InTASC STANDARD Five: Application of Content: The teacher understands how to connect

concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and

collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.

Name of Artifact: FL 663 French Review Article

Course: FL 663 Applied Linguistics in Foreign and Second Languages

Date: 18 September 2016

ACTFL Standards Addressed: Language Comparisons: Learners use the language to

investigate, explain, and reflect on the nature of language through comparisons of the language

studied and their own.

Rationale:

The French are very proud of their language. The French Academy is an organization to

preserve the French language ("French Academy," 2016). The French language has borrowed

words from other languages. Sometimes the words that are borrowed represent something that

exists in the target culture but not in French such as the example of crickets. The article

reviewed focuses on French words that were borrowed from English. The article uses three

dictionaries in its examination of English loanwords. Many English loanwords are cognates. As

my students and I analyze the cognates, we can discuss how languages evolve and change over

time. Students may have some examples of how English has changed over time. As we discuss

the changes that have occurred in English, we can discuss how other languages may have

changed over time. As we discuss how and why languages, we may discuss false cognates. We

might discuss why and how false cognates may have evolved.

Collaborating in this way may allow students to gain knowledge that would have been

out of their reach without assistance (Shrum & Glisan, 2015). Students may gain new
vocabulary as we discuss how some words have been borrowed from English. They may gain a

new view towards languages. As we continue with our discussion to see what words English

may have borrowed from French, their world view may become more inclusive as they realize

that all languages borrow words from other languages. As students make this shift in mindset

together, they assist each other as they move through their zone of proximal development. My

questions assist the more capable students through their zone of proximal development while the

more capable students contributions to the class discussion assist the less capable students move

through their zone of proximal development (Gass, Behney, & Plonsky, 2013). Both my

questions and the classroom discussion act as a scaffold as the students who are not yet ready to

to process that material on their own are guided through the discussion by my questions as well

as their classmates contributions (Brown, 2014). As we continue to collaborate in this matter,

students are likely to inquire about other related material. We can extend the discussion as we

learn where to find the answers to our own questions and evaluate the validity of the source of

the information that we find. When we do research my students often want to use Wikipedia.

As we explore the site I tell them that anyone can edit anything on Wikipedia. I ask them some

information about our school that they should know such as the principal. Then I show them the

news article about how someone changed the school information to information from a movie.

References

Brown, H. D. (2014). Principles of language learning and teaching A course in second language

acquisition (6th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson.

French Academy. (2016). In Encyclopdia britannica. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/French-Academy
Gass, S. M., Behney, J., & Plonsky, L. (2013). Second language acquisition An introductory

course (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Shrum, J. L., & Glisan, E. W. (2015). Teachers handbook (5th ed.). United States of America:

Cengage Learning.