Seminar on research methodology for French as a foreign or second language

Teacher(s)

Bibauw Serge;

Language

French

Prerequisites

To have taken, or be taking at the same time, LROM2940 Didactics of French as a Foreign Language and Intercultural Studies.

Main themes

Epistemological aspects of interpretative research.
Technical dimension of such a research.
Collecting information : - observation - interview
Analysis and interpretation of the data
Critical dimension : criteria and " scientificity ".

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	The objective is to get the students initiated to the reseach methodology, enabling them to have a critical judgement on research texts in didactics of French as a foreign language (for instance based on experiments). It also allows them to make some interpretative research for the dissertation.

Content

Different phases of research: research problem, theoretical framework, objectives to aim, methodological choice, presentation and discussion of the results, conclusion.
Epistemological choices (comprehensive, explanatory and development researches): research design, definition of the features to be observed, data processing.

Teaching methods

The course includes lectures on research methodology and simulations where the student is led to experiment with theory.

Evaluation methods

1. Written report and oral defense (70%). The text will present the initial stages of a dissertation or equivalent research project.
2. Reading assignments (20%) and collaborative annotation of reading material on the Perusall platform, before each session. This assessment is automated by the platform.
3. Class participation (10%) is evaluated formatively (i.e. not assessing the quality of participation but encouraging its occurrence), encouraging questions, interventions, and comments, as well as active participation in group discussions and exercises.

Other information

This seminar is mandatory for all students intending to conduct a master's thesis in the context of French as a foreign language (FLE) teaching.

Online resources

https://ucline.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=38

Bibliography

La liste bibliographique est disponible sur le site UCLine du cours.
A bibliographical list is available on the course website.

Teaching materials

• Les supports de cours se trouvent à la page https://ucline.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=38
• The course materials can be found at https://ucline.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=38

Faculty or entity

ELAL