French Published Works

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https://hdl.handle.net/2328/979
This collection contains works that focus on Second Language learning and teaching and French migration to Australia.

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Browsing French Published Works by Subject "Australian Standard Research Classification > Language Studies > 420121 Comparative Language Studies"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Early French Migration to South Australia: Preliminary Findings on French Vignerons
    (Lythrum Press, 2004) Bouvet, Eric James; Roberts, Chelsea
    The French in Australia form a small group of immigrants in terms of overall migration figures: the 1996 census records 16 000 French-born, while there were 240 000 Italian-born, 126 000 Greek-born and 120 000 German-born respectively, giving an idea of the relative size of the current French-born Australian population. The French community is undoubtedly a small one; however, as Annie Stuer affirms, "[the French] have contributed more to the history and the development of Australia than is popularly known". Although the French impact on Australia is far from insignificant, little has been written from an academic perspective about the French cultural and economic contribution to Australia. The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to broadening the body of research on the French presence in Australia, presenting the initial findings of an investigation in progress of early French vignerons in South Australia.
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    First-Year Post-Secondary Students’ Attitudes Towards the Study of French: A Longitudinal Investigation
    (University of Melbourne, 2004) West-Sooby, John
    In order to meet the expectations of language students and to maximise both the quality of learning and the commitment to it over time, a better understanding of students' attitudes and aspirations is required. There are many factors that contribute to the shaping of attitude, and which can be observed and analysed in a systematic manner. Intuitively, it is 'known' that today's students are just as interested in other cultures, if not more so, as those of the past. We also 'know' that students today have a decidedly international outlook and that overseas travel, for work or leisure, is high on their agenda. However, these institutions are of only limited use unless they are backed up by hard data collected over a period of time. This paper examines some of the results of a survey conducted over several years across two tertiary institutions in which commencing French students in the post-secondary stream were asked to rate the importance of a number of factors that led to their decision to continue with their study of French beyond secondary school. The results have implications for both curriculum design and classroom practice.
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    Flexibility and Interaction at a Distance: A Mixed-Model Environment For Language Learning
    (2003-09) Strambi, Antonella; Bouvet, Eric James
    This article reports on the process of design and development of two language courses for university students at beginning levels of competence. Following a preliminary experience in a low-tech environment for distance language learning and teaching, and a thorough review of the available literature, we identified two major challenges that would need to be addressed in our design: (1) a necessity to build sufficient flexibility into the materials to cater to a variety of learners' styles, interests and skill levels, therefore sustaining learners' motivation; and (2) a need to design materials that would present the necessary requisites of authenticity and interactivity identified in the examined literature, in spite of the reduced opportunities for face-to-face communication. In response to these considerations, we designed and developed learning materials and tasks to be distributed on CD-ROM, complemented by a WebCT component for added interactivity and task authenticity. Although only part of the original design was implemented, and further research is needed to assess the impact of our environment on learning outcomes, the results of preliminary evaluations are encouraging.
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    An Investigation of Foreign Language Students' Conceptualisations of Literary Reading.
    (Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, 2000) Bouvet, Eric James
    This study investigates how first-year post-secondary students conceptualise and judge their strategic behaviour in relation to reading foreign language literary texts. The questionnaire used to collect data is structured around four important metacognitive aspects of reading: what readers believe they are able to do (Confidence), how readers conceive efficient reading in a foreign language (Effectiveness) and what readers believe makes reading difficult (Difficulty), as well as how readers believe they are able to overcome reading difficulties (Repair). In addition to providing information on conceptualisations of key areas of reading, a contrastive investigation of self-assessed proficient readers and sef-assessed less proficient readers is carried out in order to elicit possible differences between the two groups. The results obtained show that the large majority of students are able to envision reading as a cohesive and constructive activity. Most of them report they are able to incorporate bottom-up and top-down strategic behaviour in their conceptions of foreign language reading. However, students appear to be mostly concerned with lexical difficulties which are naturally perceived by them as the major impediment to reading comprehension. As for possible conceptual differences between self-assessed proficient and less proficient students, results suggest that they are minimal. In fact, the only area where a significant discrepancy between the two groups appears is confidence.