Blog Post 1 – Learning French

Describe an example from your life of when you were taught using each method described in this article: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.

As my mother is a francophone from Ontario, I attended a French Immersion program from grade 1 through to high school graduation. Throughout this experience I encountered many different opportunities for learning the beautiful language, as presented by different teachers who employed different instructional designs. One of my earliest memories of learning French began with La Dictée, which was essentially a weekly French spelling quiz consisting of whichever nouns or verbs we had explored the previous week. My teacher’s method for having us learn the different words along with their meaning and spelling followed the behaviourist learning theory, in that she would provide us with practice sheets which presented different phrases (cues) that prompted the correct word and its proper spelling to follow. After doing our best to fill out the sheet, she would grade our work and provide feedback through pointing out all misspells and misuses of the words, which acted as a reinforcement tactic to perform better the next time. It was through this experience that provided me with a foundational understanding of which words go where.

My second most vivid memory of learning French came from my grade 4 teacher who had us play Scrabble; a board game that prompted each player to spell different words on a board that branched from words previously laid down. This was cognitivism at its core, as we applied our knowledge of the French language in using rules, concepts, and discriminations of French grammar and spelling. What’s more, if you laid down a word that was misspelled, one of your peers would point out how the word was misspelt, to which you would reattempt the word with the correct spelling. This was a supportive interaction that perfectly depicted constructive feedback that led to a better appreciation for the word through attaching it with a meaningful experience, as well as offered practical guidance for future performance. It was through this experience that I learned how to transfer the rules of French spelling.

Following La Dictée and Scrabble, if there were one memory of grade school that stuck out like a fly in milk, it would be the dreaded Concours d’Art Oratoire, a French public-speaking competition that was overly glorified by every French Immersion teacher. From grade five till grade 10, I would be asked by every teacher to prepare, practice, and present a 5-minute speech on a topic of my choice, which was intended to prepare us for our grade 11 year where the best speeches would be submitted to the Canadian Parents for French association that hosted the actual national competition. Although I was clearly not a fan of the public speaking aspect, I must admit that the constructivist learning theory that was employed in this exercise through having us use our knowledge of the French language in various unique topics of discussion, allowed me to navigate the complexities of utilizing French words in a context that demanded a marriage between scholarly speak and digestible anecdotes. It was through this experience that I obtained my highest level of French speaking abilities.

Putting it all together; La Dictée, Scrabble, and Concours d’Art Oratoire, each played an important role in establishing my bilingual abilities through practicing unique learning theories that appropriately aligned with the stage of knowledge being presented.

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.