Our French teacher Amaia Areitio writes about her experiences in language teaching - from the children's first contact with a new foreign language to the first language exam DELF Prim. She explains what such an early exam experience means for the children's personality development, for their school career and above all for their motivation.
Would you prefer to read the blog in the original language - French? Then please continue reading here.
Learning a foreign language takes a lot of effort, whether you are a child or an adult, yet when you are young it is much easier. Scientific research shows that the earlier you start, the easier it is to progress and learn other languages. If a child is exposed to a foreign language at an early age, he or she will most certainly master it more comfortably than if they learn it later.
Learning a foreign language opens doors that would not otherwise open, it opens the mind and encourages children to have a broader perspective on their surroundings. French is a linguae mundi that flourishes in a multitude of countries and has developed in each environment with its own colour. To start learning French in our school is to open the doors of the French-speaking world and to become familiar with values of openness, broad-mindedness, yet also a sense of creativity and decisiveness.
Play is an effective tool for motivation. It is, one could say, the fundamental task that children must devote themselves to during their childhood: through play, they develop their cognitive capacity and sensory skills, discover their emotions, reproduce everyday situations that enable them to learn to cope with the world around them and, in short, forge what will be their future personality.
Young children need to be encouraged and need to feel pleasure when learning a new language. They need to play, move and develop their fine motoric skills. This is why, as a teacher, I always avoid asking my students to sit for 30 minutes. I alternate learning moments as often as possible. There are times when the children will be listening or discovering and times when they will be working individually on their notebook or with their classmate.
Children learn with their bodies, with all their senses and with all their memories and experiences. I always offer them a range of activities so that each student finds an activity adapted to his/her profile.
DELF Prim is an excellent motivational tool. This exam is based on a positive, simple and readable evaluation that values progress. The themes are adapted to young learners.
This is their first exam outside the school. It is the first time that our students take an oral exam in front of examiners. As all students are well prepared, they all pass with excellent results.
Their efforts are therefore rewarded, which motivates the students to prepare for the next level.
The students begin to realise how lucky they are to be learning French, they want to improve and this leads them to be open to other French-speaking cultures. Pupils look forward to our French camp in French-speaking Switzerland or in France. And they ask their parents to visit Belgium or even Canada or Africa.
The great advantage of the DELF Prim is that every student can register for the level of his/her choice (A1.1 / A1 or A2) regardless of the year when he/she joined our school. In this way, all children can be included in the French programme. The DELF Prim therefore offers a very flexible examination programme. Setting an objective within the student's reach is a great motivating factor and therefore a driving force for the student's personal investment and progress.
The DELF is an internationally recognised diploma with an unlimited duration, which is an advantage if the student moves to another country.
If we want children to learn, we have to take them on board. We must also take them where they are and as they are - with their own way of learning, with their own way of being. This will lead them on the path of their learning.
I will end with a few words: «encourage», «value», «interest», «motivate», «involve», «awaken the desire to learn» and «awaken the pleasure of learning». Children who are given the pleasure of learning are children who, when they enter the classroom, arrive with a smile and, when they leave, say «it went by too quickly Mrs Areitio».