Standard 9 – Professional Commitment & Responsibility Artifact 2 Joely Rogers

Standard 9 – Professional Commitment and Responsibility

The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his or her
choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning
community) and who actively seeks opportunities to grow professionally.

Artifact II for Standard Nine: Professional Commitment and Responsibility

Name of Artifact: French Immersion Program in Quebec, Canada

Date: Summer 2009

Course: This was not part of a course, but the artifact was included in my language

learning history for Teaching Second Languages: Theory into Practice FL 561.

Rationale/Artifact II – French Immersion Program in Quebec, Canada

Professional commitment and responsibility is not exclusive to the classroom. A

committed teacher is one who continuously seeks new knowledge about her field and

opportunities to grow professionally both in and out of the classroom. In support of

standard 9, I offer this artifact “French Immersion Program in Quebec, Canada,” that I

wrote for FL561’s language learning history. I am including this artifact because I feel it

demonstrates my commitment to grow professionally by literally “putting myself in my

future students’ shoes.” I traveled to Canada and spent two weeks living in a dormitory

and studying French as a second language. This was the closest I could come personally

to mirroring my future students’ experiences of living in foreign country and trying to

learn to learn a new language.

Background

USM requires those pursing the MATL with a TESOL option to complete 9 hours

of a foreign language if their 1st language is English. I did not take any foreign language

courses during my undergraduate degree; therefore I had to complete the requirements

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 Standard 9 – Professional Commitment & Responsibility Artifact 2 Joely Rogers

concurrent with my graduate coursework. I chose to study French for my 2nd language

because I have traveled to France, Quebec and several French-speaking islands in the

Caribbean, and loved the different varieties of the French language and culture I

encountered during these visits. I first studied French in high school, which was a lifetime

ago, so essentially I was starting over with the language. I took French I and II at

Richland Community College in Dallas, Texas. My professor, a native speaker from the

town of Pau in southern France, was excellent. During my two semesters (fall 2008 –

spring 2009) of back-to-back French classes, I was able to witness some of the 2nd

language acquisition theories I was studying in the MATL, such as language transfer and

interlanguage, in real time.

Artifact II - French Immersion Program in Ville de Quebec

For my last 3 hours of French I chose to complete a 50-hour intensive program (2

weeks) in Quebec (city), Canada during the summer of 2009 with Edu-Inter, a Quebec-

based language school which offers immersion programs in French. My rationale for

choosing this program was that it was the closest possible mirror to my future ESL

students learning experiences in the U.S., as I would be living (for a short time) in a

country whose language I had a limited grasp of. It was not, however, a complete

immersion, as many people in Quebec speak English. Outside of Montreal English does

become less common and French was definitely the primary language in Ville de Quebec.

I stayed at a dormitory at Laval University and took the bus each day to Merici

College where my classes were held. I have traveled to Europe several times, but nothing

prepared me for day-to-day living in a foreign language. Taking public transportation,

grocery shopping, doing laundry in a public laundry, asking for directions and mailing

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 Standard 9 – Professional Commitment & Responsibility Artifact 2 Joely Rogers

letters became difficult (and often frustrating experiences); this coupled with 8 hours a

day of French gave a whole new meaning to the word ‘challenge’. At the end of the 1st

week I was having troubling thinking, writing and talking in English. I later discovered

this phenomenon has a name, subtractive bilingualism, where the individual partially or

completely loses the L1 as the L2 is acquired (Lightbrown & Spada, 2006). In truth, my

experience was most likely culture shock rather than subtractive bilingualism, but it made

me wonder what would happen to my English if I stayed permanently in Quebec.

The French classes at Edu-Inter were strictly communicative. Meaning was

central to all lessons and communicative competence was the goal. The lessons required

us to role-play, give presentations, work in pairs/groups and creative language use was

highly encouraged. We took field trips to local attractions and were required to report our

impressions in French. It was an incredible experience and an unparalleled encounter

with communicative language teaching!

L’étudiante française Basse-Ville, Québec

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Standard 9 – Professional Commitment & Responsibility Artifact 2 Joely Rogers

One of my projects – Lundi Noir Student Watering Hole – Quartier de Lune

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 Standard 9 – Professional Commitment & Responsibility Artifact 2 Joely Rogers

References

Lightbrown, P.M. & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. Oxford: Oxford

University

Press.