Public presentation with Dr. Usha Viswanathan

Adapting the CEFR for FSL teaching and learning: Integrating a genre-based approach to address the challenges specific to Canadian context

Early, Dagenais, and Carr (2017) write: “we (Canada) are renowned for our integrated language and content learning (i.e. French Immersion) [and] multilingual pedagogies” (p.313) However, over one hundred years of French second language learning in the classroom, notably Core French programs, has resulted in less than satisfactory student performance and extremely high attrition rates (p.313). In the 1980s, H.H. Stern proposed the multidimensional curriculum to address the problems with Core French, yet almost 20 years later the same challenges persist. More recently, provincial governments including those in B.C. and Ontario have adopted new/revised curriculums with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) as a guide and plurilingualism and an action-oriented approach serving as guiding pedagogical principals (Weinecke & Bournot-Trites, 2011, p.106). The CEFR is shifting understanding of language teaching and learning in Canada. In Rehner (2017), teachers who received CEFR/DELF training and materials, reported important changes in how they planned their lessons, the types of activities in which they had their students participate and choice of assessment and evaluation tools (from focus on language structures to focus on oral comprehension and production around real-life situations). However, going forward, as noted by the Council of Ministers of Canada, the CEFR “must be done from a Canadian perspective” (2008) and as Weinecke and Bournot-Trites (2011) assert, must recognize, the dynamic, fluid, and socially situated nature of language learning i.e. language learning in a country historically, politically, and culturally defined by official bilingualism and multiculturalism (p.106). In this presentation, I argue for integration of a genre-based approach with an action-oriented approach as way to put into practice the CEFR which addresses the challenges specific to FSL teaching and learning in the Canadian context.