The Pacer

Issue date: 1/23/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Will York Energetic French pupils "touchent la tête de Danny"

Dr. Lucia Flórido asks a student his name in French during a biweekly lesson.

When Dr. Lucia Florido teaches French, her classroom is usually filled with 18-to-23-year-old college students.

But every other Thursday afternoon, an agglomeration of rambunctious 3-to-10-year-old children fills her oversized classroom seats for a half hour of conversational French exposure.

Announcing "Levez-vous" over a cacophony of the children's chatter, the children leapt from their chairs, until Florido sat them down with a quiet "Assayez-vous."

She said UTM's French Club was the impetus to teach the children.

"We thought about what we could do as a club, and what we wanted to do instead of getting together to watch TV and eat was to do something useful," Florido said.

While the French exposure program is not intended to teach students written French, Florido said she hopes the biweekly lessons will help the young pupils learn cultural awareness and language contact.

"When you learn a language as a child, you don't think about (grammar) concepts," she said. "I don't want to introduce them to grammar. We don't really have a curriculum. It's just to expose them."

Teaching them grammar wouldn't do much good, since many of the children aren't yet able to read.

Despite her contributions, Florido is not the only teacher on hand to reign in the children's nearly unbridled enthusiasm. Every lesson, members of the French Club make hand motions while reciting French words.

Today, Max Laporte is teaching the undersized class parts of the body. He points to his ears, slowly says "les oreilles" and asks the class to repeat.

Some do, but some are content with running around the classroom.

However, Florido says that's OK.

"The important thing is for them to have some exposure, and maybe realize someday they have another option rather than taking Spanish," she said. "It's important they have fun too."

After about a half hour of interactivity and French recitation, Florido said she gets tired, and the children lose attention.

"My background is teaching college students who stay in their seats. I don't know what these kids eat, how they behave or anything."

As more and more children attend the classes, she recruits more French Club members to help out. Florido said she hopes attendance continues to grow through this semester, and she wants to incorporate even more interactivity, such as music and food, into the already multicultural mix.

While Florido and the French Club deal with the "academic" end of the workshops, Laura Fieser, wife of UTM Professor Jim Fieser, coordinates the children getting to and from the lessons.

"We're always so grateful for any campus-community interaction," Fieser said. "It enriches the children and gives us opportunities the kids wouldn't have otherwise."

Fieser added her children have already benefited from the few French lessons they've attended. And along the way, she might have learned some French too.
"My kids have a great time. (My daughter) held up a crayon the other day and said, 'Mom, this crayon says "rouge" on it. That's "red" in French.'"

Florido sends home photocopies of the day's lesson with parents, so they can reinforce vocabulary at home until the next lesson at UTM.

Already, Florido is considering better ways to reach the students, including breaking them up into groups by age, and her French students are eager to resume the workshop this semester with their favorite young French scholars; the first spring lesson will be at 4 p.m. Thursday in Humanities 417.

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