Seabury French

2011-01-24T08:38:00.001-08:00

The English language has been shaped by a number of other languages over the centuries, and many English speakers know that Latin and German were two of the most important. What many people don't realize is how much the French language has influenced English.

Without going into too much detail, here is a little bit of background about the other languages which shaped English. It was born out of the dialects of three German tribes (Angles, Jutes, and Saxons) who settled in Britain in about 450 A.D. This group of dialects forms what linguists refer to as Anglo-Saxon, and at some point this language developed into what we know as Old English. This Germanic base was influenced in varying degrees by Celtic, Latin, and Scandinavian (Old Norse) - the languages spoken by invading armies.

Bill Bryson calls the Norman conquest of 1066 the "final cataclysm [which] awaited the English language." (1) When William the Conqueror became king of England, French took over as the language of the court, administration, and culture - and stayed there for 300 years. Meanwhile, English was "demoted" to everyday, unprestigious uses. These two languages existed side by side in England with no noticeable difficulties; in fact, since English was essentially ignored by grammarians during this time, it took advantage of its lowly status to become a grammatically simpler language and, after only 70 or 80 years existing side-by-side with French, Old English segued into Middle English.

Vocabulary

During the Norman occupation, about 10,000 French words were adopted into English, some three-fourths of which are still in use today. This French vocabulary is found in every domain, from government and law to art and literature - learn some. More than a third of all English words are derived directly or indirectly from French, and it's estimated that English speakers who have never studied French already know 15,000 French words. (2) You can see 1,700 words that are identical in the two languages right here: True cognates.

2011-01-01T08:55:00.000-08:00

2010-10-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

The Lower School French room has donned its Halloween garb for the month of October. The children are interacting with ghosts, pumpkins, skeletons, witches, black cats, bats, and all the varied vocabulary that Halloween presents. They all take great interest in the many props, facilitating the learning of rhymes, songs and games.

2010-09-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

Seabury School will soon sport labels in French in the classrooms. Madame Olliphant and Halley Griffin visited classrooms with an eye for what need to be labeled. Halley then made attractive labels and laminated them. The children from the Sharks to the Explorers and the Middle School have been working orally with the vocabulary that will soon be posted. It is important to learn the words orally before they see them written, in order to eliminate the application of English phonetics to French words.

Middle Schoolers are applying the irregular verbs prendre and mettre (put and take) in practicing the vocabulary.

2010-09-10T13:38:00.001-07:00

To Seabury Parents From Madame Olliphant
September 2010

Your child has a new name! Seabury students (except the Bear Cubs) chose French names that stay with them for the remainder of the school year. New students and the younger children may not be able to tell you their names just yet. They are still working on recognizing them.

Students receive French names so that they learn new words and sounds. They need to be able to pronounce names of French-speaking people.

Note that even though some names are spelled the same in English and French, the pronunciations are quite different. In French pronunciation, word stress is on the last syllable and final consonants are usually silent. The letters ‘i’ and ‘y’ are usually pronounced like a long ‘e’ and English has no sound like the French ‘u’. An ‘h’ at the beginning of a word is always silent and a ‘th’ has only the sound of ‘t.’

For those of you who wonder why the French name of a child may not be the equivalent or related to the English name:
When English-speaking people visit a French speaking country, Francophones pronounce names as closely as they can to the English, which usually come out with a French accent. In turn, English speakers try to pronounce French names as best they can. This is not easy (or impossible) if the name is one they have not encountered or learned. As I explain to the children, we are learning new words, which is why each year I ask them to select a name that they have not had before or that they do not know.

When the equivalent French name is very close to an English name, such as Michelle, I ask that the children with those names to not select the same name. This is because the pronunciations in the two languages are so close, the distinction is difficult to hear or make. Since the children are used to using the English pronunciation for those particular students, the tendency is use the English pronunciation. If other students choose those names, the tendency to mispronounce is much less.

Sometimes a child's name, such as David or Christopher, has an equivalent that is different enough in French so that there will not be confusion. Then a child is allowed to select that name, but only for that year.

This year, thanks to the additions made by Léa Tulasne, our new teacher for the Bearcubs, Superstars and Sharks ( one of the 2 classes for the latter), we have some names borrowed from other languages because they are currently popular in France.

Please ask if you have any more questions about names.

Vive la France!

2010-07-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

French scarves!

Painting with egg yolk to get that shiny pastry finish.

Berets!

The sun is in our eyes!

Group shot

A sun-in-my-eyes smile.

Getting ready for the fashion show!

Crowns for our galêtte des rois

Crown – la couronne

Creating

Prepping our galêtte des rois

Crushing almonds for our galêtte des rois

"Stamping" les passeports

Practicing les couleurs with a game of Twister!

Pied gauche sur blanc

Drawing with scissors, à la Henri Matisse

Postcards from "France"

Fresh baguettes

Building Paris

Mini-Paris needs a sun!

Barges for the Seine

A few French recipes!

2010-07-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

French Baguettes – made by Vive la France summer camp

Summer at Seabury 2010

Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

1 tablespoon water

Directions:

1. Dissolve 1 tablespoon sugar in 1 cup warm water. Add yeast to the sugar water, cover and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes or until “proofed” – mixture should be foamy.

2. Add salt, then flour, and knead until no longer sticky.

3. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover, and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in bulk. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.

4. Punch down dough. On a lightly floured, surface, shape into two long, skinny rectangles. Pound out air bubbles as you go, and roll gently back and forth to taper ends. Place 3 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Make deep diagonal slashes across loaves every 2 inches.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Sprinkle water over tops of loaves.

6. Back for 20 to 25 minutes in preheated oven, or until golden brown, sprinkling more water halfway through.

7. Enjoy!

French crêpes – made by Vive la France summer camp

Summer at Seabury 2010

Ingredients:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbs powdered sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and powdered sugar and put in large mixing bowl.

2. Pour in liquid ingredients. Beat until liquid. Lumps should take care of themselves if it is well sifted.

3. Cook in heated, greased skillet. Skillet is ready when drops of water bounce and sizzle. Add a small amount of batter, and turn the skillet so it spreads into a thin circle. Flip when beginning to brown. Caution: crêpes cook VERY quickly, so don't wander away!

4. Add toppings (such as chocolate, Nutella, bananas, strawberries or other fruit, chopped nuts, lemon juice, powdered sugar, etc.) and enjoy!

Galette des Rois – made by Vive la France summer camp

Summer at Seabury 2010

Ingredients:

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup ground almonds
2 eggs + 1 egg for painting
1 pound puff pastry (2 rounds)
1 large dry bean or fève figurine

Directions:

1. To make the frangipane, blend the butter with the sugar until well combined. Blend in the almonds thoroughly. Beat in the 2 eggs one at a time and then the rum if you are using it.

2. In a small bowl, beat the remaining egg.

3. Roll out half of the puff pastry into a round about 12 inches in diameter. Place it on a wax paper lined baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, paint the outer 1 1/2 inch circumference of the pastry with beaten egg.

4. Spread the frangipane in a round in the center of the pastry so that it just meets the painted on egg. Press the bean into the frangipane somewhere close to the outer edge.

5. Place the other puff pastry (rolled out into an equally sized round) on top of the first. Use the times of a fork to press the edges closed. Brush the top of the galette with the beaten egg.

6. Use a paring knife to etch a pretty pattern into the top of the galette. Traditionally this is in a cross-hatch pattern, or concentric half circles, but you can make up your own pattern if you are feeling creative. Don't cut through the pastry, just etch.

7. Cut a small hole in the center of the pastry to allow steam to escape. Place the galette in the refrigerator to cool for at least 30 minutes before baking. You can make it a day in advance as well - just be sure to keep it refrigerated.

8. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the refrigerated galette in the center of the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the top is dark golden brown. Serve warm.

Pourquoi Français?

2010-06-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

By Mme. O

French language is the official language of France, its overseas territories, and associated states. It is also an official language of Belgium, Canada, Haiti, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United Nations. More people speak such languages as Chinese, English, Russian, or Spanish than speak French. However, French is so widely spoken that it ranks with English as an international language. More than 95 million people speak French as their mother tongue, and millions of others use it as a second language.

French is a beautiful and harmonious language. It has served for hundreds of years as the language of diplomats. Its clear style and regular syntax (arrangement of words) make it especially suitable for diplomatic, legal, and business use, and for literature.

Many of the words in the English language come from French. English began to absorb French words after the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The king's court and courts of justice used French, but the common people continued to speak English. French words gradually became part of English. For example, the words mouton, boeuf, and porc, which the nobility used instead of sheep, ox, and swine, became mutton, beef, and pork in English. Thousands of French terms have been adopted, in whole or in part, into English. They include art, dress, faith, prison, and theater.

2010-05-14T10:37:00.001-07:00

Salut les parents!

Mme. O thought you may find this article interesting:

Baby Talk
Learning language, researchers are finding, is an astonishing act of brain computation--and it's performed by people too young to tie their shoes
By Shannon Brownlee
Inside a small, dark booth, 18-month-old Karly Horn sits on her mother Terry's lap. Karly's brown curls bounce each time she turns her head to listen to a woman's recorded voice coming from one side of the booth or the other. "At the bakery, workers will be baking bread," says the voice. Karly turns to her left and listens, her face intent. "On Tuesday morning, the people have going to work," says the voice. Karly turns her head away even before the statement is finished. The lights come on as graduate student Ruth Tincoff opens the door to the booth. She gives the child's curls a pat and says, "Nice work."
Karly and her mother are taking part in an experiment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, run by psycholinguist Peter Jusczyk, who has spent 25 years probing the linguistic skills of children who have not yet begun to talk. Like most toddlers her age, Karly can utter a few dozen words at most and can string together the occasional two-word sentence, like "More juice" and "Up, Mommy." Yet as Jusczyk and his colleagues have found, she can already recognize that a sentence like "the people have going to work" is ungrammatical. By 18 months of age, most toddlers have somehow learned the rule requiring that any verb ending in -ing must be preceded by the verb to be. "If you had asked me 10 years ago if kids this young could do this," says Jusczyk, "I would have said that's crazy."
Keep reading ...

Behind the scenes

2010-05-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

By now, we all know that French is fun.

(Hopefully) your students come home each week with stories of the new games we play in class. Raise your hand if you've heard about "the candy game?" Or le jeu des bonbons?

Students may think the most memorable aspect of the ever-popular Jelly Belly taste-test game is the fact that they're eating Jelly Bellys in class -- but you can bet the next time Mme. O or Mlle. H says la fraise, it's the taste of that strawberry bonbon that the students are thinking of.

As Mme. O says, that's the difference between learning something, and picking it up or absorbing it.

On the surface a game is a game with French sprinkled in -- in reality, it is so much more than that.

Today Les Etoiles Super will have fun with a "Dot-to-dot." But there are a few things that need to be done before we can enjoy this simplest of number games.

First, the original Dot-to-dots have to be scanned to a computer.

Then each number is carefully erased.

The numbers (1 to 20) are scrambled and typed back in.

And the Dot-to-dots are finally ready.

We begin after careful instructions that this is a different kind of Dot-to-dot. You can not simply trace from 1 to 2 to 3 -- you must wait for Madame or Mademoiselle's instructions to trace from cinq to vingt to dix-huit, to onze.

The Dot-to-dotting is just as fun as before, but we've added constant repetition of les nombres en français.

It's the Dot-to-dot (and beautiful finished picture) that is consciously remembered -- but those numbers have a way of sticking in a brain, especially if they work their way in during something FUN!

2010-05-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

2010-02-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

Je Suis Une Pizza

2010-02-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

Ô, je suis un pizza
Avec du fromage
Beaucoup de sauce
Des tomates
Des oignons, des champignons
Épices mélangees
Je suis une pizza, prête à manger

C'est Fevrier!

2010-02-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

Bonjour les parents!

Middle School students had a special treat this week - Léa Tulasne, Kathrine Overton's French nanny, visited Middle School last week. Middle Schoolers asked her questions (in French) about her life here and in France and about French culture.

Thank you, Léa, for being such a great guest and providing an opportunity to stretch comprehension and speaking skills.

This week students took les examens on furniture, rooms of the house, numbers and songs.

The results will appear on the March report card.

Les Oursons sometimes practice their French numbers by forming numbers with their bodies while we repeat the words over and over again.

Here are two very backwards cinq-cinq-cinq-cinq-cinq-cinqs:

Other classes such as Les Raqins practice numbers (and les animaux!) during games of estimation.

Others try their hand at Tic, Toc, Orteil.

Remember -- French is FUN!

Les jeux musicals

2010-01-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

French class at Seabury often includes songs and rhymes to give students another fun way to learn nouns and actions.

Here Seabury sixth- and seventh-graders sing Notre Zoo.

These pictures show Superstars and Sharks acting out the actions in another song we've been working on.

Older students have been working on irregular verbs avoir (to have) and être (to be).

** Here's a great resource if any of you are interested in having your student keep up with their French over the summer (in addition to the French camp offered through Summer at Seabury each year, of course!)

Seabury students have attended this camp in the past, and benefited greatly from the chance to keep up their French over the summer break.

À bientôt,

Mme. Olliphant et Mlle. Halley

I pledge allegiance ...

2010-01-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

J'engage ma fidélité
au drapeau des Etats Unis d'Amérique
et à la République qu'il représente,
une nation sous Dieu,
indivisible,
avec liberté et justice pour tous.

Bonne Nouvelle Année!!

2010-01-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

C'est janvier!

Seabury French classes had a great first week back in "school mode."

Middle Schoolers and older grades were able to pick up where they left off before break, learning how to pose questions and singing a song called "Notre Zoo."

Les Oursons, Les Etoiles Super and Les Raquins were able to take advantage of the fact that this first week back corresponds with the Fête des Rois.

Fête des Rois is traditionally a celebration of Epiphany, but we used the week to discuss some of the cultural applications that are specific to France.

Beginning just after new year, grocery stores, boulangeries and restaurants begin to feature a special desert known in Paris and Northern France as the galette des Rois, and the rest of the country as a gateau des Rois.

The galettes are dense almond cakes with flaky crusts that conceal an important feature: the fève (bean). The fève is often replaced with a small plastic, metal or ceramic token instead.

Whoever is so lucky as to eat the piece containing the fève becomes the king, and dons the paper couronne sold with the cake.

We spent the week playing games that used small toys as les fèves, and making our own paper couronnes.

Mlle. Halley made the executive decision to avoid serving actual cake, but here's a recipe for those of you interested in testing out a traditional French desert at home.

(Mlle. Halley offers full credit to the wide availability of galettes des Rois for her survival of finals week at Sciences Po.)

Seabury School on Facebook!

2009-12-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

Become a fan of Seabury School on Facebook by texting "fan SeaburySchool" to 32665, or visit www.facebook.com/SeaburySchool and add us!

Seabury School on Facebook

Touche pas!!

2009-12-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

Now that we're in the second trimester, we have begun to observe some new and interesting things happening in French class.

Most of your students have now been hearing repetitive French twice a week since September. The emphasis on "comprehension first" in the Seabury French program means that the youngest of students have still not been asked to repeat Mlle. Halley's words in French.

The fact that we haven't asked them to speak French does not mean that they haven't begun to experiment with the language.

Although I didn't realize it until this week, Mlle. Halley's favorite (or most commonly used, at the very least) French phrase is "Touche pas!" (Don't touch!).

I hadn't noticed how often I used this phrase to steer squirrely students away from the enticing array of props in the French room until Tuesday's French class with the Bear Cubs.

I arranged most of Les Oursons in a circle on "le tapis" (the rug), while a few rogue students wandered over to the "maison de poupées" (doll house).

Suddenly I heard one of the Bear Cubs calling out from behind me:

"HEY! TOUCHE PAS!!"

The French program for young children developed by Madame Jo Ann Olliphant has an emphasis on fun. While "don't touch," is not necessarily the most fun phrase for a preschooler, it is heard in the context of engaging games and activities.

Mme. O says:

“The premise is to invoke living language through an enticing array of activities, which engage children in the joy of learning. The underlying spirit of play enables acquisition of another language with the natural ease of first language.”

The repetition demonstrated Tuesday (not to mention the correct pronunciation and application) is a perfect example of the natural progression from comprehension to speaking.

Madame Olliphant says: “Comprehension is the beginning stage of all natural language learning and the children are expected to respond physically to commands and instructions. The playful setting of the classroom encourages children to start repeating the words."

Overheard in French class: "Sometimes princesses like babies."

Don't forget: Vote for Seabury for "best private school" in South Sound Magazine!

Le mois de novembre

2009-11-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Salut les parents!

With Halloween over, Lower School students are back to working on the rooms of the (un-haunted) house and the furniture that goes in them.

We're also reviewing numbers and parts of the body.

Middle-Schoolers are acting out and conjugating regular verbs

Overheard this week in French class: "It's not a poire, it's a PEAR!"

This month: Vote for Seabury for "best private school" in South Sound Magazine!

2009-10-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

Lower school French classes continued the Halloween vocabulary this week, beginning to incorporate the Halloween theme with the study of the rooms of the house and furniture.

Students guess where in the house la sorcière is hiding, and what piece of furniture she took with her.

Les Oursons and Les Étoiles Super were prompted by our extremely rainy week to begin talking about different types of weather. We had fun acting out rain, snow, wind, sunny, cold and hot, but le tonnerre (thunder) was by far the favorite.

The Middle School-ers are finishing a unit on time, and will next begin to apply this knowledge in learning how to describe daily activities.

Overheard in French class with Les Étoiles Super:

"Mademoiselle Halley, could you write down a couple of French words for me so I can help my mom learn some French too?"

Le mois de l'Halloween

2009-10-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

Les fantômes, les sorcières, les squelettes, oh my!

Last Friday was an exciting day for les élèves de Seabury, when they walked into the French room to find it transformed.

Les araignées dangled from webs on the ceiling, les citrouilles hung above the doorway and the regular old house became old hat next to la maison hantée.

Students spent the week counting the new decorations, such as il y a combien de citrouilles dans la salle de classe? And talking about Halloween, les costumes, and the various spooky things associated with the month of October.

Students began recognizing the words for witch, ghost, pumpkin, earthworm, spider and skeleton and were able to perform tasks with Halloween props as Mme Olliphant and Mlle Halley directed them.

Les Étoiles Super especially enjoyed pretending to be witches, pumpkins and spiders, and surprising Mrs. V with their ghostly walking and wailing on the way back to class.

Les Citrouilles

Le français, c'est chouette!

2009-09-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

Seabury School on Facebook!

2009-09-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Become a fan of Seabury School on Facebook by texting "fan SeaburySchool" to 32665, or visit www.facebook.com/SeaburySchool and add us!

Seabury School on Facebook

Middle School French update

2009-09-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Middle Schoolers now all know their French names (see the list for your child's name) and most are accomplished at asking others their names.

We are focusing on spelling numbers and they took a test on 1-20 this week. They are also learning to tell time (more use of numbers) in three ways. For example, 10:15 can also be a quarter after 10 or at night, 22 hours.

Since it is important that they hear other voices speaking French, they listened to and practiced saying and singing the words to a song about the beginning of school, la Rentrée.

Mme. Olliphant says: "I am so proud of how well they are rising to the new challenges presented."

2009-09-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

Bonjour les parents!

It's been a formidable first few weeks of school.

First through fifth graders have been working on the rooms dans la maison and the furniture that goes in them.

They practice placing furniture and labels in the various rooms of une maison outlined on the floor.

Les Oursons and Les Étoiles Super have been working on colors, numbers, les filles and les garçons, making a pizza and a sandwich, and l'histoire of the song Alouette.

Students learned about the story of Alouette, the song invented by cooks to pass the time plucking feathers from larks. They then learn the song and movements, and perform it with feathers of their own.

Check out Les Oursons performing Alouette on Friday:

Le premier jour

2009-09-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to French class!

This week your students (all grades but Les Oursons) will receive French names and practice their pronunciation through games and other activities.

Each class will also review and practice the French versions of Seabury class names.

Here are the names you may hear your student practicing this week:

Les Oursons (Early Learning Center)

Les Supers Étoiles (Kindergarten)

Les Raquins (First Grade)

Les Phares (Second Grade)

Les Navigateurs (Third Grade)

Les Explorateurs (Fourth/Fifth Grade)

Les Sixièmes (Sixth Grade)

Les Septièmes (Seventh Grade)

Why foreign language in the elementary school?

2009-09-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

1. Children have the ability to learn and excel in the acquisition of a foreign language.

2. Children who have studied a foreign language in elementary school have higher scores on standardized tests in reading, language arts and mathematics than those who have not.

3. Children who have studied a foreign language show greater cognitive development in such areas as mental flexibility, creativity, divergent thinking and higher order thinking skills

4. Children who have studied a foreign language develop a sense of cultural pluralism (openness to and appreciation of other cultures).

5. Children studying a foreign language have an improved self concept and sense of achievement in schools.

6. Fluency in foreign language can best be achieved in school if study begins in early elementary levels.

Bienvenue

2009-08-31T14:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another great year of French at Seabury School.

With the new school year come a few changes. This fall marks the beginning of a brand new middle school program for sixth through eighth grades.

Seabury's new middle school program is located in the heart of downtown Tacoma's theater district, and boasts an innovative program that strives to bring the community into the classroom and vice-versa.

Seabury School, Middle School Campus

To accommodate the new campus, the French program has added a new teacher this year: Mademoiselle Ah-LEE/Seabury graduate Halley Griffin.

Meet your institutrices:

Madame JoAnn Olliphant has taught at Seabury for 19 years and is widely known throughout the region for her innovative approach to teaching a second language. Author of the books, Total Physical Fun: Activities and Strategies for Learning Language Through Play, and Strategies and Activities for Learning Language through Song, Rhythm and Rhyme, Mme. Olliphant has created a program that makes learning French exciting for students in all grade levels.

Mme Olliphant will teach Les Phares (Beacons), Les Explorateurs, Les Navigateurs and Les Sixièmes and Septièmes (sixth and seventh-graders).

Mademoiselle Halley Griffin is a Seabury alumna (c/o 2000) and daughter of Seabury School librarian Becky Young. Halley learned her very first French words with Mme Olliphant before continuing on to Stadium High School, the University of Washington and L'institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Mlle Halley will teach Les Oursons (Bear Cubs) and Les Supers Étoiles (Superstars).

Mme Olliphant and Mlle Halley will share Les Raquins (Sharks).

Seabury School, Lower School Campus

Description of Program Français

2009-08-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

In a nutshell
A second language program for young children should be one with an accent on fun. The premise is to invoke living language through an enticing array of activities that engage children in the joy of learning. The underlying spirit of play enables acquisition of language with the natural ease of first language.

Underlying Philosophies and Methodologies
As in first language acquisition the learning progression is from understanding to speaking, reading and then writing and from concrete to abstract. Vocabulary and structure are learned indirectly through involvement and interaction. The use of whole language in playful fun creates a sense of the structure of the language. This indirect learning of feel for French gears students to later understand and benefit from the formal study of structure and grammar.

Non-threatening environment
The social nature of language requires frequent interaction among students. Language and self-esteem are integrally connected; therefore a nurturing, non-threatening atmosphere is essential. Building confidence requires participation without force and allowing errors without direct correction.

Forcing students to speak too soon sets them up for failure because they cannot really hear or differentiate the new sounds until they have heard them many, many times. To provide them with sufficient input, it is necessary to constantly describe everything that takes place in all class activity, using repetitive, appropriate vocabulary.

Speech comes easily and naturally when students have spent sufficient time listening and can demonstrate understanding by responding physically. Some learners are ready to speak after about ten hours of instruction; others, especially very young children, require much longer. As the children progress in comprehension, the amount and length of oral responses increase.

Multisensory
The stimulation and integration of the five senses play an important role in the development of the whole child. Movement, multisensory activities and interaction with the environment produce an established successful recipe for language acquisition in children. Visuals, manipulatives and a variety of hands-on experiences are therefore essential.

As in first language acquisition, physical activity is a key ingredient for attaching meaning to words. Movement, action, and direct involvement are essential. The use of songs, games, rhymes, dances, crafts and simple stories encourage understanding and use of French in relevant situations. Through activities that motivate children to use French successfully, the vocabulary becomes second nature.

Role of Play
Games provide an ideal vehicle for introducing and reinforcing basic structures in novel ways. Play is a child's work and an integral part of a language program for children. Supportive play breaks down barriers among group members and promotes trust, sensitivity, cooperation and positive social skill building. Such healthy interaction requires good communication, the essence of language. Games have proven to be irresistible invitations to language, even for the reticent.

Songs
Song, rhythm and rhyme are other important components. They are powerful memory aids and assist the development of intonation and pronunciation as well as adding joy and gaiety. Song, rhythm and rhyme are ideal ways to utilize common, everyday structures in entertaining ways. Authentic songs and rhymes add to cultural understanding.

Culture
In addition to a firm foundation in language development it is important that the students gain awareness of cultural similarities and differences and acquire a positive attitude toward French and its cultures. Ideally, they leave Seabury with the knowledge that learning language is rewarding and enjoyable and with the desire to pursue its study.

Progression of levels
A progressive growth in both comprehension and speaking coincides with the advancement through the levels. Some students begin to repeat and produce words and short phrases as early as the Bear Cubs in the Early Learning Center. Children vary greatly in learning readiness rates and some need more comprehension time than others. Individual differences in development are expected and are not a cause for concern. For most learners, language will automatically be acquired in a participatory, stimulating and caring environment.

The integrated activities build upon each other in content and skill development. With units of common themes using everyday language, vocabulary is recycled and overlaps structures in every segment. This interconnection among components provides the necessary repetition to make language real. The varied format keeps it interesting.

Reading, writing and study of structure
Beginning in the later half of the First grade and continuing to Second and Third grade, activities appear which introduce but do not emphasize reading and writing and grammar. Children are ready for simple rules and explanations that help them identify patterns. This knowledge also empowers them to generate original phrases and express themselves more creatively. Students in the Fourth grade and above who have a background in French examine the structure of the language in more detail.

Care is taken not to present structure in isolation nor as an end to itself. Students are motivated to learn grammatical forms indirectly because they are presented as information needed to accomplish something or participate in an interesting activity. Games, drama, music and art breathe life into the forms and rules of structure as well as facilitate long-term memory.

New students

Thanks to experiential learning, comprehension is in easy grasp of new students who enter without previous French. There is always something new for everyone to learn, while minimum basic material is recycled for true beginners and for review. Latecomers are quickly caught up in seeing and doing and because they receive input from their peers, not just the teacher, they frequently progress at an accelerated rate.

Summary of student objectives
* Experience French in a stimulating, supportive, active environment.
* Communicate as naturally as possible in real, daily situations.
* Develop an intuitive sense of laanguage structure through enjoyable activities rather than structured drills.
* Demonstrate comprehension and develop communication skill, increasing with each level.
* Express a positive attitude toward other cultures and an appreciation of similarities and differences.

Summary of how objectives are met
Acquisition of vocabulary should be a by-product of children's desire and need to communicate in real situations. Thus the language is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Children demonstrate this by:
* Following instructions (in the beginning simple and progressively more complex).
* Responding to what is said through gestures, facial expressions, and actions.
* Taking an active part in class activities, songs, games and new learning experiences.
* Adding their own extensions and adaptations to games and restructuring and applying language to new situations.
* Exploring the history, art, customs and other cultural aspects.

Relating to the Gifted
The described methodology and philosophy are in line with current research on how second language is acquired. As in all teaching situations, the strategies must be fine-tuned according to the needs and characteristics of the learners. Experience has taught that with bright learners, a variety of activities and approaches and a lively pace are vital. Language learning demands repeated encounters with the same words and phrases and if there is not a novel element in each encounter, many gifted children quickly become bored, tune out and even act out.

Since gifted children are often leaders and very vocal, they present an additional challenge for the teacher in a listening-comprehension based approach. Many are impatient to speak and would like to take on speaking roles much before they have adequate foundations in pronunciation or vocabulary. Those who are ready must be provided the opportunities of leadership through speaking to keep them challenged and interested.