The purpose of this creative project is to provide a manual for French teachers who wish to incorporate a cultural element with emphasis on religion into their course. In preparing these materials, the author has had the Christian school especially in mind.The Christian school movement is developing rapidly in the United States today. These schools along with Catholic parochial schools train a significant segment of our society. Because such schools are Christocentric in philosophy, they require supplementary materials not provided by secular publishers.This Creative Project contains a teacher's manual which is divided into three sections. Each of these sections is developed around the theme of a religious holiday. Teachers aids include prayer forms in French, pertinent Scripture passages, and songs to accompany the theme. The instructor will also find grammar explanations, vocabulary helps, and comments on French customs.There are worksheets and illustrations that can be duplicated and used in the classroom as learning aids. The teacher may also profit from program ideas and other activities designed to stimulate students in the language learning process.This project is aimed at preparing materials that will appeal to young teens and will also be practical for a busy instructor.

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This study is an examination of the effectiveness of a method of teaching French phonics at the junior high school level and its effect in reducing the dangers of using the printed word from the beginning of language study. Fifty-two grade IX students with no previous experience of French were taught a specially written ten week course using the mimicry-memorization method of learning sentence patterns in French. One group, the "two impression" group, studied this material with only oral-auditory stimuli, seeing only the English equivalent of the French they were expected to know. The other group, the "four impression" group, learned the same material by the oral, auditory, visual and kinesthetic stimuli since from the first lesson they saw and copied the French spelling after doing oral auditory drill. Special care was taken in drilling the latter group in the French orthographic system and in its phonetic basis. Students were expected in this way to "overlearn" the unit on French phonics in an attempt to reduce the English-type mispronunciation that could be expected. From the two groups were selected matched pairs using the following criteria for purposes of matching: first, I.Q.; secondly, the current year's grades on the June examinations in English language, Science, Mathematics and Social Studies; and lastly musical aptitude. Groups had equal number of boys and girls. Tests were administered in auditory comprehension, in oral translation from English into French, and in pronunciation of French. A comparison of the means at the end of the ten week course showed a slight difference in favour of the two impression group in auditory comprehension and in favour of the four impression group in oral translation and pronunciation. None of these differences was significant at the 5% level. The analysis of type and number of errors in the pronunciation test showed that those who saw the French had slightly more errors of pronunciation which seemed to be caused by interference from the English orthographic system. There were twice as many errors of this type in the four impression group as in the two impression group. These mistakes represented only six per cent of the total number of mistakes made. It was noted that those who had seen no French spelling still tended to mispronounce some French words in an English way. It is concluded that the overlearning of French phonics appeared to have overcome what disadvantage might be expected to accrue from the teaching of French using the written word from the beginning. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Two developmental theories propose guidelines for professional development programs. The basic assumption shared by both these theories is that teachers' preferences will vary between individuals and that this variation reflects different stages of teachers' development. Teachers at lower levels of development (either professional or conceptual) will prefer highly structured programs that focus on "concrete" concerns, with little interaction between peers. Teachers at higher levels of development will prefer loosely structured programs, with more teacher interaction, autonomy, and discussion of theoretical problems underlying "concrete" issues. This study investigated: 1) FSL teachers' preferences for decision-making roles and for content in professional development programs; 2) FSL teacher characteristics possibly influencing teachers' preferences for professional development. Teachers' preferences were measured using an instrument developed by the researcher. The survey consisted of two parts: 1) A section on teachers' characteristics, providing a profile of the teacher's background and current professional development opportunities; 2) A questionnaire on teachers' preferences for structure and content in professional development programs. The survey was answered by 132 teachers from 12 school districts in British Columbia (12.2% of all French teachers in British Columbia). The findings showed that respondents would like to actively participate in professional development programs. Teachers' preferences for structure and content were varied. This supports one basic assumption of developmental approaches: that the learning environment and material of professional development programs should be designed to meet the varied needs of teachers. Teachers did not express a preference for lower level content and a directive structure of professional development. While professional development programs should address the varied needs of participating teachers, it should not be aimed primarily at lower levels of development, as can be assumed from the findings of developmental research. When teachers' characteristics were examined as possible factors influencing teachers' preferences for structure and content, no significant differences were observed between teacher characteristics and their preferences for content. Significant differences were observed between teacher characteristics and teachers' preferences for structure (decision-making roles). Two teacher characteristics showed significance: 1) Grade level taught by FSL teachers and their preference for structure in the presentation of professional development content. A significant number of elementary school teachers preferred to leave responsibility for presentation with a supervisor. A significant number of secondary teachers preferred a collaborative structure. 2) Significant differences were observed between teachers' current professional development opportunities and their preferences for decision-making roles in a professional development structure. A significant number of teachers that had previously had responsibility for decision-making expressed a preference for a non-directive structure. Teachers that had never had responsibility preferred to leave decision-making to a supervisor. From these results, it can be concluded that teacher characteristics might be influencing teachers' preferences and should be taken into account by organizers of professional development. The responsibility experienced by teachers in their current professional development activities would appear to be a factor influencing their preferences for future responsibility. The importance of environment in stimulating growth would appear to be a factor deserving the consideration of both practitioners intending to adopt a developmental approach and researchers in this area. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

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Student attrition has always been a problem for French immersion programs, especially at the high school level. In response to a lack of current research, this study seeks to discover if the problem persists. It also examines how today's French immersion high schools are dealing with other problem areas identified in research done in the past. These areas include, among others, students' learning challenges, behavioural challenges, and difficulties with the French language. The study documents the attrition rates from 1990 to 2004 in three high schools in Manitoba that are French immersion centres. In an effort to understand why students remained or left the immersion programs, 35 teachers, 220 current students, and 18 former students who have left the program to attend English schools were surveyed. All three sample groups' perceptions of the program show that while many things that were considered problematic in the literature are no longer a concern, other issues continue to persist. Furthermore, the data show that male and female students tend to leave the French immersion program for different reasons. However, the common motive that instigates the decision to leave appears to be the perception that higher grades can be achieved in an English school. / xi, 161 leaves ; 29 cm.

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