French Teacher Resource: How to set-up an immersive French canteen incursion

Think back to your high school days, what are some of your best memories? Is it the French class on the passé composé or the one where your teacher created a space of French immersion and food? Sometimes the hard efforts of a teacher doe pay off when we create teachable moments that our students never forget.

For a few years, I have been teaching using the Canadian AIM program and have needed to think more broadly to cover the Australian Curriculum content area on the 'role of language and culture' for Years 7-8. Yes - I teach them address terms and they see a French Canadian perspective, but it's such an enticing descriptor to go further.

This is where the French canteen experience comes in! The idea was inspired by the AIM play, 'Veux-tu danser?' where one scene is set in a Canadian school cafeteria. Australian students quickly notice that students aren't just eating from their lunch boxes. French and Canadian students get to eat in a dining hall on tables with their friends, and have their lunch provided. This scene creates the perfect launching point for a culturally and linguistically immersive experience.

Here are some ideas on how to set up your own immersion canteen experience for your students:

1. Establish student accountability

- Each student in the group (table) brings one item to the lunch: table cloth, cups, cutlery, plates, serviettes. Bring some spare sets just in case!

- Use class time to establish the language for ordering food. It is best to use 5 minutes from each lesson 2-3 weeks prior, first as repeating language, then as a listening task gradually making it an oral task. Therefore, by the time the canteen incursion is run, your students will feel confident ordering food in French. Also, ordering food in French contains fixed expressions so needs to be memorised - one cannot be creative here!

- You may wish to enforce some clear rules early such as, cancelling the incursion if students do not cooperate to a certain standard or not letting them leave until the room in clean. Perhaps you invite key staff to observe or attend the event (ideally to keep behaviour in check!).

Use this document as a template.

2. Enrich their taste buds

- Choose foods that seems familiar to your students but also enable them to try new foods. For example, I chose a three course menu of:

Plat principal - saucissons, quiche, salade verte

Dessert - yoghurt, fruit

Fromage - fromage d'affinois, Roquefort, chèvre, baguette

- Of course, you will need to alter the menu to suit dietary requirements. Also, make sure you have your first aid packs handy and the school nurse on call. 

3. Create the linguistically immersive environment

- Place students in small groups of 3-4 to ensure that they can manage small conversation. Create conversation cards and instruct them to take it in turns to ask each other questions in French.

- Invite students to come to the comptoir to order their food from you, as the teacher. Ensure they speak in clear, full sentences and help them along the way.

- Ask your older French students to join in and sit at different tables to engage in conversation with your younger students. If you have language assistants, also ask them to wander between tables and engage in simple French conversation. As the teacher, you can also walk around to each table and greet them as the 'waiter' - your students will find this amusing!

Use there conversation cards as a template.

4. Enfin, amusez-vous bien!

Use this document as a template.Use there conversation cards as a template.