Mahamadou Diaby-Kassamba
Teaching Philosophy
Romance Languages
mdiaby@uga.edu

"Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew." Guillaume Apollinaire

Teaching French language allows me to fully measure the role and the relevance of a foreign language as pathways to culture. As a teacher, I strongly believe that language and culture are essential for a global cultural attitude, intercultural communication, and an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning. Achieving this role of language requires an eclectic approach to language teaching and learning by assuming my roles as a teacher, a facilitator and a coach. Yet learning a foreign language does not necessarily means that students are acquiring cross cultural understanding. With these roles in mind and a constant reflexive teaching approach, I provide my students with meaningful activities that capitalize their intrinsic motivation in a classroom free of threat, fear, anxiety and boredom.

It is well known and accepted that language and culture are interwoven, inseparable but teaching and learning a language does not guarantee “The Magic-carpet-ride-to –another –culture”. As a teacher, in my French conversation class, I use films and video-clips since they tend to have authentic languages, cultural situations, art, history, geography, politics, etc.

As a facilitator, I encourage my students to associate new concepts or topics with something they already know. Topics could be on current issues such as immigration, cultural communication, wars, business, family, history, politics, medicine, psychology, etc. Topics are inter and intra disciplinary which keeps classroom participation high since students are involved in discussion at different levels. These group discussion activities allow learners to talk about what interests them thus making the classroom free of boredom because of the different approaches to the topics addressed by each student. Students learn to react through participatory communication and interactive language use when they see films and photos, read texts or hear languages that reinforce stereotypes and prejudices against a group. The classroom becomes “an island” of genuine intercultural communication and understanding, an environment free of threat, fear anxiety and boredom.

As a coach, I am aware that motivation is a key component of success in learning language. The variety of topics in the films increases student’s intrinsic motivation. By tapping into their background knowledge, discussions and interests are generated. I encourage students to construct meaning through activities and interactions with their classmates and beyond the classroom. I also encourage the use of learning strategies outside the class such as attending the Table Française (a weekly social gathering of French students), or cultural activities in the target language. Recapitulating what we have learned before we start the lesson of the day, and as a closure recapitulating the lesson of the day and giving a taste of the next lesson, allows me and my students to make sure learning is taking place and to be aware of areas that need to be addressed, readdressed or retaught. This method of reflexive teaching and learning allows me to improve my teaching.

I hope to facilitate for my students life-long learning skills. One of my students during a trip to France ran into a Congolese with whom he talked about Lumumba. We saw a film on Lumumba’s life in class. The Congolese what very surprised and pleased that my student knew so much about Congo politics, colonialism and post colonialism policies.

By emphasizing the interconnection between language and culture, students establish a constructive attitude about cultural communication and cross cultural understanding that will create a world of tolerance, free of the obsession of imposing one’s personal belief and culture to others.