Balancing students' attention to form, function, and communicative fluency is a critical challenge for teachers in foreign and second language learning classrooms. Various approaches have been advocated over the years, including formal, situational, notional-functional, communicative, and task-based. As outlined in the Integrated Resource Package (IRP) by the British Columbia Ministry of Education (2001), the teaching of Core French 5-12 takes the communicative-experiential approach, which focuses on the purposeful use of the language to perform real-life tasks, share ideas, acquire information, and get things done (p.1). However, a daily goal for many French as an Additional Language teachers is to combine these practical learning experiences with instructional conversations focused on language forms and functions. As more complex syntactic structures are introduced at the secondary level, authentic and interesting language and literacy tasks tend to become increasingly important in motivating students to invest in their learning of French. In this paper, a task is termed authentic if its premise is not simulated artificially and solely for classroom assessment but rather based on representation and communication for real-life purposes beyond the immediate scope of the classroom. Arguably, because a communicative-experiential approach seeks to be situated in authentic and rich contexts, pedagogical tasks designed within this paradigm attend not only to the spoken and written language of classrooms, but also to other modes representation and communication that are important in everyday lives. This includes image, movement, gaze, gesture, and spatial organization. Teachers vary considerably in the explicitness with which they address and incorporate these various factors in their task design.
This case study investigates a project where the teacher sought to intentionally and explicitly integrate various features of the communicative-experiential approach described above: authentic, interesting, and purposeful language use; instructional conversations about language forms and functions; multiple modes of representation and communication; and situated literacies. In a Grade 9 Core French class, Cindy, the teacher, designed a multi-stage project in which students composed original children's stories in French, illustrated their stories to produce high quality picture books, and then, in groups of five or six, adapted one group member's narrative to a script. The students subsequently dramatized their scripts in a series of short, seven to ten minute, performances for an audience of Grades 2/3 students from a local French Immersion school. The picture books were also exhibited in the school library and shared with the visiting younger students. The teacher's claim in this project was that by investing in multiple literacy tasks for authentic and interesting purposes, students would increase their French language awareness and proficiency, including their literacy skills. This paper explores that claim: It reports on the context of the classroom project, the multiliteracy tasks designed, the data collection and analysis procedures, and the themes and implications that emerged with respect to written, visual, and dramatic modes, and the students' investment in their learning of French.
The study was conducted during the 2003-2004 school year at Lord Byng Secondary, a school on the west side of Vancouver enrolling approximately 1200 students in Grades 8-12. The student body comes from diverse multilingual and multiethnic backgrounds, and many come from catchment areas across the city. This comprehensive school has a special feature: the Byng Arts program, a mini-school for students who have demonstrated exceptional talent and interest in the arts. 'The Mini' consists of approximately 350 students, Grades 8 -12, pursuing studies in the arts as well as in the traditional academics which make up the high school experience. The areas of study include visual arts, music, and theatre, film, and television. Every year 90 new students enter at the Grade 8 level; 30 in visual arts, 30 in music, and 30 in theatre. Students must audition for this programme and academic ability is considered. Students are asked to have good work habits and a C+ average coming in from Grade 7. They must maintain a high academic standard and exhibit good work and study habits or they will be asked to leave the program.
The participants in this study are: the teacher, Cindy Yeung; and 34 students in a French 9 Enrichment class. Except for one student, who learned French as a preschooler, all the students had been introduced to French as an additional language in elementary school. These students were recommended into the Enriched program on the strength of their achievement in French 8 and their interest in francophone language and culture. Many students in the class were also talented in various art disciplines, with approximately two-thirds of the students enrolled in the Byng Arts mini-school. Cindy, the teacher, like many of her students, has a background, demonstrated talent, and interest in the visual arts. She also teaches English language and literature to senior students in the school.
The research claim investigated in this study was that by investing in multiple literacy tasks for authentic and interesting purposes, students would increase their French language awareness and proficiency, including their literacy skills. To explore this claim, data was collected from multiple sources: a) the teacher's journal notes with observations and reflections on the students' progress; b) drafts of students' stories, including peer editing and teacher feedback; c) scanned images and photographs of the students' completed picture books; d) videos of the planning, rehearsals, and performances of the dramatized stories; e) transcriptions of audio-taped interviews with the teachers; and f) post-project questionnaires in which students reflected on their working and learning processes. With respect to the questionnaires, twenty-nine (29) out of the thirty-four (34) students responded to the questions, the majority of which were open-ended, although some were quantitative in the form of Likert scale.
As one of the major enrichment and extension activities for the French 9 Enriched class, this storybook project branched off from the second unit of the class textbook, Entre Amis 2. The theme of this unit was cinema, focusing on narrative structures in storytelling. Communicative activities in the unit included summarizing story plots, creating film sequences, and role-playing to advertise a film to the class. The major task suggested by the textbook at the end of the unit was to write and produce a short film in French, working in small groups and using the medium of video. Because of the high calibre of the students' French language skills relative to their peer group, as well as the diverse creative talent in the class, the teacher felt that the film project, as with other communicative activities in the regular program, was quite narrow in scope and did not challenge these students enough. Moreover, these language tasks, no matter what the simulated premise, did not seem 'authentic' enough, particularly since the intended audience would still be limited to the students' classmates and teacher. Cindy therefore designed a picture book project that she hoped would provide enrichment beyond the requirements of the text and afford the students opportunities to interpret their ideas across modes and genres. In addition, she planned to have the scope of activities extend beyond the walls of the classroom to provide a wider and more public audience for the students' work.
Before starting the picture book project, students spent the first term of the year (September to November) building a strong foundation of skills in vocabulary, syntax, usage, and story narration in French. The teacher supplemented the class textbook with extra resource sheets to expand the students' range of vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and sentence structures. The linguistic elements included verbs for narration in the present tense (both regular and irregular conjugations), adjectives for description, and prepositional, adverbial, and other transitional phrases to specify time sequencing and to depict setting. In December, after extensive instruction in narrative genre and associated pedagogical grammar, each student began to compose an original children's story in French, intended for an audience aged 5-8 years. The class examined and read samples of French picture books, taking note of storytelling conventions and innovative book construction. Since this project was an extension to the regular curriculum, students were expected to do most of their writing independently, outside of class time. They had nearly three months, ample time, to write their first draft. Students consulted with the teacher, and received one-on-one feedback and tutoring outside of class time during this draft stage. Meanwhile, they carried on with the regular textbook program in class. In early March, students brought their completed first drafts to class for peer editing. Working in groups of four in an 80-minute period, each student was able to exchange papers with at least two others within their group. The teacher provided students with an editing checklist and comment sheet to offer constructive feedback. Editors explained their written comments orally to the authors before moving on to a different partner. The teacher circulated among the groups to address any questions that arose. After getting peer and teacher feedback on their stories, students revised their drafts, again consulting with the teacher when necessary. They then submitted their stories to Cindy for formal evaluation and feedback. Students received a mark out of 30 for their stories, based on their plot, choice of vocabulary, correct usage of verbs and adjectives, mechanics, and general clarity of communication. They did one more round of revision and editing before finally committing their stories to book format.
After their final stage of editing, students started planning how to best present their stories in a picture book format. They were free to choose the aesthetic design and structure that would convey and complement their stories most effectively. The clear expectation, however, was that the final product would be a high quality artefact. The illustrated books were then submitted to Cindy for evaluation. When the picture books were returned to the students, the class had a mini-gallery exhibition of their works of art. The school principal, other staff members, and members of the UBC research team also came to view the books in the exhibition.
In April, students organized themselves into groups of five to six. Each group selected one of the member's story to adapt into a script for dramatic presentation. In this process, narrators, and in some cases new characters, were added so that everyone had a speaking part. Working collaboratively, students practised their skills in delegating roles and finding ways to showcase each individual's strengths. They prepared the costumes, set designs, stage directions and, in the case of two groups, musical accompaniment. By late May, the groups were ready to present their short plays. Cindy invited a Grade 2/3 French Immersion class from a nearby school as the intended audience for the performances. The library served as the performance venue as well as gallery space to display all the picture books. After the dramatic presentations, the young audience members had lots of opportunity to view and read all the individual picture books created by the students and to interact with the French 9 authors .
By the end of the project, almost every student in the class reported a noticeable improvement in their French writing skills. Cindy noted, "The students expanded their linguistic scope and improved their accuracy and understanding of the syntactic concepts studied in class, fulfilling many of the Ministry's Prescribed Learning Objectives for Core French 9." Specifically, students remarked on their acquisition of, "(...) a more elaborate vocabulary" and, "(...) a larger spectrum of vocabulary." They also commonly reported that they referred to the French dictionary and thesaraus more frequently throughout the project to, as one student put it, "(...) find synonyms so I wouldn't keep repeating the same word and to increase my range of vocabulary." Some also noted an increased facility with syntax and sentence construction. According to one student this included,"(...) using transitions more effectively and writing in complete sentences instead of short phrases." In addition, the use of verbs and adjectives in French can often be challenging because of the demand for attention to verb conjugation and the placement and agreement (in gender and number) of adjectives with their respective nouns. Students also reported improvement in this area. A few student quotes illustrate this point: One student stated, "I felt I got better with verb clarity,"; another commented, "I noticed I had more proper placement and structure of verbs and adjectives"; and another observed, "My writing had more accurate verb tenses and conjugations." Furthermore, one boy realized the importance of, "(...)taking greater care to use proper punctuation in my writing." Overall, many students reported greater fluency and accuracy in their writing. One succinctly student stated, "I am now writing more quickly, accurately and fluently."
In addition to strengthening their French vocabulary, grammar, and usage, the students were able to apply those skills specifically in the context of narrative genre. Many students found it challenging but exciting to engage in a practical application of concepts that they had been studying. One student explained, "I had to put my knowledge of the French language formulation into use in a narrative form." The teacher was thrilled with the quality of imagination and originality of the stories, particularly in plot and character development. She also observered that, "Many students made clever use of humour and suspense, and many also demonstrated a keen awareness of children's story conventions, such as the use of repetition and variations on a theme." This observation was supported in the view of at least one student who reported, "My story was very repetitive because that's what younger people like."
Students' reflections also revealed that the author's choices about character and plot development were made based on their own knowledge of the children's picture book genre, as illustrated in the following quotes:
I tried to choose characters that I thought younger kids would like and I thought about what I had liked in my favourite kinds of picture books and I realised I wanted to get something that was a mixture of a picture book and a comic character
I wanted the story to have a beginning a middle and an end but I tried to make the characters be coming from different places but they all came together at the end.
Within the overall process of composing and revising stories, the peer-editing stage deserves special consideration because it is this stage that prompted more complex metalinguistic dialogue. Students benefited from the advice of their peers. Some writers reported that the peer-editing sessions were an opportunity to, as one student explained, "(...)test to see if the skill level which our stories were directed at were appropriate" and "(...) to see if it really made sense, not only in my mind." Students consistently reported that they saw value in having a second opinion to improve their stories. As one student revealed, "I really benefited from the peer-editing because they pointed out things that I would have overlooked without realizing."
The teacher felt it important that students share their writing with at least two different people in order to experience diverse writing styles. The peer editing environment resembled a writing workshop that one might perhaps more commonly see in an English language arts classroom. The students were highly engaged in the task. There was an energetic buzz in the room as class members enjoyed one another's stories and clarified meaning. Some students occasionally grew frustrated when they knew that there was something was wrong with the structure of the text, but couldn't figure out what it was, or how to fix it. Challenges like these, however, opened up more opportunities for the students to get individualized help from Cindy on specific grammar points. Although many found this peer-editing stage challenging, all participants reported that they benefited from the experience. Beyond that, at least one student remarked, "I also had fun with the mere experience of editing in another language."
The teacher was impressed with the level of sophistication in their comments as editors. Although, frequently the focus was on the holistic meaning of the stories, a number of students also paid keen attention to grammatical details. [insert quotations from peer comments]. Cindy was particularly pleased that while most students wrote their comments in English, three students made the effort to write a small part of their feedback in French. She explains:
Maybe it was because the peer editing worksheet was written in French. For those students who made a real effort to immerse themselves in the language and actually think in French, it seemed almost automatic for them to write their comments in French, even if it might just be a couple of lines. They were using the language in a natural context, for the practical purpose of comprehension and advancing to the next stage in the project.
Through the narrative writing process and the peer-editing sessions, students developed greater awareness about language and their own language learning processes. A number observered that they appreciated the different stages of the writing process. One student commented specifically on the benefits of writing and editing multiple drafts, "I improved my spelling and grammar because of the repetition of writing/typing it out." Most students found that editing the work of others helped them recognize their own writing styles and correct their own errors. Almost all students made insightful observations about their methods of creating and transferring meaning across two languages, particularly in their ability to adapt their vocabulary and syntax from English to French. For example, one girl reported, "Some words I thought were really easy in English, yet I haven't learned it in French therefore I had to adjust and use another word or make it simpler". Another recognized, "You can't just translate word for word." As the project proceeded, most of the students noticed that they acquired and applied new vocabulary with increasing ease and comfort. "At first I had to use a dictionary a lot, and that was very time consuming," explained one boy, "but after a while I learned to use words I knew instead. I had built a larger bank. " Another student succinctly stated, "I learned to think in French rather than to translate English into French." Students did acknowledge several challenges in the writing and editing process. For example, one pointed out, "I ran out of ways to start a sentence, and there could be words I didn't understand." However, this same student explained, "The fact that they[the tasks]were challenging helped to improve and develop those skills."
One area that the teacher found particularly interesting was the students' increased willingness to take risks with the French language. One of the biggest challenges was to accept minor inaccuracies in vocabulary, syntax, or idioms. As Cindy explained:
There is a fine balancing point. Some students might be too afraid of making mistakes and therefore stick with simpler structures that they know are safe, but this doesn't necessarily result in an interesting story or developing their French. On the other hand, if students get too carried away trying to use highly advanced structures, the expression of their ideas can end up unclear.
To this end, Cindy had to remind the students (and herself) that errors are a natural part of learning. As she continued, "This is, after all, a Grade 9 level non-immersion French class, and the students are not expected to have a flawless command of the language." When evaluating the stories, allowance was made for a margin of syntactical errors. In general, the students also learned to accept the 'imperfection' of minor errors while still striving for overall clarity in communication. Several students rather enjoyed the results of their experimentation and as one pointed out,"(...) often the result can be quite silly and amusing." Another student remarked, "I learned how to describe things/objects as well as how to use language to generate feelings and thoughts. It helped me a lot in developing knowledge about how to play around with the language." In this vein, Cindy reported, "It was wonderful to see students learn to relax and have fun with the language. They took each challenge and turned it into a learning opportunity."
In their metacognitive reflections on their linguistic growth, 93% of the students reported that peer-editing helped them improve, not only their classmates' texts, but also, their own reading, writing, and editing skills in French. Interestingly, 85% even noticed they had an increased awareness of form and function in English; this may suggest that working in a second (or additional) language can strengthen students' skills in their first language.
When the students were required to illustrate their stories and bind them into book format, they were provided with an opportunity to consider how meaning making might be interpreted from written to visual mode. One student aptly called this, "an exploration of the language of art."
The common goal for all students was to create a visual work that conveyed the key elements of the written story. Some factors they considered when designing their books were the tone and mood of the story; the genre, such as fairy tale or mystery; the plot,setting and characterization; the patterns of repetition and variation in the text; and of course the author/artist's own 'voice/style'. These considerations influenced the colour schemes, cover and page designs, choice of illustrations, and type of media used. The vast range of visual designs included computer-animated illustrations, collages of tree twigs, fabric, watercolour, and metallic foil, and even an intricate fold-out pop-up book 'sculpture'. Many students enjoyed the challenge of expressing their ideas through pictures and "relating pictures to plot line and verbs", as one student expressed it. The very task of choosing how to divide the plot into a series of separate pages allowed students to pay more attention to structures for narrative sequencing such as ensuite (then afterward or next ) and le matin suivant (the following morning). As one girl observed, "I learned how the visual qualities of the storybook can complement the story and cause you to reedit." Several students pointed out that it was good to connect thoughts and words into images, to enhance the reader's understanding. One student commented, "I tried hard to help the reader understand my story more through the illustrations."
One concern Cindy had about the verbal-to-visual modal transfer was whether or not students would allow their illustrations to do more of the storytelling than the written text. As she explained:
I wanted students to have fun exploring the possibilities of the visual mode, but I also wanted them to still pay careful attention to the development of their written language. In other words, I hoped their narrative text would not become 'watered down' if the visuals replaced the words.
When asked about the role of their visuals in the storytelling, 14% of students reported that the pictures did allow them to be less descriptive in their writing; 24% found that the illustrations did not change the level of detail in their text; but the majority, 62%, reported that creating the visual design actually encouraged them to be more descriptive or to use more advanced narrative structures in their French text than they might have done without the illustrations. In response to this finding, Cindy commented, "It is encouraging that most of the students used the visual mode to strengthen the quality of their written text. Perhaps the illustrations gave them even more ideas that inspired them to go back and add to their text."
Reflecting on the transfer from the written to the visual mode, many students explained how they thought their French writing skills improved. "I thought more about the correctness of the language of the title and how well it actually matched with the illustrations," reported one student. Numerous other student comments further demonstrate how the visual mode not only complemented but also enhanced their acquisition of verbal language. One reported that, "Coordinating pictures with written text helped me to fully understand the words." Another stated, "I was able to recognize the true meaning of some words by drawing." Yet another student noticed, "I improved my reading skills because we had to figure out the real meaning of the words to be able to create the art." While another simply stated, "I had a better understanding of verbs through illustrating them."
After exhibiting their individual picture books to the class, the students formed groups of five to six, selecting one member's story to adapt into a script. Students generally appreciated that storytelling and writing was an ongoing process. One boy stated, "I was glad that the playscript gave me a chance to change and edit more." One advantage for all the groups was that there is already a set idea to develop from, since the story was already written. Groups were supposed to have a narrator in addition to the characters in the story; speaking roles were to be as evenly distributed as possible without having to alter the story too much, for one of the objectives of the performance was to allow everybody the opportunity to speak in public. The level of difficulty of switching from narrative to script genre depended a great deal on the structure of the original story. Groups whose stories already had fairly evenly distributed speaking roles found the transfer to script easy. "We had a really compatable [sic] story. We just turned it into a play without hassles," said one group. Lengthening or shortening speaking roles was generally a smooth process. "I found it pretty easy since all dialogue could be kept and action sequences can be explained by narration," one author observed. The author of another story reported a similar experience, "My story was all talking pretty much anyway so it wasn't difficult." Members of another group agreed, stating, "It was easy for my group to add to make more roles, and another added, "I found it easy to make the story a play. We had to add more character [sic] and a bit more words, but it was very easy."
Some stories, however, were not so easy to transfer into scripts, particularly if the distribution of speaking roles in the original text did not allow for all members to speak. This was the case with two out of the six groups. One author commented, "I found it challenging to have each group member to be a character in the story and have lines." Another student agreed, "It was a bit challenging to change some narrator lines to dialogue to even out the lines." Because the groups were self-selected, the students worked well together redistributing speaking roles. Cindy reported:
This might have been problematic, if the group members did not get along well. If that had been the case, I would have had to get more involved as a mediator or facilitator for the group collaboration. Fortunately, creative and interpersonal conflict in these groups was rather minimal.
However, another challenge, as one girl pointed out,"(...) was planning to fit it into a performance time limit, and having to prune the script back quite a bit." To make it easier to shorten the stories, groups took advantage of the opportunity to use dramatic actions, music, and costumes. For instance, one girl reported, "I found it easy that it made the script less descriptive and long because we know some would be shown/acted therefore not needing to write it." While Cindy remarked, "Since each performance was limited to seven minutes, most stories did have to be shortened." While this resulted in the loss of some of the text, the meaning of the original French story was preserved in the students' choice of actions, music, and costumes. In adapting from narrative to script, students learned the importance of compromise, the process of adaptation between different genres, that is, how the meaning being removed from one genre can be accounted for in "a parallel time frame" as one student put it, by use of other modes such as visual, musical, or gestural that can be put in the directions that accompany the script.
The culmination of the project was the live performance of each group's story in front of a Grade 2/3 French Immersion class. The performers were understandably nervous at the beginning of the show, particularly because the young audience members had much more experience speaking French on a daily basis and may in fact be in some respects the more proficient group. As one girl stated, "I was scared that if I said anything wrong they would correct me." Another girl shared this sentiment, "It was challenging because you weren't sure if the audience understood or enjoyed what you were saying." One boy was anxious about, "(...) screwing up or pronouncing words wrong," but after completing his presentation to a generous applause, this same student stated, "I believe we touched a number of those children, through our performance, and in a way they touched us, too." Similarly, another student who was nervous at first ended up "(...)enjoying the excitement and look the children [sic] when we performed." In fact, by the end of the performances, the class reported a very positive experience overall. With the exception of two students who did not enjoy performing in public, most students were, in the words of one, "(...) delighted that the performance gave me a chance to speak French with a real audience." Some students felt exhilarated. One student reported "I was thrilled by the actual experience of interpreting the story through actions and speaking in front of people who understand me in French." Others commented in particular about the 'wholeness' of the dramatic mode,for example, one student stated, "It was fun incorporating an oral aspect of French with a group, audience, costumes and set." The live performance allowed the presenters to experience instant feedback. As one student explained, "It was fun to see the expressions on the children's faces at our performances." Another student added, "You saw clearly what the children liked and what they didn't."
In the process of scripting and presenting their stories dramatically, students generally found that they paid more careful attention to certain aspects of the story when deciding how to physically illustrate the words through actions, tones, and attitudes. Before translating the ideas into the dramatic modes of speech and gesture, students had to clarify the meaning of the French story text. One of the authors reported, "We had to understand my story to know what kind of actions would reflect the characters' feelings." The dramatic mode not only clarified but even enriched the ideas expressed through text. One student, for example, observed that, "Certain tones were added to the speaking parts, which increased the meaning and understanding of the text." Many students commented on how their oral French improved in the course of the dramatic production. Because they were communicating a story to a live audience using non-textual modes, each student had to be aware of his or her own speaking patterns in French, speaking and listening to make sure people understand what you're saying. One student reported, "I learned to enunciate my words more carefully." Another focused on, "(...) trying to remember and talk at a decent pace with clear pronunciation." The collaborative process of preparing the dramatizations gave students the opportunity to help each other. One girl found, " I was able to touch up on my pronunciation." Yet another girl observed," I learnt to correct myself through others' reponse to my accent."
Throughout this project, the students demonstrated and reported positive changes not only in their language awareness and development, but also in the affective domain. What almost all the students had in common was an enhanced desire to work in French: 90% of the participants reported that the project raised their interest in continuing with their study of French. An analysis of the data revealed that a number of factors appeared to contribute to this finding. We will look at four in particular; 1)sense of purpose, 2) ownership and individuality, 3)increased confidence, and 4) a feeling of accomplishment.
From the first day the project was assigned, the students were aware of their final goal: to present their stories to a class of French Immersion primary students. Many students reported in their reflections that the reason why they put so much effort into the project was that they knew that their books would have a public audience and that they would be performing their an adapted script version for a potentially critical younger audience. Classroom observations confirm that the thought of a 'real' audience that motivated the students to take care to produce attractive and interesting products. Clearly,they didn't want to look bad in the eyes of the younger students but more positively, they also wanted the young children to enjoy the books and presentations. As Cindy explains it:
This underlying awareness of audience motivated their work through the various stages of the project and since the final product or goal seemed practical and authentic, the process of getting there became that much more 'real' and purposeful.
The students' awareness of their eventual audience motivated them to a higher level of quality, clarity, and accuracy of their language editing skills. Many students took great care with their word choice. One student explained, "I was writing a story that was original and interesting, but not using too difficult words that a child cannot understand." 93% of the participants reported that knowing their stories would be presented to a real audience inspired them to edit more carefully and, as one student said, "Make sure I hadn't overlooked anything." Students explained that the notion of publication, "(...) made me 100% sure that I was spelling my words correctly," and one student found herself, "(...) making a more conscientious use of correct grammar and accents."
The teacher was impressed with the level of descriptive detail and clarity of the overall language usage, which was highly sophisticated for French 9 students. Illustrating and 'professionally' binding their books further reminded students that this project would eventually be presented to the public. Knowing that their creations would have an authentic audience or, in the words of a student, "Making the story into a real book motivated me to produce higher quality work." Another student pointed out, "The prospect of public presentation inspired me to [make] my French storybook look more attractive professional." In general, the students recognized the importance of both verbal and visual modes working together to clarify meaning. One girl explained, "I made sure that the language I was using was demonstrated correctly through the illustrations. I wanted to be clear for the readers." Another student reported that the very task of illustration and in particular book production for an audience improved her writing, "(...) because when you're binding your book, and others will read it, you make sure it's perfect." After much hard work, the live performances were the culminating reinforcement of the goal to communicate to an authentic audience in French. As one student reported, "It was fun. It makes us more aware of our French and speaking if there is a real audience." Many other students agreed, "I found that it was fun, and enjoyed that we could speak French to a bunch of kids and have them understanding us."
One aspect that virtually all the students enjoyed about the project was the freedom they had to make the project their own; this sense of ownership and individuality was a great motivator. Although the whole class had the same assignment and common learning objectives, the students had a great deal of individual freedom and flexibility in the many stages of the project. This ranged from each creating their own plots and characters to designing their unique picture books and then, collaboratively, producing their group innovative dramatizations. Cindy noted that while one or two students wanted more guidance and suggestions for the direction of their stories, by far the majority of the class thrived on the opportunities to showcase their individual strengths in various verbal genres and visual modes, whether it be in three-dimensional pop-up art or computer animation. One student commented that this freedom gave the project more 'personal significance'. Echoing this feeling of ownership, another girl explained, "The stories were of my preference because it was me/mine." One of the boys noted, "I enjoyed being able to invent characters and create villains. It was great to see my imagination put into words in another language." Because the picture books reflected so much of each author's individual creativity and personality, many students noticed that they were more motivated to do their best. Cindy pointed out:
Although the students had an underlying awareness that their projects would eventually be evaluated they seemed to invest so much of themselves into their work not just for marks but because they wanted to make the books the best expression of themselves; there was a certain personal pride associated with the final product that motivated students to put more care into the process.
With each stage of the project, the students exhibited an increased sense of confidence in their French language skills. Applying French in an authentic context, the students would inevitably confront difficulties or mistakes, but, as previously stated, many of them took this as an opportunity to grow and improve. Some students explained that the feeling of successfully accomplishing such a challenging task gave them more confidence to carry on. One girl stated, "At first I was really nervous but after I totally regretted ever worrying. I know now I can do it." Another found, "The writing and peer editing was a great way to key in on my personal weaknesses. Gaining encouragement from peers helped boost my confidence."
The teacher noticed that the greatest source of confidence was the risk-taking when the students used new language structures and applied them in new contexts. Realizing his own growth in the French language, one boy proudly reported, "I developed confidence in writing narratives and using sentence structure [sic] that had not been required previously." Another student, also pleased with her progress, reported, "I felt empowered by my increased ability to explain things [in French] without sounding awkward." Yet another student summed up her experience thus, " I experienced(...) improved confidence in my French overall."
By the end of the project, 93% of the students reported that they felt more confident about their writing and reading comprehension; 86% felt more confident about their listening comprehension; and 97% were confident in their speaking skills. But it was not only in their language skills that students gained more confidence. Because of the freedom of choice in the project, students had the opportunity to try out techniques or modes of expression that they had not previously tried. Several students reported that they had much more fun with the French language because of the opportunity to use their art, drama, or music skills. One student, who usually saw her strengths in dance, music, and drama, decided to experiment with multimedia fabric art in her book and reported, with much excitement, "I didn't know I could paint so well!"
After the final production of the picture books and the dramatic presentations, the students expressed a remarkable sense of fulfillment and achievement. Cindy explained:
When I first assigned and outlined the various stages of the project, the class seemed a bit anxious but at the same time excited by the challenge. Because it was something that the students had never done before in French, the prospect of becoming a 'real author' in another language was both daunting and enticing. The more challenging the project seemed to be at the beginning, the greater the feeling of accomplishment at the end.
One student stated, "It was interesting and satisfying to be able to actually write a book in another language than English." Another student seemed pleasantly surprised that, "You can actually develop a story in French from all those verbs, adjectives, nouns, and places." Yet another student exclaimed enthusiastically, "It's like a great achievement for me, to actually write my first storybook in a new language! It's a great experience!" The live performances revealed the greatest display of pride. The presenters saw,
"How much they appreciated us and I enjoy[ed] the applaud [sic] at the end of the performance,as well as the smiles on kids' faces and the warm feeling in my heart."
One of the students who had originally expressed anxiety about the performance ended up stating, "It was exciting and there was the feeling of success."
When reflecting back on the many stages of preparation and production throughout the project, the class generally had a greater appreciation of how much they had learned. As one girl pointed out, "It was nice to put together all the French skills we've learned up to grade 9 and write a creative story." Another student succinctly stated, "The hard work it took was rewarding." The feeling of accomplishment was not only for each individual himself or herself but also for their peers. To quote one student, "It was fun to watch the achievements of other groups." Having successfully accomplished what was a highly challenging task, most students felt more confidence in their French language skills and this, in turn, appeared to increase their desire to invest in the study of French in the future.
The teacher's claim in this project was that by investing in multiple literacy tasks for authentic and interesting purposes, students would increase their French language awareness and proficiency, including their literacy skills. The findings from an analysis of the data, presented above, suggest that in some respects the claim is warranted.
By all accounts, students increased their language awareness of many aspects of form and function. They reported individually and collectively that they grew in their metalinguistic knowledge of pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax and discourse patterns. A number of factors contributed to this, including: interpreting meaning across modes, verbal and visual, and verbal/ visual to multi-mediated dramatic productions; adapting texts across genres from narrative to script; and engaging in peer editing and instructional conversations about language with reference to writing texts in and across modes and genres. With respect to developing French language and literacy skills, the students demonstrated in their written texts and oral presentations an increased proficiency over the course of the project, one that was at a level far in advance of their Grade 9 peers in other classes. Moreover, the data also clearly revealed that the students found this project highly engaging and that they were deeply invested in their learning of French. The authenticity of the tasks and public audience encourged students' investment, as did the opportunity for the students to integrate their learning of French with their artistic talents, strengths and interest. It appeared as though the multimodal nature of the tasks offered something for everyone and provided multiple points of entry into the language, improving the chances of a measure of success that increased the desire to continue. This is not the complete picture, however. The findings of the study did also cause Cindy to reconsider and amend her perspective of the claim.
As the themes emerged from an analysis of the data, Cindy came to realize that rather than viewing 'investing in multiple literacy tasks for authentic and interesting purposes' as a unidirectional means to an end, 'increased language awareness and proficiency'', as she originally asserted, she now realized that all features of the task design were equally critical and 'ecologically connected'. It was not individual factors, individually considered and acting upon each other in simple ways that resulted in student learning. It was the ensemble of factors: linguistic, social, (meta) cognitive and affective that together, in ways likely individual to each child, contributed to student's learning. In the iterative processes of this complex multi-stage project, students' increased language awareness and proficiency, and subsequent enhanced confidence, contibuted to students investing in their learning as much as did the multimodal and authentic nature of the tasks. So, to emphasize the point, we believe it is a collective of factors realized in a multiplicity of forms and modes of representation that afforded the students multiple points of access into their learning that accounts for the apparent success of this project. We encourage others to investigate that assertion with a distinctly different student body.