Primary - 2nd Grade

The French program places an emphasis on the use of gestures to facilitate the acquisition of targeted vocabulary and structures. In each session, the Gesture Approach is made meaningful through such activities as daily chanted verses, teacher-led group oral expression, and simple games or songs with accompanying movements. With daily practice the students become increasingly comfortable with the ever-broadening vocabulary base. Students are also introduced to a series of basic vocabulary- high interest story books whose themes become a springboard for structured question and response exchanges. Stories that are familiar to students are presented by the teacher in the form of plays, using paper marionettes to represent the various characters. The teacher will then retell the story a subsequent time, using only gestures, while the young students say the words. Eventually, they are telling the story, while the teacher’s voice diminishes.

3rd - 6th Grades

Introducing the 'Histoires en action' program, using AIM (Accelerated Integrative Method), the use of gestures continues to be crucial to facilitating language acquisition. The specifically targeted vocabulary used in the program, termed Pared-Down Language (PDL), has been carefully selected through research conducted over a period of time looking at both core and immersion programs, and at studies of high frequency words and developmental language acquisition. Through teacher-led group oral exchanges, the Gesture Approach is fundamental to facilitating the acquisition, recall and application of vocabulary as students learn to express themselves and respond using the language in complete structures.

Throughout the stages, drama is an integral part of the program. Stories which are familiar and meaningful to the students are first told by the teacher in the form of a play, using paper marionettes to represent each of the various characters. Subsequently, the teacher presents the play using only gestures, while the students say the words. Each story, which is rehearsed and dramatized by the students, forms the basis for various oral and written language activities which emphasize the development of all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

In the beginning of the year, classes are conducted as a group, with the teacher leading structured oral exchange sessions, with the aim that the teacher's voice will become less the focus, as the students learn to do more of the talking while the teacher guides them through gestures, to formulate the correct sentence structures using the acquired vocabulary. Eventually, with consistent structured practice, more spontaneous exchanges can occur, as the use of the language becomes more natural. Once the students have gained greater confidence using some basic structures for communication, they are then able to move on to individual and partner work, either through reading or written exercises at their desks. They are expected and encouraged to practice the vocabulary and language structures they have become comfortable with, as they engage in authentic discourse surrounding the story, and complete written responses in the exercise booklet that accompanies the play script.

For further information on AIM, go to: aimlanguagelearning.com