Alliance Française celebrates French teachers

In the spirit of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Alliance Française of TT (AFTT) held its sixth workshop celebrating International Day of French Teachers on November 21 at its base in St Clair, Port of Spain.

“Teachers are the torchbearers of French language and culture. So it’s really about bringing the Olympic spirit into the classroom by inspiring students to do their best.” said Anyka Batista, the first Trinidadian to be director of the AFTT.

The workshop, attended by around 20 French language teachers, included an educational conference led by UWI lecturers, who spoke on strategies for enhancing French education in the country.

“It takes a lot to motivate students in schools where modern foreign languages are taught,” said Susan Otway-Charles, assistant lecturer in modern foreign languages, when she spoke to Newsday.

“French is not taught in a lot of schools, but from how I see it, one way to motivate is to get them to identify with what they learn.”

She presented strategies teachers can use to help students become more engaged with French language learning. One was to get students to identify links between local and French culture.

“French is very influential in TT culture: you see it in Carnival, in our language, in our music and even in our place names, like Sans Souci and Blanchisseuse.

“What I’ve done in the past is encourage students to come (to the AFTT). I’d bring them on a field trip if there are events like Fête de la Musique (International Music Day) and the Marché de Noel (Christmas Market).”

However, she says French teachers across the country say they still face challenges.

"All these things we tell them, like, 'Try to use the technology,' a lot of them in schools don’t have that. So we have to try to show them things that would reach students otherwise,
like bringing books, so at least they (the students) will be exposed to that.”

Dr Savrina Chinien, undergraduate and postgraduate co-ordinator in the Humanities and Education Department of UWI, also presented at the workshop. She made recommendations on how to get students more interested in learning French.

"What we are seeing is that Spanish is more predominant than French, so what we are really trying to do is boost students’ interest in French and get them motivated to study it,” she told Newsday.

Her presentation emphasised the importance of using dynamic teaching methods and modern technologies such as artificial intelligence to enhance learning environments.

“What we are thinking is to also have a spelling bee at a national level and have all the students participate.

"And we also want to bridge the gap between UWI and the secondary schools. Our department has already been very active in reaching out. We have an outreach programme, so what we do is,
a team of our colleagues go to them and show them that learning French and learning Spanish is not just about becoming a teacher – because everybody thinks it’s just about becoming a teacher. So it’s also to give examples of our students who have other career paths as well.”

She said besides academics, learning multiple languages has many individual benefits.

“It helps us to have a different kind of socio-cultural understanding…you’re able to relate easier to others.”

The workshop also included a presentation on bullying by Cpl Allyson Joseph-Guerra, head of the police Special Victims Department's school intervention team. She outlined the causes, effects, ways of identifying and methods of dealing with bullying. One such method encouraged teachers to create a learning environment that prioritises safety, kindness and victim support.

Joseph-Guerra said, “With the increase in bullying, we have been out there since September, emphasising more on it. We’ve been to quite a number of schools and we’ve had an increase in requests. What we need to do is have that intervention and see how best we can eliminate and have that zero-tolerance for bullying.”

The workshop concluded with an art activity led by artist Sonya Ramjewan in which teachers wrote a calligram (poem in the shape of an image) in French in the form of an Olympic torch, in keeping with the theme.