WEBVTT

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>> Okay so I chose this little,
what's a called a contexte

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because this is the very
first page of this chapter

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which is a vocabulary
presentation.

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As you can see it's very
richly contextualized,

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all of the vocabulary
that's appearing.

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So keep in mind that these are
first year students in French.

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Some of them have had
some high school French

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but the course is developed

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for beginning learners,
for true beginners.

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Okay? So I will just read you
this little paragraph here.

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I'll give you an
English translation.

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So my native country
is the island of Haiti,

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I love in Port au Prince.

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I am a civil servant.

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When I work, I am very friendly
and polite with the public.

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I look for and often I
find solutions to problems.

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I have a very demanding job,
therefore, I really need rest

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and relaxation in my free time.

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I often spend my Saturday
afternoons at the seaside,

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that's my favorite pastime.

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Okay, so this is page
one of Chapter Two,

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for what we are often assuming

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to be true beginners
in a French course.

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So what do you think the
reaction might have been

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from our students when
they encountered this?

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>> Frustrated.

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>> Sorry?

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>> Frustrating.

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>> Frustrating, exactly.

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>> It's overwhelming for them.

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>> Absolutely, overwhelming.

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>> Yeah.

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>> You agree?

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Okay.

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>> I probably wouldn't even look
at it, like if I were a student

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in class I would just skip that
page and move on to exercises.

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>> Right. Yes.

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Okay well it gets worse
because the vocabulary list is

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at the very end of the
chapter and unfortunately,

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most of the words in here are
not in that vocabulary list.

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So students then flip
back to the glossary

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in the back of the book.

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Well, the words aren't
there either.

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So what do you think the
number one concern becomes

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of the students when they
come to class the next day?

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>> Being prepared.

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>> Being prepared.

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>> They don't know what they're
exactly supposed to know.

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>> Exactly.

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They don't know what they're
supposed to know especially

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for the looming test,
which is coming

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up in a week and a half, right.

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Which words do I need
to know for the test?

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You know, that's the
number one question.

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You know, what do I need
to know for the test.

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It's very hard to
tell them, you know.

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What do you say?

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Well you're only responsible for
the words in the vocabulary list

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at the end of the chapter.

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If that's the case,
what is their motivation

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to learn these other words?

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There really isn't one.

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So let's see.

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So the students were
extremely frustrated.

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So what they were
requesting, again kind of based

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on their experiences
with this book,

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they were requesting
a slower progression

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to language appearing
in rich context.

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So we had to kind
of strike a balance

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between what we knew
students needed in order

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to learn vocabulary effectively
and retain vocabulary

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and what students
were requesting.

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They wanted vocabulary lists
and vocabulary lists were kind

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of a thing of the past and
vocabulary lists appeared

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in most textbooks at
the end of chapters,

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kind of to pull everything
together

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that students had seen
throughout the chapter.