Pour que les étudiants de FLS comprennent et participent à la francophonie canadienne

Abstract

This article is based on a second language teaching workshop drawing on the key findings of research into the academic pathways of future French as a second language (FSL) educators. The research reveals a lack of cultural
and linguistic literacy reported by future FSL teachers—including advanced learners of FSL—in terms of Canada’s francophone communities (Lamoureux and Cohen, 2012; Moor and Lamoureux, 2012). The two lines of thinking on pedagogical practice presented in this article demonstrate how these literacies can be developed in a university FSL program. The first pedagogical practice highlights the development of intercultural competency (Byram, 2003) through pedagogical projects that enable students to actively and autonomously participate in the Canadian “francophonie”. The second pedagogical practice demonstrates the importance of a didactic legitimization of students’ comprehension of local language varieties of French and their symbolic function (Cuq and Gruca, 2002). This awareness enables students to communicate effectively with local native speakers of French.