Observation and teaching placement in French as a foreign language

Teacher(s)

Van Hemelryck Tania;

Language

French

Prerequisites

To have taken or to take in parallel the course LROM2940 Didactics of French as a foreign language

Main themes

The 25 hours of practice are divided into two parts:

• a. Observation and analysis of teaching (5 hours) : this encourages the students to think about taking their own classes by observing their future pupils and supervisors in class;
• b. Teaching: this enables the future teachers to try out the different points from the course under the guidance of supervisors authorised by UCLouvain

These two-part practice periods reflect the two different locations and two different supervisors:

• Two-person practice (10 hours): done by two people taking it in turns to speak (either within the hour, or changing every hour, each taking at least 4 hours of class on their own). There is special emphasis here on the communicational and relational aspects of teaching;
• Solo teaching (10 hours): this can either take the form of a 'teaching sequence' in a single class or can be divided between different classes.

The last one or two lessons of the internship is/are organized as a supervision lesson and/or a public lesson.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	design, plan and give classes in French as a foreign language;
2	consider their teaching methods and adjust them;
3	adapt to different professional situations within a variety of educational environments by interacting with their supervisors.

Content

At the beginning of the year, students must give their supervisor their list of preferences from the list of possible institutions and supervisors for each phase of practice. Once the allocation has been made, students must agree with each of their supervisors the arrangements for the observation sessions and the active lesson sessions. They should also agree the topics and the timings with their supervisors. Before starting a period of practice, they must submit their preparatory project to the supervisor who will discuss with them any changes to be made.

Teaching methods

Type of education: the practice periods for each individual student should be spread as far as possible between different types of education. Alternation of the practice periods and teaching: the practice periods are closely connected to the lectures and organised to alternate with them.
In cases of force majeure (COVID-19 crisis), the course may include distance learning.

Evaluation methods

Each practice period is assessed continuously in the light of the remarks and daily advice of the supervisor; when it has finished, it is formally assessed. The supervisor comments his/her evaluation to the student during a feedback session.
All of these practice periods count towards the final formal assessment which takes the form of a public lesson taught in the presence of an examining board made up of university teaching staff from the relevant programmes.
The students are asked to carefully read the documents concerning the evaluation of the traineeship of the language concerned, as well as concerning a possible reduction of the number of traineeship hours for students who have prior teaching experience.

Other information

Support: a folder containing observation and assessment tables, all necessary information and helpful documents is available for students. Under the terms of Article 76 paragraph 3 of the Decree of 31 March 2004 defining higher education, promoting its integration into the European space for higher education and refinancing the universities, public lessons will no longer be organized in the September examination period. Should they fail, students will have to retake the whole year.

Online resources

https://ucline.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=58

Bibliography

Une bibliographie d’ouvrages, de manuels et d’articles utiles pour préparer les stages sera communiquée dans le cadre du cours LROM2940 Didactique du français langue étrangère

Faculty or entity

ELAL