Takam, Alain F.

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Browsing Takam, Alain F. by Subject "French as a Second Language (FSL)"

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    Perceptions du francais par des eleves du secondaire a Lethbridge en Alberta
    (Lethbridge, Alta. :|bUniversity of Lethbridge, Dept. of Modern Languages, 2016) Gillis, Steven A.; Takam, Alain F.
    In Alberta, the enrollment rates in high school French as a Second Language (FSL) courses show that, in general, there is minimal interest amongst students to learn French. Although a large portion of high school students have had experiences with the language during their primary education, the majority of these students are not continuing to study French through FSL. Using a questionnaire, this study examined not only influences found in schools effecting this low level of interest, but also influences found outside of the school environment. The questionnaire was filled out by 74 students from a Lethbridge, Alberta high school. The results show that Southern Alberta has not escaped the general, and almost systematic decline in FSL enrollments. A small number of the surveyed high school students had a significant level of integrative and/or instrumental motivation, both of which have been found to be important in the learning of a second language. Participants were not very interested in taking FSL courses. The data also suggests the importance of students’ encounters with French culture in encouraging them to study the language in school. The percentage of students who had taken at least one FSL course and who were still interested in learning French shows that the FSL program is also playing a role in the lowering trend of enrollment from grade 1 to grade 12. Here again, cultural encounters turned out to be of importance.