My name is Dorothée Morlot, and I’m a French teacher. I’ve been lucky enough to work at this school since last year, although I’ve been doing this exciting job for the past fifteen years.
At the start of the new school year, I was reunited with my former pupils who are still learning French, as well as many new pupils who are starting to be introduced to the French language and culture. This year, I am teaching grades 6, 7, 8 and 9.
This year we’re starting the new IB language program, with new approaches and different phases (language levels). This new methodology will enable us to give more meaning to the topics covered while learning the structure of the language. The IB philosophy focuses on action, communication, collaboration, respect for others and the environment. During the course, we focus on conveying all these values while learning French.
Beginners are learning to introduce themselves, to talk about themselves, to ask questions of others, and to understand other people’s answers. Their confidence is growing, and their knowledge and pronunciation are improving day by day.
When more advanced students are in the same class as beginners, the latter are separated into phase groups. These students will follow the same theme as their beginner classmates but in greater depth, with more diversified grammatical structures and vocabulary. For these students, reading worksheets will be provided, with time spent reading easy-to-understand books to further improve reading, comprehension, and vocabulary.
Advanced-level students in the same French class start the year with the theme of travel to give them the opportunity to express themselves about their past vacations and explore new horizons, acquiring a varied lexical field with increasingly complex turns of phrase.
My philosophy is that you learn better and more easily through play, so the end of each lesson always ends with a joyful game related to the theme of the session or week. The students particularly appreciate this moment when they use the French language in a spontaneous and natural way.
I hope they all enjoy discovering the language through lively and interesting lessons so that they can communicate in French as easily as possible.
