MANGER POUR VIVRE

TEACHER: Nicole Ramirez

SCHOOL: USM

SUBJECT: French

LEVEL: 102

UNIT: Live to Eat

LESSON: The partitive and dislocations

DATE: April 23rd, 2014

Duration of Activities: 50 minutes

PROFICIENCY LEVEL OF STUDENTS: Novice High

I. PRE-ACTIVITY: The teacher will start the class by asking them what their favorite foods
and drinks are. Vocabulary for food and drink will be reviewed and new vocabulary will be
introduced.
II. PURPOSE
IMPORTANCE/RELEVANCE OF ACTIVITY: The purpose of this activity is to introduce the
partitive within the context of food. The students will come to understand when to use the
partitive (with mass nouns) and when to use the indefinite article (with count nouns).
III. THE FIRST ACTIVITY
OBJECTIVE:
The student will be able to use the partitive correctly when speaking and writing.
STANDARD:
Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of
topics
PROCEDURE:
Using the grammatical technique of Textual Enhancement, the teacher will hand out an excerpt
of a dialogue from the book Motifs that has the partitive bolded.

The teacher will have two

volunteers read the dialogue out loud for the class. Once the dialogue has been read out loud, the
teacher will go over the dialogue to make sure the students understand what was said and she

will also remind the students the difference between a mass noun and a count noun. She will
also explain to the class that indefinite articles are used with count nouns and the partitive is used
with mass nouns and that they both mean some in English. Once comprehension of the dialogue
is completed, the teacher will pass out an activity where the students have to circle whether or
not the noun in the sentence is a count noun or a mass noun.
The following dialogue the students will review is on page 193 of Motifs.
Jean-Pierre: Moi, au petit djeuner, je mange souvent du pain avec du beurre et de la
confiture-une tartineet avec a, je prends un caf crme.
Anne: Moi, je mange des crales le matin. Puis, pour le djeuner, je vais au resto-U.
On commence par une salade et puis on prend de la viande avec du riz ou des pommes
de terre comme plat principal. Parfois, ils nous servent du yaourt ou de la glace comme
dessert.
Jean-Pierre: Moi, je ne mange pas de viande. Quest-ce-quil y a pour les vgtariens
au resto-U?
Anne: Alors l! Pas grand-chose!
This is the handout they will receive.
Decide if the following nouns are mass nouns or count nouns. Circle the correct answer.
1) du riz- Mass ou Count

5) du pain- Mass ou Count

2) un caf crme- Mass ou Count

6) une carotte- Mass ou Count

3) de la viande- Mass ou Count

7) un croissant- Mass ou Count

4) une salade- Mass ou Count

8) du jambon- Mass ou Count

MATERIALS: dialogue handout and the activity handout

ASSESSMENT: Once the activity has been done, the teacher will ask the students to write and
turn in one sentence using the partitive and one sentence using the indefinite article.

TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS.
In order to do this activity, you will need to do the following:
1) Make copies of the dialogue from Motifs on page 193 and hand out the dialogue to each
student. As you go over the dialogue with the class, ask comprehension questions to
make sure they understand.
2) Ask students what they notice about all of the nouns that follow the partitive. What kind
of nouns are they? Remind them what a mass noun is and what a count noun is.
3) Explain to the students how and when to use the partitive.
4) Hand out the activity that asks them to circle whether the noun is a mass noun or count
noun.
5) Once they have done that activity, go over it with them to discuss the correct answers and
to make sure they understand and got them correct. Then, ask the students if they have
any questions about how to use the partitive or if they are confused about anything they
learned that day.
STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS
The activity for today concerns the partitive in French, which translates into some in
English when it precedes a mass noun. You will need to do the following for this activity:
1) The teacher will hand out a dialogue in French to you with the partitve bolded.
Read over the dialogue and pay close attention to the nouns that follow the bolded words.
2.) Listen carefully as two students read the dialogue out loud.
3) Pay close attention to the teacher as she goes over what the bolded words are
and explains when to use them.
4) You will receive another handout with an activity where you have to circle if
the noun is a mass noun or a count noun.
5) Once you are done with this activity, pay close attention to the teacher as she
goes over the correct answers.

6) Write one complete sentence using the partitive and one using the indefinite
article with the food vocabulary that you know or learned during this class period.
THE SECOND ACTIVITY
I. PRE-ACTIVITY:
The teacher will review what the students previously learned about the partitive and have them
do an activity from Motifs where they have to fill in the blanks with the correct partitve or
indefinite article and then she will mention that the partitive changes to de in a negative
expression.
II. PURPOSE
IMPORTANCE/RELEVANCE OF ACTIVITY: The purpose of this activity is to point out to
the students that the partitive that they have already learned, du, de la or de l changes to de after
a negative expression like ne...pas, ne...rien, ne...jamais, etc.
III. THE SECOND ACTIVITY
OBJECTIVE:
The student will be able to differentiate between the partitive that precedes a mass noun and the
partitve after a negative expression.
STANDARD:
Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of
topics
PROCEDURE:
Using the conscious-raising method to introduce the partitive that changes to de after a negative
expression, the students will receive a set of sentences with the partitive after a negative
expression. In groups of three, they will discuss what the grammatical rule could be about the
partitve in the sentences. After a few minutes of discussion, the teacher will ask for volunteers to
give their hypothesis to the whole class. Once the class has discussed this, the teacher will
confirm what the rule is and then the class will watch part of a video (from 47 seconds-2:01)
entitled: French Lesson 8: Partitive Articles, Quantities and Negations.

The handout will have the following sentences:

1) Il ne boit pas de lait.

4) Elle ne mange pas dail.

2) Je ne mange jamais de fromage.

5) On na pas de bon vin.

3) Il ny a pas de tarte

6) Je ne prends jamais de sucre dans mon caf.

MATERIALS: handout, computer to show you tube video

ASSESSMENT: The teacher will have the students come up with three complete sentences to
turn it using the partitive de after a negative expression.
TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS
In order to do this activity, you will need to do the following:
1) Review the partitive with the students which they learned in the previous lesson.
2) Give them the handout with the sentences that all use de after the negative expressions.
3) Split the class up into groups of three so that they can work together to try to figure out
what the grammatical rule is about these sentences.
4) While they are working in their groups, put on soft background music in French.
5) Once they have discussed what the rule could be, ask for a volunteer to give his
hypothesis to the class.
6) Ask for a few other volunteers to give their opinion and discuss that with the class.
7) Reveal to the students what the grammatical rule is.
8) Access the you tube video French Lesson 8: Partitive Articles, Quantities and
Negations. Have the students watch the video from 47 seconds- 2:01.
http://youtu.be/_EPrESuDms4
9) After the video, ask the students if there is anything about the partitive after negative
expressions that confuse them or if anyone has any questions.

STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS
The activity for today concerns the partitive in French and how it is formed when
following a negative expression. You will need to do the following for this activity:
1) The teacher will hand out a form with sentences that have blanks to fill in. You will
need to fill those blanks with the appropriate indefinite article or the partitive, which you learned
in the previous lesson.
2) After your teacher reviews the partitive, she will give you a handout with several
sentences on it. You will get in a group of 3 students and together you will need to try to figure
out what the grammatical rule concerning the partitive in these sentences.
3.) Offer your hypothesis to the class when your teacher asks for it.
4) Pay close attention to the teacher and the discussion the class may have about what
they think the grammatical rule about these sentences.
5) Pay attention to the video that you teacher puts on about the partitive after negative
expressions.
6) Ask your teacher any questions you may have concerning the partitive.
7) Write and turn in three sentences using the partitive after negative expressions.

THIRD ACTIVITY
I. PRE-ACTIVITY:
The teacher will start this lesson by asking the students if they notice that they speak differently
than they write and she will ask them to give her examples of phrases or words that they would
say in English that they would not use if they were writing a paper, a letter or if they were trying
to get a job and had to write something about why they wanted that job.

She will then explain

to them that francophones also speak much differently than they write and specifically she will

focus on right and left dislocations as the class discusses their favorite foods and drinks using the
new vocabulary they learned from this lesson.
II. PURPOSE:
IMPORTANCE/RELEVANCE OF ACTIVITY: The purpose of this activity is to make the
students aware that French speakers speak much differently than they write, much like the
students themselves do in English. The way a francophone actually speaks is often overlooked
in the French classroom. Therefore this activity aims to give a very basic introduction to this,
using right and left dislocations.
III. THE THIRD ACTIVITY:
OBJECTIVE:
The student will realize that the French speaker speaks much differently than what they are
taught in the classroom and much differently than the way they write. The student will be able to
use right and left dislocations to indicate their preferences and dislikes with regard to the food
vocabulary studied in this unit.
STANDARD:
Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings
and emotions, and exchange opinions
Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret spoken and written French on a variety of topics.
Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices
and perspectives of the culture studied
Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only
available through the foreign language and its cultures
Standard 4.1: Students demonstrate understanding of the nature of language through
comparisons of the language studied and their own.
PROCEDURE:
The teacher will handout a questionnaire to each student. The questionnaire shows right and left
dislocations to show emphasis or to reiterate the students preferences. The students will need to

fill out the questionnaire according to their likes and dislikes. Once the students have finished
their questionnaires, the teacher will ask them to share their answers with the class, reading out
loud the answers exactly how they are written on the questionnaire.

Once they have reviewed

the questionnaire as a class, the teacher will ask the students if they have any questions about the
activity they did that day and also explain to them that this was a very basic introduction to the
way the French actually speak and that they will be exposed to more as the semester progresses.
QUESTIONNAIRE:
1) Quest ce que tu penses de la nourriture McDonalds?
a) Moi, je trouve a abominable.
b) Moi, je prfre Burger King.
c) Moi, jadore manger au McDonalds
2) Est-ce-que tu aimes les lgumes?
a) Les lgumes, je les trouve dgotant, moi.
b) Moi, je les mange tous les jours.
c) Les lgumes, ils sont dlicieux.
3) Est-ce que-tu manges beaucoup de viande?
a) Moi, jamais, je suis vgtarien.
b) Moi, tous les jours. Jadore la viande.
c) Moi, parfois je mange de la viande.
4) Quel est votre plat prfr?
a) Jadore les salades, moi.
b) Je prfre les fromages, moi.
c) Moi, jaime la viande.
5) Est-ce-que tu manges le poisson?
a) Moi, je naime pas le poisson
b) Moi, jadore le poisson
c) Moi, je dteste le poisson.

MATERIALS: questionnaire
ASSESSMENT:
The teacher will give students turns expressing their preferences according to the way it was
demonstrated in the questionnaire. She will ask students randomly questions like: Est-ce-que tu
prfres manger chez toi ou au restaurant? Quest-que tu aimes beaucoup manger, toi? Questce-que tu prfres boire, toi? etc. to get the students to at least think about using the right or left
dislocations.
TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS
In order to do this activity, you will need to do the following:
1) After discussing the difference in how we speak and write our language and how
differently francophones speak compared to how they write, the teacher will give the students a
questionnaire about their preferences. This questionnaire focuses on right and left dislocation
and incorporates the food vocabulary that the students have already learned.
2) While the students are answering the questionnaire, play some soft French music in the
background.
3) When the students have completed the questionnaire, discuss the students answers
and have them read their preferences exactly as they are written on the questionnaire out loud to
the class. Emphasize that the French often use moi, toi, and nous as emphasis when speaking.
4) Ask the students if they have any questions.

STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS
The activity for today concerns the way French actually speak when you compare it to
how they write and to the academic French taught in the classroom. You will need to do the
following for this activity:

1) Participate in the initial conversation about expressions that you would say in English
that you would not write in a paper, a formal letter, or a job application.
2) Listen as your teacher explains that it is the same for French speakers.
3) Answer the questions on the questionnaire that show the right and left dislocations,
which focus on the personal pronoun moi.
4) Ask the teacher any questions you may have concerning this exercise.

My current position on grammar in the teaching of second/foreign languages

I have to say that my view on the necessity of grammar in the classroom has not changed
so much since the beginning of this course, but I definitely think it has been broadened. What
this class has done for me in terms of how I view grammar is that it has opened me up to a whole
new world of teaching methods that are so valuable to me. I have never concentrated so much
on grammar and the different ways it can be taught before taking this class. Over the course of
this semester, I have used many of the different techniques and I have been able to see what
works for my students and what does not work.
The change that I had about how much emphasis to put on grammar came after my first
semester of teaching a class by myself. Before I took on that class, I thought that I would
completely focus on conversation and speaking and getting my students to be able to converse
readily at the drop of a hat. However I realized that the Spanish program that we are using,
Wiley assumes that the students retain much more than they actually do as they go from one
semester to the next. Therefore, I had to adjust my strategy early on. In teaching Spanish to
students, we do not want them to get discouraged and quit. And they get nervous when you ask
them to speak in Spanish even when they know the answer. There has to be that motivational
attitude that shows that learning Spanish or any foreign language is fun and that it can be done in

a no-stress zone where it does not matter if you make a mistake. Mistakes produce even more
learning.
As I was growing up, I would always hear my mom or grandmother say, Moderation is
the key. Whether you are talking about eating, drinking exercising, studying, living the good
life, or whatever it is, they believed that Moderation is key. I share that opinion as I apply it to
my teaching philosophy today. And when I first posted my philosophy on grammar at the
beginning of the semester, there were echoes of that idea as I spoke about taking it slowly and
setting the pace for students acquisition of the L2. I still feel that way today. In my opinion,
when teaching grammar, we do not need too much of anything. We do not need too many
activities to be presented at one time. Nor do we need too many input activities, or too many
output activities, too much discourse, or too many cloze activities, lest the students get restless
and start zoning out. As the program in Canada shows, just because you get over 6000 hours of
input in the foreign language does not mean fluency in that language (Katz and Blyth, 2007).
And it is also important not to try to teach too many grammar concepts at one time. It is
necessary for the students to focus on one grammar topic and master it before moving on to the
next one. Katz and Blyth would support my point of view as they state in their book Teaching
French Grammar in Context that an entire paradigm such as all direct and indirect objects should
not be taught at the same time. They even suggest that teachers consider only teaching a few
forms of a verb conjugation at a time (Katz and Blyth, 2007).
Therefore, it is my opinion that communicative language teaching (CLT) alone will not
work and neither will just focusing on grammar activities without giving ample time for
communicating. The focus on form method which I discuss to greater length later in this paper,
allows students to concentrate on meaning as well as learn important grammar concepts. The

key to students success when learning those grammar concepts of a foreign language is plenty
of variety so that students do not get bored or lose interest. According to Katz and Blyth, variety
is essential for maintaining students interest (Katz and Blyth, p. 245). They also state that since
students have many different learning styles, (visual, auditory, or kinesthetic) they will respond
differently to different methods of teaching (Katz and Blyth, 2007). Therefore the instructor
must aim to figure out what works best for each of her students and cater to that need. Another
key to their success is enough repetition so that they are being exposed to a particular
grammatical concept several times over the course of a semester or a school year. This is
another guideline of Katz and Blyth that I agree with. They suggest that grammar should be
recycled throughout the semester and that instructors must make an effort to integrate earlier
material into current lessons (Katz and Blyth, 2007). I know that in Spanish for example,
students must know how to form the third person plural preterit form in order to be able to form
the imperfect subjunctive. If they cant remember it, there is no way for them to go forward with
the imperfect subjunctive since its base is the third person plural preterit form. When I taught
my students the imperfect subjunctive this semester, before I even mentioned it we did a
refresher lesson on the preterit tense focusing especially on the third person plural. All of my
students were appreciative because none of them remembered how to form it off the top of their
heads. I had to remind them before it clicked in their brains that they had already learned it
before.
In Teaching Grammar in Second Language Classrooms, in chapter one, the authors talk
about focus on form, stating that it is a kind of instruction that draws the learners attention to
linguistic forms in the context of meaningful communications. I tend to disagree with Longs
conceptualization of focus on form because he believed that learners could acquire most of the

grammar of a language incidentally while their attention was on meaning (Nassaji and Fotos, p.
11) I do however agree on a more current take where Doughty and Williams suggested that Fonf
can occur both reactively, by responding to errors, and proactively by addressing possible target
language problems before they occur. They also stated leaving the learner to their own devices
in not the best plan (Nassaji and Fotos, 2011, p.11). I think that I am the perfect example of
that learner that learned to speak a second language, Spanish, without focusing on grammar at
all. And while I was able to pick up the language enough to speak it fluently, before I started the
MATL, my writing and reading skills left much to be desired. And I am a motivated student!
When you are in a classroom of thirty students and maybe 25% of them are motivated, grammar
is the last thing on their minds. Therefore, leaving it up to them will not work. Both meaningbased and explicit instructional activities need to be presented and opportunities given in order
for the students to take the input and make it into intake.
After reading so much over this semester about the options we have in teaching grammar,
one thing that has remained in the forefront of my mind is that of providing enough input before
we ask the students to produce the language. I definitely support this theory although I did not
always practice it. I did not realize just how important it was until taking this class. Before this
semester, I felt like I had to cover every little concept that was on the syllabus. But what the
syllabus does not take into account is the students motivation to learn Spanish or the different
levels of each students Spanish.
I have become a supporter of slowing down the pace in the classroom if that is what is
needed. I have come to this conclusion after teaching about twenty of the same students for the
past three semesters. Between Spanish 201 and Spanish 202, they all went on Christmas break.
When they returned from the break, it took more than one day of review to get their minds

working in Spanish again. I think after my first meeting, maybe the second, of my Spanish 202
class this semester, I realized that they needed more review on the subjunctive, commands and
some other grammar concepts that we had already studied. Right there, I decided to take it just a
little bit slower this semester. Instead of one or two activities on the grammar topic of the day, if
I noticed they were struggling with it, we did more activities. And we reviewed the concept until
they understood it. The goal was not about covering every topic on the syllabus this time. It was
about making sure they were learning. This approach, I believe worked to their benefit. As a
whole the class participated more, spoke more, and showed much more interest in what we were
learning than they had the previous semesters. There are a handful of students that have made
great progress this semester compared to the previous semesters that they were in my class. Two
of them have decided to declare Spanish as a minor and one of them has made a Skype pal that
he practices his Spanish with (in his free time!).
Another thing that I wanted to mention in terms of how I think grammar should be taught
is that of feedback. I think it is absolutely necessary for the instructor to correct her students
immediately when they make a mistake. It can be done in a way that is polite and not
embarrassing to the student. And the instructor can start the semester by warning the class that
she will correct them and explain to them that it is for their benefit and to never feel ashamed.
Without correction, how is a student to know that they said something incorrectly? Whether it is
pragmatically incorrect or grammatically incorrect, they must be informed! In Nassaji and
Fotos, the authors speak about negative evidence which is defined as information that tells the
learner what is not possible in a given language (Nassaji and Fotos, 2011). This is an especially
important concept when teaching a foreign language. If we consider the French language, which
uses the cest and presentational cleft expressions or right and left dislocations, if the instructor

does not give feedback or correct her students, how will they ever know that the sentence they
have said is not pragmatically correct? For example, in Katz and Blyth, the authors give
examples of how Americans would say a certain sentence that they assume is correct since they
are using the right vocabulary words but that are incorrect because that is just not how the French
would say it. On page 149, there are several examples: Someone asks an Anglophone Questce qui ne va pas? Pourquoi tu es si boulevers? The Anglophone replies, Mon chien est mort.
Which seems like a perfectly good translation right? My dog is dead/died. However, that is
not how the French would say it. According to Katz and Blyth they would say, Jai mon chien
qui est mort. Or I have my dog that is dead/died. Of course that is not how we say it in English
and although the listener in either language would understand the meaning behind this sentence,
it sounds funny. Therefore, the instructor must step in and point out to the Anglophone how the
French would actually say it. Corrective feedback is essential in acquiring the L2 and
instructors should not be afraid to use it.
I have discussed many concepts in the teaching of grammar in the L2 classroom. While I
believe everything that I have mentioned in my paper is very important, I also want to
acknowledge that everything else that I read in Katz and Blyth and Nassaji and Fotos is equally
valuable information that I will continue to use in my classroom.
For this project, I collaborated with Fadi Safar. His recommendations were greatly
appreciated and I made all the changes that he suggested that I make. I have enjoyed working
with Fadi as I feel he has much expertise to offer and I always seem to learn something new from
him every time I read his emails or something that he has posted on the Discussion Board.

References
Blyth, C. & Katz, S. (2002). Teaching French grammar in context. New Haven & London: Yale
Universtiy Press.
Jansma, K & Kassen, M. (2011). Motifs. Boston, MA: Heinle Cengage Learning.
Nassaji, H. & Fotos, S. (2011). Teaching Grammar in second language classrooms. New York,
NY: Routledge.
Rafatheman. (2012, March 18). French Lesson 8: Partitive articles, quantities and negations.
Retrieved May 4, 2014 from: http://youtu.be/_EPrESuDms4