As part of a serving learning project, French professors Abadie and Daddah took their French conversation students to the Bellbrook Middle School on March 19, 20, 24 and 27 to promote the French language.
The French conversation class taught the students some fundamentals on learning the French language. During the sessions, Wright State students delivered a great presentation to the Bellbrook classes. The main topic was centered around “why speaking French” can be an important skill to learn. After the presentation, they engaged the students in fun activities to help them learn some basic words or phrases.
Some of the activities included learning colors, numbers, and cognates (words that sound the same in both languages). Bellbrook students were divided into groups, and played the game Molecule, for which they had to get into groups based off the number they were told. The WSU students also showed some videos with songs to help further their learning about numbers.
After the games, the Bellbrook students learned about a French tradition involving the “Galette de Rois”, a Normandy delicacy. In this French tradition, the cake is cut into pieces, which are shared with all participants. Inside the cake there is a hidden toy. The person, whose piece of cake that includes a toy, which was hidden inside, gets to be made King or queen for the day. The winner then has to pick a King/Queen to share the throne with. While the students were savouring the cake, they were shown clips of minions from the movies Despicable Me, since they spoke some French in it!
The students also learned how to introduce themselves in French. They were then introduced to the French "gastronomy" by pretending to be at a French Café. They had to order some popular French foods and drinks.
Finally they learned about colors and animals, and played a matching and coloring game to practice what they had just learned. Students also got to dance to some popular French songs!
This service learning project was a wonderful experience for all students. It helped get started a conversation around why choosing to learn the French language was a worthwhile educational endeavor to pursue. The experience for our students at Wright State University was extremely valuable as it allowed them to not only practice their language skills, but also participate in promoting the language to future university students.
