Saveurs sans frontières: Learn French through Gastronomy

Activity authored by Laura Franklin, Professor of French at Northern Virginia Community College, to be used in conjunction with the original website Apprendre.TV from TV5monde.
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This material was originally developed through Merlot
as part of its collaboration with the SERC Pedagogic Service.

Summary

In this Just in Time Teaching activity, students will watch a video outside class on the marketing and culinary arts in a Francophone country. From the video, shot in Papeete Tahiti, students will learn about local market customs, typical ingredients in the Tahitian diet and method of preparation of typical Tahitian dishes. They will review vocabulary for common foods and learn about more exotic ones. The students will complete exercises on the website and ultimately discuss the video in class at the next meeting.


Learning Goals

  • Students will become familiar with French Polynesia and its cuisine.
  • Students will review food and cooking vocabulary.
  • Students will compare and contrast Tahitian gastronomy with that of France and of their own country.
  • Students will practice listening comprehension by listening to the video without reading the transcript the first time around.
This module would be useful to students contemplating study abroad to Tahiti.

Context for Use

This activity is appropriate for any size class and can be used as a lab or a homework assignment in intermediate or advanced language classes. Instructors can assign this for independent learning without concern, as there is a transcript, a resume and auto-correct exercises for each video.

Description and Teaching Materials

  • Students should visit the Saveurs sans frontiere module on the Apprendre.tv website and select the Tahiti video.
  • The students will access this website: http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/enseigner-apprendre-francais/accueil_apprendre.php
  • The student will scroll to Gastronomie: Saveurs sans frontiere
  • The student will view the video and do the self – correcting exercises.
  • The student will review the vocabulary in the transcription and make a list of new words to share in the class discussion the next meeting.
  • The student should be prepared to make cross cultural comparisons about diet and cuisine in the target language.

Teaching Notes and Tips

  • The value of this exercise for listening comprehension practice should not be underestimated. It is also useful for students to hear French spoken by native speakers who do not come from metropolitan France.

Assessment

This exercise may be graded as a regular part of homework. It is a nice ancillary exercise that fits well in the study of the DOM-TOM (Overseas Departments and Territories)