In the Lower School at the grade 1 and 2 levels, the French program is very active, involving effective use of both new technology as well as other well-established teaching techniques for second language acquisition. The program consists of  daily activities related to speaking, listening and reading, thus bringing together 3 of the 4  skills that are the base of the  teaching methodologies for learning any foreign language.

The creation of a  stimulating environment engenders great enthusiasm for the learning of French.

Research has proven that learning a foreign language at a young age is much easier and later on facilitates a desire to pursue the study of the language.

Let us look more closely at the variety of techniques used in the Primary classroom: they are visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and tactile, thus creating a multi-sensorial approach to learning.

In the picture above, using the interactive whiteboard, which has now become a valuable tool for language acquisition, Madame Sulaiman demonstrates an activity that students will perform using “Flipchart” a component of the Active Primary program. Here she shows students in grade 2 the tools needed to perform the activity, Les Chiffres.

During the next stage, individually, students come to the whiteboard and perform the activity demonstrated.

In the picture on the left, using the pen, the student matches a number to the correct spelling of the number, written upside down.

This is just one of many activities involving the use of the interactive whiteboard.

Other active learning components of the French programme involve playing games, such as ‘Jeu de Mémoire' demonstrated in the third picture. Here, students collaborate in the learning of new vocabulary for the technology unit in an enjoyable way.  They are able to visualise and subsequently associate new vocabulary with the correct situation for use of the words.

Creating a stimulating environment impacts greatly on the level of motivation of students who are eager to learn a modern language.