I’ve only been teaching French for 10 weeks and have agreed with the teacher (for whom I’m substituting) that the lessons should be as similar as possible to her lessons so that there aren’t too many changes for the children. As she worked quite closely with the milles feuilles, I started in the same way.
The very first week was fine – the children got to know the basic vocabulary for the body parts – but I quickly realized that the children were mostly only able to use the words in isolation (if at all). When many children were overwhelmed by the exercises in milles feuilles, I introduced QTalk.
I had the impression that the pictures and the contemporary use of the computer really appealed to them. Even in the first lesson, some of the students, who normally never speak and who say they “can’t speak French”, were able to formulate whole sentences. We then often formulated the sentences in the whole class in a kind of quiz mode, which really motivated the children. I also had the impression that they spoke more confidently when they heard the words first and not just read them. Many children have already told me that they feel uncomfortable because they never know how to pronounce something they have read. This auditory aspect seems to me to be a very crucial advantage of QTalk over traditional teaching tools.
In addition, the class was much less restless while working with QTalk than when they were working in milles feuilles. Each child was able to practise independently because they were able to formulate sentences at their own pace using the pictures combined with the glossary.
I have the impression that it is a big plus that the children can have positive experiences with the language right from the start and can have an experience of self-efficacy without having to consciously learn grammatical structures beforehand.
As a teacher, I also appreciate the multimedia nature of QTalk and that it offers the opportunity to work in plenary on the Visualizer, individually on the laptop, classically on worksheets or in the exercise book or interactively on the blackboard with the magnetic picture cards.
I also asked them how they felt about these lessons, and they told me that they had a lot of fun “with the new program with the pictures” and that the silence during the work phases with QTalk was also non-verbal feedback from the class.