Canada

IV: Here and Now

Part 1: Exploring Français Québécois and Current Events through Journalism

Introduction:
While many American students study French, few are probably aware in any detail of the millions of French-speaking people living just across our northern border—far closer than France, on which most textbooks and classes focus. On the one hand a focus on France makes sense, as the French being taught in American classrooms is the French that is spoken in France. But while the French spoken in Québec differs from this, it is still French, and its speakers are fellow North Americans who have much in common with U.S. citizens. Canada and the United States are, after all, each other’s main trading partners and share a good deal of culture.

Overview:
This lesson is geared toward the high school French class. It could easily be adapted for an English speaking class such as social studies. As written, it presupposes a good knowledge of the language. However, teachers of less advanced students should be able to make use of parts of the lesson and most of the links provided. In this lesson students will use freely available online media from the province of Québec (and, perhaps other Canadian provinces) to learn about an issue or issues currently relevant there. They will then use their knowledge while participating in a staged press conference (or series of them), with some students asking questions in the role of reporters and others acting as the spokespeople answering questions.

Procedure:

1. Introduce students to some basic background information about languages in Canada. In summary, Canada is officially bilingual, though much of the population is monolingual. In government, courts, and other official settings, French and English are treated as equally valid. People can choose to interact with the government in either language. In the Canadian parliament, debates can happen in French or English, and laws are printed in both. In Québec French is the sole official language of government, though English speakers have the right to services in English. According to Statistics Canada, the national statistics agency, of the roughly 30 million Canadians, about 20 million speak English only, 4 million speak French only, 5 million speak both, and half a million speak neither. Most of the French-only speakers live in Québec, as do most of those who are bilingual.
   
   This is just a brief glimpse of the information available. Some of the sites below, as well as many others that can be found on the Web, will provide more detail.
   
2. The intent of this lesson is to get students to make use of their French abilities and not to teach them how to speak Québécois French. However, it is important for teachers to be familiar with some of the differences in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, and to give students an overview. Therefore, teachers (and students if they are interested) should look at the sites linked below to learn about how the language in Québec differs from that of France. Undoubtedly students will encounter some differences as they read articles from Québec, but most articles will use language that is familiar to them. If students use broadcast media (radio or TV) they will likely notice aspects of pronunciation that differ from what they are used to.
   
   Teachers may want to give the Babel Babble article (see links, below) as a reading assignment.
   
3. Explain to students that they will be researching current events in Québec, and will be choosing an issue to study in some depth and discuss in French. In the computer lab (if possible), or in class or at home, students will follow the links to online newspapers (and other media, if desired) in Québec. Working alone or in pairs they will determine what news stories seem to be major enough to warrant deeper study. To qualify, a story must be covered by multiple news outlets and must have been covered for more than one day—in other words, it must be a story that has grown, and about which there is a good amount of information. Ideally it will be a topic with multiple facets and perspectives.
   
   Teachers can decide whether the story (or stories) chosen by the class must be about Canada or whether they can be international news. Likewise, it is up to the teacher whether sports and entertainment news are to be allowed. The class must choose which story to use for this lesson (see the end of this procedure for a note about using more than one story), or the teacher can decide.
   
4. The class will be divided into two groups: the 'press corps' and the 'newsmakers' (the people involved in the news story). Once a topic has been chosen, and students have chosen or been assigned their roles, all students will read as much as possible (within the constraints of available time) about the story.
   
5. Teachers can choose a number of articles to assign everyone, or students can decide within their groups which articles to focus on. Everyone should be encouraged to find and read more on their own. Even if teachers ask students to find articles and information on their own, it would be wise to print out and distribute at least two articles to everyone so all students have a common base or knowledge.
   Note: If reading the newspaper in French is above the level of a class, see the extensions section, below.
   
6. If the teacher prefers, the reading and preparation for the press conference can be spread over many days as an ongoing homework assignment and/or during a portion of each class period, rather than trying to fit it all into just a few days of class time. In this case, begin by introducing the assignment, assigning roles, and choosing the news story. Set a date for the press conference a week (or more) later. Give out the assigned articles. Over the course of the intervening period of time, remind students frequently of the need to prepare for the press conference.
   
7. Those students assigned to be the 'press corps' will compile questions that they think are important. Because this is not a competition, they should not try to come up with such difficult or specific questions that the 'newsmakers' will not be able to answer. The 'press corps' must know the issue well, because the 'newsmakers' will begin the press conference with statements before opening the floor to questions. The 'press corps' must be able to understand these statements in order to avoid asking about things that were already covered.
   
8. Those students assigned to be 'newsmakers' will prepare opening statements for the press conference. These should provide the basic information behind the news story, but not cover every detail. The 'newsmakers' should also be on the lookout as they read for things they think the 'press corps' will probably ask about, so that they can be prepared to answer.
   
9. While they read, all students should keep a list of key vocabulary and terminology, personal names, phrases, idioms, and so forth—essentially a glossary for the particular news story. If the teacher prefers, this list can be written on a chalkboard in the classroom with all students contributing to it (perhaps at the beginning or end of class each day). Depending on the story, there might be a lot of specific vocabulary. The subject-specific word lists provided by L'Office Québécois de la Langue Française—see the link below—might be useful.
   
10. In class, hold a press conference. Begin with opening statements from the 'newsmakers,' followed by questions from the 'press corps.' The 'newsmakers' should sit at the front of the room facing the 'press corps.' They may wish to have name tags or other indicators of their assumed identity. All students should try to take notes, write down quotes, and otherwise gather as much information as they can. This will be difficult. If possible, run at least one video camera and/or some sort of audio recording device(s).
    
    Depending on how many students are in the class, and how many individuals are involved in the story, it might be necessary to make several students play the role of a single individual and take turns answering questions. Another solution would be to have students invent new people who have some role in the story (though they should still stick to factual information). All students should participate.
    
11. At the conclusion of the press conference (its length will be determined by the students' abilities and by the size of the news story itself), all students will be assigned to write a short news article (in French) based not on what they've read but on what was said during the press conference. If the event was recorded, students should have access to the audio and/or video. If it can be streamed on a school server or computer network, that is ideal. If not, perhaps the video can be viewed in class or after school, or made available in a language lab or some other resource area such as a library or computer lab. Also, all students should use the notes they took during the press conference. Their articles do not need to be long, but should try to use, as much as possible, information gathered during the press conference and not during the research beforehand. Instead of writing an article, students could produce a video (as if TV news) or audio (as if radio news) segment reporting on the press conference.
    
12. This has been written for a class divided into two groups and using only one news story. It could be altered to work with smaller segments of a class, each dealing with a separate news story.

Extensions:

• If time is too limited for the entire lesson as given above, students can be asked to read news from Québec and report to the class (in French, of course). This can be done orally, or by creating a class newspaper or newscast.
• If the teacher or students are especially interested in examining Québécois French in detail—grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, etc.—the links below make for a good starting point.
• Some teachers or students may wish to investigate other forms of the French language in Canada. There are numerous sites on the Web with information about Acadian French and Newfoundland French, and there are Wikipedia articles about both.
• There are many other French-speaking regions of the world, and any of the activities suggested here could be adapted to them.
• Adaptations for less advanced students: One possibility is to have students begin with English language publications from Québec and become familiar with the major stories in the news. Then they can start looking for the same stories in French language papers. They might be asked to write simple summaries of one (or more) topic in French. This exercise is useful in that they learn techniques for finding information in an unfamiliar language without necessarily being able to read everything. Skills such as scanning for names and key vocabulary in another language are useful when traveling or when dealing with foreign media.
• Ask students to listen to online radio from Québec, or watch video news, then report on what they have learned. There is a link to Radio-Canada below.
• Find French-Canadian music broadcasts (whether folk music or pop—pretty much anything) online, then write reviews of particular songs.

Resources:
(Links will open in new windows.)

There are many sites on the Web that can provide background information about the province of Québec, the legal and social structure of bilingualism in Canada, and related issues. Wikipedia is one possible starting point, as is any good search engine. One must always remember that language is a sometimes heated political issue and many sources see information about it from distinct points of view which may color their representation of the facts.

For teachers:

Statistics Canada - Canada's National Statistics Agency

Resources for Students and Teachers of French as a Second Language has many useful links (most are not Québec- or Canada-related)

Foreign Language Lesson Plans and Resources

Newspapers:

Le Devoir is the main French language newspaper in Canada

The two main national newspapers in English are The Globe and Mail and The National Post

The following sites have links to the Web sites of newspapers and magazines (and sometimes TV and radio stations) in the province of Québec and wider Canada. Some are published in French, some in English. In most cases there are also links to lists of media from other provinces, should students or teachers want to broaden or change the focus of this lesson.

ABYZ News Links has a good list. It gives helpful information about the category of each paper. Has print and broadcast media.

Paperboy lists some 350 newspapers in Canada. The list can be sorted by city, province or language.

Newspaper-world.com

Onlinenewspapers.com

World-newspapers.com (only English language publications)

Broadcast:

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is Canada's national radio and télévision broadcaster.

The English language site of the CBC in Montréal, Québec

Radio-Canada is the French language side of the CBC (there is also a link to Television de Radio-Canada)

Francais Québécois:

L'Office quebecois de la langue Française, the governmental body overseeing the French language in Québec, has a wide assortment of useful resources for the French language student and teacher, though not necessarily geared toward Québécois French. There are numerous dictionaries and word lists for specific contexts (sports, industries, pastimes, math, etc.), games, dictations, puzzles, articles, and much, much more. Click on Le grand dictionnaire terminologique or Lexiques et vocabulaires and the other parts of the Bibliothèque virtuelle, or browse Liens utiles (useful links). The site is entirely in French, except for an English version of the charter establishing the department.

Several Québécois dictionaries:
Lexilogos
Le Dictionnaire québécois - français (The Québécois-French Dictionary)
Dictionary of Québec French Idioms

Le français au Canada has a list of words and phrases used in French in Québec.

Scrabble Français-Québécois has lists of Québécois words of two to seven letters, Anglicisms used in Québec, and lists of French words, most with definitions (in French).

Histoire du français au Québec

French-speaking countries of the world

On the French language in Canada (in French)

Le français Québécois offers a good history of the language (written in English).

The same site has an excellent page of Québécois expressions, constructions, pronunciation and other aspects of French in Québec.

The following articles at Wikipedia may be useful. Several of them have vocabulary lists and comparison charts that illustrate the differences between French in Québec and French in France:

Languages of Canada, Official Bilingualism in Canada, Québec French phonology, Québec French, and Québec French lexicon.