Natural speed please
After teaching history, geography and Moral and civic education in French during 5 years, I finally decided to take the DNL to teach it in English. At first, I will come back on my formation, , then on my motivations to teach in English and finally, on my few experiences of interdisciplinarity with English.
I mainly studied English at secondary school, I also did two language courses in England during summer holidays when i was Teenager.
At university, I have to take English civilization class, it was the biggest difficulty I encountered in English. Indeed, the English courses that I had attended until then had enabled me to express myself on a daily basis but not to understand the specific vocabulary of history.
Moreover, my lack of knowledge of British culture added more difficulties because I had to discover almost everything.
It make me realize that foreign languages require more time spent in primary and secondary education, especially concerning the culture of these countries because English teachers have to integrate grammar aspects in their teaching and they don’t have enough time to do everything.
Integrating geography and history courses in English, studying the points of view from different English speaking countries on major historical events such as the World War I or the geographical or economic specificities of these countries, enable students to pratice English and learns about these states.
Since 2011, I have spoken English only during a few trips, even if my bond with the language has never really been lost because today, this language is everywhere: through cinema, TV show, music ... And I thought that was not worth enough to teach in English, so it made me postpone the moment to take the DNL certification whereas it always seemed essential to me.
Having attended English classes, DNL courses and being aware of the level of most students reassured me about my abilities. The most important experience in my decision was the intervention of Jim Howden, a trainer in co-operative education, who did a course in English to seventh grade students, all of whom understood the purpose of his class. and all were attentive despite the difficulties of understanding that they may have encountered. what struck me the most was that no student made any judgment on his Canadian accent, because they were captivated by the lesson, it motivated me a lot because I realized they were interested in the substance rather than the form.
They were my students, so I offered to speak a few minutes in English in the next lesson on Anglicanism and Henry VIII.
When I started speaking in English in front of them, I felt some slight anxiety, I realized that most of my students had to feel so too, and to see someone like them who does not have a perfect English, but who dares to use it, can be a good way to overcome their shyness.
School trips are also a good way to see this in immersion because seeing an adult encounter the same difficulties can help them get more confident and to dare more. That's why I accepted to participate in a language exchange with a ninth grade students in Wimbledon last October 2017. During this trip, students have been discovered the British culture through visits (Windsor, London ...) and they lived in immersion in families at the end of the week and in the evening.
This kind of experience is very useful to progress in the practice of the language. Having DNL courses too, because it makes it possible to maintain one’s capacities and to enrich the culture of the students, it especially with the program of history geography which adapts today to the globalization. It is easier to study the same theme but from a different point of view: world wars, the cold war or decolonization in the ninth grade. Some texts that could be studied in class are translated from English, like the 14 points of President Wilson for the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 or the speech of JF Kennedy on the blockade of Berlin. It might be interesting to study them in their original version
We find this in high school because the second program let us draw parallels between religious reforms in France and Great Britain, likewise, the study of the English and American revolutions can bring that of the French Revolution. In geography, parallels can also be numerous, for the chapter feeding men with case studies on feedlot in the United States or for the chapter of the Arctic regions that helps develop the example of Canada.
Interdisciplinarity in history and English is therefore obvious, that's why we chose to make an EPI third on the feeling of belonging, to enable students, through a multiscale approach, to compare the culture of different countries within the European Union. Thus it was a question of comparing the sense of belonging on a local or regional scale, the Basque Country in France with Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Then the sense of belonging of these same people at national scale, France and the United Kingdom and finally compare their feeling of belonging to the European Union, which leads to debate about current news with the vote Brexit by the United Kingdom. To introduce these elements to the students, we get them work on documents explaining the status of the different areas of Great Britain and the point of view of the different regions on Brexit.
My English colleague and I have supervised students’ production, which consisted of posters or PowerPoint comparing the Basque culture with one of the constituent nations of the United Kingdom.
The oral practice of English takes place when they are asked to justify their own sense of belonging, and compare it to similarly-sized spaces in the United Kingdom. Thus the pupils were able to perform in English during the end-of-year oral exam which was therefore evaluated for the GSCE.
this experience convinced me of the importance of doing English differently, through other subjects but especially with non-specialist teachers of the language, only to make them practice on various subjects and allow them to be uninhibited about an imperfect pronunciation or grammar.
