French Mentoring Program
Students of FR 201 and 202 Intermediate French Language courses, meet students of FR 101 and 102 Elementary French Language courses, each semester for mentoring sessions, three or four depending on the size of the classes. Students in the intermediate course, who act as mentors, advance their skills in French language and culture and read critically French literary texts at their level. It is useful for them to share the knowledge they gain with student mentees, who are embarking on their studies of French at the elementary level of language. An important part of the mentoring sessions involves assisting the mentees with ideas and development of their educational display for the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum, an Academic Service Learning activity for elementary French levels.
Intermediate students, because they have chosen to continue studying French, have explored French films, prepared French recipes, learned how to study better in a foreign language, and have explored ways in which French would be useful to them in their careers, continued studies, and graduate school. Intermediate students benefit from the French Mentoring Program because they must prepare for the mentoring sessions with the beginners in French, by reviewing grammar, elements of their learning of French culture, language, and the applicability of their learning to career and future studies. The knowledge gained from intermediate students is in turn useful to the first-year students, most immediately in the classroom, in their decisions with the educational displays for the Children’s Museum, and in their plans for their distant future. Collaboration with student colleagues is particularly motivating to both mentors and their mentees. To share knowledge is the most effective way to learn the material and to make learning a memorable experience. Through the French Mentoring Program, both students in the second year and in the first year have a chance to better internalize information about French language, and culture, and then to share this knowledge with the community at large through the educational displays at the museum.