Trial and development of materials for the teaching of reading French in the primary school

Abstract

In the year 1965-66 in the Department of Education in the University of Durham, a set of materials was devised and produced for teaching reading in French in the primary school. The aim of the materials was to present to English pupils French sounds and their corresponding written symbols in strictly graded form, beginning with the easiest, and progressing to the most difficult, and then to teach pupils, through intensive practice, how to link correctly these sounds and symbols, so that they might read French with ease and confidence. The materials were based upon the audio-visual principle of teaching foreign languages and consisted primarily of magnetic tapes, synchronised with illustrative slides bearing reading options. Included also were teazlegraphic and word cards, designed to supplement the basic teaching procedure and to provide further reading activity for the pupils. Together the material formed a short graded reading course entitled “Viena Lire”. During 1965-66 the materials had not been tested, but in September 1966 they were first introduced into 2 primary schools as a pilot experiment. This thesis is an account of the nature of the reading materials and of their initial trial and further development in an urban independent girls school, and a rural junior mixed and infants school. The work sets out principally to show the development made on the basic teaching procedure, suggested when the reading materials were first designed, and to formulate the moat effective method for teaching reading with such materials. It also tries to assess how best to adapt the materials and method for use with primary school children of varying general and linguistic abilities. Finally, it describes: an attempt made to validate the reading tests which are part; of the "Viens Lire" materials.