometimes she asks them a broad discussion question related to the text—”What life are you expecting for yourself?”—that they’re allowed to answer in English. After reading the story, the students work with partners to answer the comprehension questions about the story in the online textbook. Some talk with their partners, others answer the questions silently and still others have their heads on their desks, completely checked out.

This lesson structure that I’ve seen variations of throughout my time at Northfield High School has led me to define more clearly what I value in language education and how that compares to what I’ve observed. I dislike translation as a method of teaching a language; it’s unnatural to me and I especially think it inhibits retention of language when students are given the answer without having to use the French word at all. I don’t believe many cognitive processes are occurring to promote learning when students never reach disequilibrium, and are instead fed answers they understand. Indeed, students often struggle on the occasions when they are asked to translate words themselves; Google Translate seems to be a necessary tool when completing any French-language tasks. Perhaps I simply have different learning objectives for French students than the ones I’ve witnessed at the high school; I want students to be able to apply their understanding of French by speaking with one another, even if their French is imperfect. I’m not quite sure how to summarize the learning objectives that I am observing, but they seem to end with comprehension of the text through any means necessary, even if this means translating directly into English.

This image also leads me to contemplate ways to promote student engagement when teaching. This particular class was generally not student-led; it was teacher- and textbook-led. When students did talk to each other, it was either to complete multiple choice comprehension questions or to talk in English. This makes me wonder how students can be encouraged to stay engaged in the target language, which I think brings me to my first conclusion on teaching and learning as a whole.

Ultimately, I think the issue of student comprehension and engagement comes down to what the teacher is asking of students—in other words, her expectations. For much of the class, she asked them to listen pretty passively to a story she was reading. When she did try to engage them by asking questions, they could respond in English. The teacher herself conducted much of the conversation in English. I couldn’t help but jot down one turn of phrase she used that combined French and English: “What did Charles vu ?” While this made things easier for the students, I believe the lack of challenge lowered their engagement. Moreover, low expectations for students has caused them to accept that they don’t need to be able to speak in French and that translation will solve any of their comprehension issues. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy that weakens students’ language skills in the long run. I don’t think any of them really see the point of the class; they know they aren’t learning much because they aren’t expected to know much, so they put their heads on their desks and the cycle continues.

Despite all my criticism, I’m going to miss spending time in the Northfield High School French classroom. I wish I had been able to make more of an impact as a tutor, but I couldn’t quite figure out what my role should be. I didn’t want to overstep, especially because my proposed learning objectives for a French class would be pretty different from the ones I was observing. I tried to inject a bit more French into my conversations with the students; for instance, if a student didn’t understand a word, I would try to explain it in French using other words they might understand. That being said, I found myself slipping into English as well, especially if students continued not to understand, because that was how the environment I was working in functioned. I guess that I too was susceptible to teacher expectations.

[Allegra Pihlaja]

I think that’s a really true statement that seeing certain lessons or ways of teaching this term has highlighted my values. To me, your observations indicate that you have a lot of really good values when it comes to teaching, and I’m glad that this term’s experiences led you to these conclusions. I think that looking at the psychology of teaching a foreign language would be a really fascinating topic on its own, and I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog posts about it. What are the best ways for teaching a foreign language? I feel like I’ve had such a range of experiences in my time in terms of amount of English spoken in class, methods of instruction, frequency of quizzes, and speed at which the language is taught.

I also agree that I couldn’t quite figure out what my role was in the classroom. I wasn’t a teacher, but I wasn’t there to just sit and do nothing. I think that my type of personality needs clearly defined roles in order to feel comfortable in situations like these, and I don’t feel like I had that as an “observer” who also tutored, helped out, etc. I wonder how much of an impact I actually made–but I’m sure that for you, me, and everyone else, it was meaningful and left a lasting impact!

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