FRENCH WITHOUT FEARS
FRENCH WITHOUT FEARS
A scheme for teaching primary French to children at home
or in school has been successfully tried and tested on a
Kent farm. Tessa Gates reports
The French language is something of a passion with Lucy Montgomery. Around 100 children attend Ecole Alouette, the "after hours" language school she has run at Monkton Road Farm, Birchington, Kent, since 1991. Now children all over the country are enjoying working to the complete French language scheme for beginners she has devised and published.
Lucy, whose husband Robert grows cauliflowers on a grand scale at the farm which is in easy reach of the Channel Tunnel, has taken great care over the work books, reading books and cassette tapes that make up the scheme. They are suitable for use in schools or at home.
"I had a mum ring up this morning whose seven-year-old wants to learn French but doesnt want to have to go out again after school. Our scheme is very user-friendly and parents enjoy working one-to-one at home with it," says Lucy, a trained teacher who has structured the material for five- to ll-year-olds.
"This all started because I had looked hard for material for this age group for the school," she explains. "There were lots of bits and pieces and I constantly went to France for material but found that what was suitable for an eight-year-old here, had the presentation for a four-year-old because, of course, native speakers have the basic language and are that much further ahead. Getting the content for the age right, is very hard."
* Fine tuning
She adapted material for her own pupils, fine-tuning it by watching the children to see what they enjoyed and got on best with, as she created her own syllabus. "It took two-and-a-half years to put together and then we did a dummy run for a year," says Lucy, whose school was featured in Farmlife in 1993.
After a final editing the first exercise books were published last year at £2.99 each. The Elementary Book (for five to nine-year-olds) has 106 words to learn and 90 pictures to colour. These words are revised in Pupil Book One (six-10 years) and simple grammar and questions are introduced. Pupil Books Two and Pupil Book Three continue to expand the vocabulary and explore the language in more depth. Illustrated reading books (£1.99 each) to accompany the first three stages are available and Elementary and Book One cassette tapes (£4.99 each).
"I recorded the cassettes with a French friend and they really help pronunciation. On the Elementary tape you can hear the sound effects of the farmyard in the background as you are being introduced to the words. The second tape is based at the seaside," says Lucy. She has tried to make learning fun for the children and even has 12 hidden cauliflowers for them to discover in the exercise books and skylarks singing on the cassettes. The schools name, alouette, means skylark.
* Reading books
"I wanted to have reading books to go with the exercise books as it helps fluency," says Lucy who reckons that her scheme will provide material for a years learning for a child at home for just £9.48. Costs are much lower for schools as she offers a 20% discount on orders over £25.
For parents wishing to teach their children French at home, the books and tapes are fun to use. "They have been tested in the kitchen and the comments we get back are that children enjoy them without finding them "schooly" and parents say they are a pleasure to look at and work with," says Lucy.
For more information telephone (01843-843447).
Lucy Montogomery
with the books and tapes that
comprise her French language scheme, and
close-up of pages in Pupil Book One.