Nuances and nods

Language is a complex combination of written, read, heard  & spoken structures. To be fluent you need to, 'be able to express one]
yourself easily and articulately', ' to speak or write language easily & accurately'; but the key is in the word  'fluent' itself; from the Latin 'fluere', fluency should be flowing & smooth.

Getting that flow, is bigger than the nuances of the individual components of a language, greater than just the structure, the spelling, grammar or pronunciation. Its primarily about its communication and for that you need empathy.

You can know all the words, have a grasp of the grammar and understand the written & read text, but without empathy for that language & its culture, your communication will not  ' flow'.

One of the best examples of this is in the use of body language which communicates the meaning, not just directly, but   also indicates you have a knowledge beyond the actual words.

 Travelling in India some years ago the men in the group became fascinated with the head actions of Indian males towards them. In the male world misinterpreting body language is potentially a dangerous activity and, if not read correctly, can end up in a fight. Described as drawing a figure of eight whilst your head is suspended from a fixed point, each guy in the group was intent to master this, so as to fit the cultural norm & stay safe. Turns out it is done increasingly when the person is anxious or nervous, but a lack of this action shows a lack of understanding on the part of the listener.

So it was a few years ago in rural France when there was a minor dispute about who was entitled to put animals on our land. Based on confusion  between the local farmer and a French horse breeder, both of whom believed  they could put their respective animals on our land, my husband Ron set about resolving this potential dispute. It was not an insolvable problem, but in dialect French  and French body language, not easy. 
It went like this:

• Farmer & Horseman stand facing each other, closer than English norm.
• Ron stands equally close feeling uncomfortable.
• Two Frenchman put their hands on their hips & continue talking.
• Ron copies the action looking confused.
• Frenchmen's voices get louder & arms are crossed.
• Ron slowly, uncertainly crosses his arms.
• Silence!
• Ron attempts to intercede.
• Silence!
• More loud French upward turned palms & classic shrug.
• Ron stands still, unsure.
• Frenchmen shake hands vigorously clap each othe on the back & laugh.deal done!
• Ron laughs nervously, deal done, not sure what!
• Two Frenchmen, resolved, "Calvados monsieur,ah oui"

 It turns out that they simply agreed to share the land & put both cows & horse on the land. It wasn't a problem, but it wasn't just the words that communicated the interaction it was the actions and it only flowed in French.

People often refer to the Gaelic shrug but like all languages there are so many degrees of any one action & so many possible actions, your fluency depends on your imitative skills. 

I found this out  recently, because I am very good at mimicking facial & body actions, I don't think about it I just find myself doing them & have become quite proficient in female French body language. Problem is my actual spoken language does not always match my non verbal communication, so fellow conversationalists will often assume I know much more than I do & talk even faster, assuming complete comprehension. Suddenly the conversation came to a question, there was a silence, all eyes turned to me! I shrugged as best I could and uttered the cover all local phrase, 'bah non', it seemed to work, but I was left only half sure what I'd disagreed with.

You need all the aspects of communication to be fluent. Unfortunately in my case recently I was more, 'going with the flow' than 'flowing'.Still, as the advert advises, 'Every little helps' and I do love France!
 'bah oui...exactement...bah oui'

Positively Speaking

My latest lesson  teachingEnglish and  I am left pondering how to encourage more speaking, how I can get the French children to venture into the vital world of verbal communication,


There's something about the formality & grammatical correctness of teaching in France which means the children are fine with the written or read word / with the convergent and single answer response, but struggle with choice or possible different answers. They are used to everything being marked, its right or wrong; no maybe, no nearly and certainly no points for initiative or effort.

So today I began to wonder if their system & way of working was making me adapt my teaching; was I asking for one word answers, expecting single correct answers? I was trying to get them to remember and talk about the days of the week and latterly the concept of 'next' as in the next day or the person next to you, but because they didn't want to make a mistake verbally they were hesitant. They knew the names & order of the days, they knew the concept of  'next / prochaine ', but choosing to take a chance and answer, no thank you. Better if they could take turns or be chosen to speak.And then there were the multiple choice questions, now they're a nightmare!

Our previous 'Let's Speak' language students (French wishing to improve their spoken English) had told us that every error was marked even if the sentence worked, if it was not formally the 'one correct' answer, then it was wrong. Hence for them, written grammar or read prose with closed (single answer) questions were easy to score highly, but they felt inadequate orally because they misused a word, shortened a phrase or mispronounced a.... But language is about communication, getting the message across and 'guessing', 'having a go', trying to put words together, even reading inflection & body language are all vital facets to fluency.

Strange then that in the teaching of a language in France more emphasis seems to be put on correctness and less on actually getting the meaning across.After all we don't normally assess oral / aural communication by how correctly its written or spelt. That would be like measuring land in fathoms or the sea in acres. So most French people pass through the education system with a good grounding of grammatical English but no confidence to speak it, afraid that if its not perfect it will be wrong & ridiculed.

This concept of failure is,it seems, deeply woven into the education system. Children pass  through the primary school system ('marernalle' & 'primaire') in descending numerical order, unlike their UK counterparts who ascend in order. However if they do not make their grades for that year, they fail the year  and have to repeat that year. This is not an uncommon event and is accepted by students who then must repeat the year with children younger than them. Akin to the Victorian 'Standards', whereby you only passed through the standards if you achieved the grade and passed the tests, this is a system which, from the very start acknowledges failure and advances success.  

So when it comes to getting the children to take a risk, have a go the failure is not just a fear of, but a probable reality. So I wonder what those children & their families would make of a letter  recently sent by a Welsh school to all their pupils about to take Standard Attainment Tests. All credit to the school in question, this is a brilliant piece of positivity and I thoroughly approve.

   

Two Blogs One Life...

Back in France and about to return to my voluntary teaching in the small village school.

Its been 18 months since I last taught there;  a year of cancer diagnosis,operations & treatments. So  I am on the eve of writing a piece which actually applies to both the blogs I maintain;  www.frenchchalk.blogspot.fr  and www.diagnosisjournal.blogspot.com ; a strange feeling, my two worlds colliding.

So what am I going to teach, well what else but family. "Je m'appelle Md. Machin, et vous?" I start again, mostly new / different children and  I needs must return to basics; names, introductions and family.

Very apt, in that, in France and particularly rural France,  ' mon famille' is all important. Indeed it was my family that was so important in my journey to recovery. More than a ' basic social unit related to one another', my family close & family of friends near & far have given me the encouragement to keep going.


So when I talk with the children and when we share our languages & experiences, it will mean so much more now.I will be communicating between my two worlds, merging  my France in France & my life with and of cancer.

So, Monday, in that small classroom will indeed be a joy; the joy of teaching, sharing, laughing, encouraging; in short the joy of living and that is difficult to write a lesson plan for. 

So here's my draft:           Lesson Plan for Life
OBJECTIVE: To share the joy of family close & far and understand how special they are
SYLLABUS / SCHEME/ PLAN: Learning intentions & Prior Learning
To communicate the emotion, recognise the limits and learn & apply prior life skills.
OUTCOMES:Key vocabulary & resources needed
Hope, positivity, resourcefulness and love
LEARNING ACTIVITIES: Warm up, differentiation and measurable goals.
So many years, so many faces and so much of the path trod. Yet still a lot to learn...
ASSESSMNET & EVALUATION:
Living & loving....

Now that's what OFSTED would call, ' Outstanding'

The 80 / 20 Rule

It never ceases to amaze me that  the fundamentals of teaching apply across the board; all ages, subjects & abilities, teaching is an art with scientific principles.

My husband  has started some  volunteer tutoring with a local amateur art group and loving it. So each Wednesday evening he is considering & preparing for Thursdays adventure at the adult learning chalk face. He is meticulous in his preparation, clear in his intentions and, despite all those years in university teaching, still has some pre performance nerves.  Our roles have currently changed, no longer me worrying about the village school on a Sunday afternoon, well at least not until after Easter, but my other half  in the same shoes; bigger shoes and different language to overcome.

He is a firm believer in good preparation, but allowance of  flexibility; something left open, to chance. Might be a question, a technique, learner curiosity or just the interest of the day, but there has to be some development element  Fortunately we learnt our craft when creativity & flexibility were seen as equal bedfellows with planning & assessment, we are not bound, by curriculum, standards or thought processes to one single line of  teaching. We can maintain the momentum, achieve the goals, fulfil the targets and be creative, it what gives  teachers
 'the edge'.
The same applied when we came to plan our short presentation for the planning group of the local town Art Festival. There was so much we could say, quote & explain, but we keep it simple & allowed for listener participation. The result a clean and attractive one sheet overview of our small French Art Holiday Business Abientot Art (see our Facebook Page: Art Holidays Abientot) 

But just in case any of you are under the allusion that we teach in a, 'flying by the seat of your pants', Hippy Dippy, 60's manner, here's the theory to back the words.
Its called 'The Pareto Principle' or 'Law of the vital few' and is based on the work of economist Vilfredo  Pareto. It states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes and is used as a business rule of thumb in looking at outcomes v workload. For example, its reckoned that 80% of any  business comes from 20% of the clients, so its better to put the effort into that 20%.

Certainly you can work to increase the 80% result, but  returns are relatively low simply adds to the workload stress, without increasing the outcome. Now stress is a much maligned word. We  need a certain amount  of stress to function. Its the tension that we call excitement , a rush, adrenaline or endomorphin surge or arousal and we even seek it out in our work, hobbies, holidays. Its what makes a problem become a challenge, a danger into a dare and a difficulty into a competition. We need that edge, that adaptability & creativity it also makes the best teachers.

So remember the next time someone challenges your approach or infers a lack of planning, its the Pareto Principle. The 'Law of the Vital Few'.

Divergency...its all in a brush stroke

A guest to our art holiday retreat, which we run from the farm in the Pays de la Loire, was fascinated by her own left / right dominance. Having always assumed she was right side dominant, she had found some preferences for her left hand and so was experimenting with both writing & drawing with her left hand.

My previous studies and work experience as an Advisory Teacher for Literacy & SEN (psychology & dyslexia) meant I had dealt a great deal with learning stlyes, teaching methods and the physical & psychological links of development.

Many a great thinker, Einstein & Leonardo to name but two, has been whole brain functioning / multi dominance. Indeed I believe we all have degrees of cross over in the usage of those two precious hemispheres that constitute the 'wet computer', of our brain. We have developed from seeing only natures curves & light to perceiving man made angularity and artificial light.

Our ancestors, not so many generations back, would have used whatever cognitive or dexterity skills genetics and / or the environment had given them. it is only more recently, in the history of mans evolution, when we measure things largely convergently and, when everyday survival needs are resolved, can we afford the luxury of considering our own functioning.

We are hard wired to seek solutions, but when & how we analyse is dictated by a large number of variables. Some spend lifetimes in academic or analytical pursuit, others look for application and process. Whatever way we cannot avoid our 'fault finding' internal chart, its our way of synthesising the world around us.

Recently I relearnt, via a language French guest, Aristotle's philosophical statement to prove our individual existence...'Je pense, donc je suis'. So in answer to our budding left handed artist.

'If you think you are left side dominant, therefore you probably are'. Well that's what I feel, I think!

Learning is hard in any language....

This year I have been unable to continue my teaching commitments both in France & the UK due to illness; indeed we have had to spend most of the year in the UK. Hence my Anglo/ Franco blog has suffered as I have not been at the chalk face. However I have been observing and considering the two linguistic systems & my fascination between these two great nations & their languages, continues.

It seems that when it comes to Modern Foreign Languages, its not so much about which is the hardest to learn, more about the perception of the learner in how hard that process is. We all like to think our language is the hardest to learn, and by hardest I mean complex and of course best. Thereby lies a measure of elitism as our 'mother tongue' has our highest ranking  and must therefore have the most importance.

I have tried to joke with the French children about their many language homophones ai, aie, aient, aies, ait, (OK they say grammar), aout (August),hou (boo),houe  (hoe),houx (holly),ou(or) & ou (where)...they still don't see the problem even when you joke about not having holly in August. And when I had the audacity to jest about having, 'two hands tomorrow'...."deux mains / demain",  the children just saw that as plain silly.


Likewise we English like to extol the complexity & difficulty of our language and a fine example of this was recently sent to me... http://www.tickld.com/funny/t/824613. This author of this poem proclaims that:

"If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world."
And after trying the verses, it is claimed that  a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.

"Mais oui monsieur"....." We may"....




 

Cowpat Lottery

With full credit to the Anglofranco newspaper 'Connections', September 2014, for finding & reporting this gem. Quite believable in a country so involved in to its rural roots. You only have to drive along any rural major  N road to see large scale poster/billboards advertising some agricultural product and many use the cow as its  main focus.   Can't quite imagine what the equivalent in the UK might be, probably a speed camera  or car park lottery. However  the idea of numbers of people paying & watching such a programme is difficult to imagine, but then we do have Big Brother and Gogglebox.   Personally I'd rather watch the cows!   Charente’s first cowpat lottery

September 30, 2014

A HISTORIC first “cowpat lottery” was held in the Charente at the weekend. While popular in the east of France, the Loto Bouse held in Roumazières on Saturday was the first for the department and was a fundraiser for a local football club, En avant Charente-Est. The game involves marking out a field with a numbered grid and then letting cows loose in it. The box in which the first cow leaves a pat is the winning one. At Roumazières the playing space was 50m by 50m, divided into 2,444 boxes. Some 300 people watched the game. One spectator, from Nice, told Charente Libre: “You don’t often see so many people all staring at cows’ backsides.” Another said: “It’s good to innovate and be audacious, good for the club and for the town.” Four prizes were up for grabs, including a holiday and a TV. The club sold more than 900 tickets at €5 each. A sworn legal officer was on hand to rule on which square contained the most pat in case of doubt. Loto Bouse started in the Jura and has also taken off in Brittany.