CARLA
Stereotypes of the French
Lesson 1: Stereotype Simulation

Submitted by Written by Pam Wesely. Updated by Laurent Cammarata and Diane J. Tedick, with additional updates by Pam Wesely.

Objectives:

Content:
Students will:

  • Demonstrate understanding of the concept of stereotype

Cultural:
Students will:

  • Identify, organize, and analyze their own stereotypes about France, French-speakers, and French-speaking countries
  • Begin to develop an understanding of the relationship between products, perspectives, and practices of the French

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will:

  • Understand and use vocabulary for commonly stereotypical French things (vin, béret, etc.)
  • Use present tense (3rd person singular and plural) to write French stereotypes with regular and reflexive verbs like être, avoir, se comporter, travailler, manger, etc.
  • Understand and use vocabulary used to organize and categorize stereotypes: positif, négatif, neutre, produits, perspectives, pratiques

Language: Content Compatible
Students will:

  • Use comparative phrases (e.g., the same idea as, different from, etc.) to compare and contrast the stereotypes identified by class members with expressions such as à la difference de, la même idée que, penser la même chose que, alors que/tandis que, etc.
  • Practice structures for expressing agreement/disagreement - Je suis d'accord (I agree) and Je ne suis pas d'accord (I disagree)

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will:

  • Cooperate and brainstorm collectively
  • Activate prior knowledge
  • Classify and categorize information

Time Frame:

Days 1-2.  At least two class sessions of 40 minutes, plus one evening assignment of 20 minutes.

Materials Needed:

  • Pencils, paper (coloring materials optional)
  • Checklist for self-assessment on technology use (see Attachments below)
  • Guide d'analyse des stéréotypes handout (See "Attachments" below)

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

** Day 1 **

Preview
Prior to beginning the unit, the teacher should have students complete a checklist to self-assess their knowledge of technology applications (see Attachments below). This lesson begins with a blank piece of paper and a pencil in the hand of each student. The teacher will instruct the students to close their eyes and imagine a typical French person in their heads. To help guide students in the exploration of their stereotypes of the French, the teachers can ask the following questions:

  • Maintenant essayez d’imaginer ce que les Français ont l’habitude de porter. (now try to imagine what typical French people usually wear)
  • Quels vêtements portent-t-ils? (what clothes do they wear?)
  • Portent-t-ils quelque chose sur la tête? (do they wear something on their head?)
  • Est-ce qu’ils ont des signes physiques particuliers (un visage particulier ou autre...)? (Does this typical French person have any distinctive facial features?
  • Est-ce qu'ils ont des expressions de visage particulières? (What is their facial expression? Are they happy or sad?)
  • Les Français vous semblent-ils, en général, heureux ou malheureux?

Once the teacher has covered the physical appearance, he/she can turn to surroundings. Where is this "typical French person"? What possessions do they have with them? What are they doing? And more along those lines. The more vivid the picture that the students have of this typical French person, the better, but the teacher should not push the closed-eyes exercise to the point that the students are squirming or distracted.

See "Attachments" below for a document entitled “Brainstorming” for an example of what this brainstorming process produced in one class session

Focused Learning
After the image is formed, the teacher should instruct the students to write down everything they have imagined about this typical French person. If the students finish early, they can draw a picture of the person as well.

The students should then reveal their drawings and writing and see how many people got similar descriptions. Any shared items of description should be put on the board, with the teacher translating into French as needed. The students should then be introduced to the concept of the word "stereotype" and the fact that it often refers to commonly-held perceptions of a people or a culture. If the students are interested in discussing the correctness or truth of these stereotypes, the teacher should allow some discussion but then continue with the rest of the lesson.

Next, on another section of the board, the teacher will ask the students more specific impressions of the French. Some possible prompts include the following:

  • Où travaillent-ils?(Where do they work?)
  • Où vivent-ils? (Where do they live?)
  • Quels sont leurs passe-temps favoris? (What are some hobbies?)
  • Que transportent-ils avec eux quand ils se déplacent? (What do they carry when they travel?)
  • Que boivent-ils? (What do they drink?)
  • Que mangent-ils? (What do they eat?)
  • De quoi parlent-ils? (What do they talk about?)
  • Quels animaux de compagnie ont-ils l'habitude d'avoir? (What are their pets?)
  • Quels sports pratiquent-ils? (What sports do they like?)
  • Quelles attitudes ont-ils et quelles sortes d'émotions expriment-ils? (What emotions do they show?)
  • Quelles sont leurs obsessions? (What are their obsessions?)

This is a good stopping point for one class period. The teacher should collect their original descriptions of the typical French from the beginning of the lesson to be returned during Lesson 3. Before the next class, the teacher should organize the results of this brainstorming into a succinct and carefully-worded list of stereotypes, without altering too much the students' original work.

** Day 2 **

Expansion
The final task in this lesson is to organize these stereotypes into the Guide d'analyse des stéréotypes sheet (see "Attachments" below). This sheet is divided into 3X3 categories: Products, Practices, and Perspectives, and Positive, Negative, and Neutral. Each of these areas should be explained carefully to the students. They should then, with the teacher circulating, try to fit each of the stereotypes listed the previous day into the chart. For example, the stereotype of the French smoking all the time would be "Negative" and "Practice." A thing like France as associated with good food would be "Positive" and "Product."

This handout should be started in class and finished for homework. The teacher should collect, grade, and keep this sheet to hand back during Lesson 3: America views France.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on different aspects of their participation and focus, as well as their successful completion of the Guide d'analyse des stéréotypes. Comprehension and language use will be assessed informally during the course of the lesson.

References and Resources:

Attachments:

NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)

Brainstorming - example of what a brainstorming process produced in one class session
Checklist for self-assessment on technology use
Guide d'analyse des stéréotypes - chart for organizing our stereotypes

A Lesson from the CoBaLTT Project
/cobaltt
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
University of Minnesota