Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

Besides the film teacher, other visual methods are used to present the programmed instruction. Sentences are presented by the film teacher, repeated by live French children, and then repeated by puppets. With this age-level, the puppets are great favorites. Here the children are watching their own classroom puppet act. Continued repetition of the filmed material is enacted in "Frenchspeaking" puppets, created by the children in class after viewing others on-screen. is excellent. Since this program consists of 60 fifteen minute films, the 8mm size has great advantage in storage and transportation. Critics of film propose that only a teacher, in person, can provide total and competent instruction. I will agree, but only in part. No one teacher or local district can provide the following: intimate scenes of Parisian children using their native language in their native environment, plus the famous Baird puppets enacting dialogue situations, and the vivacious and infectious personality and teaching ability of Mme Anne Slack, twice a week during the whole school year. This can only be provided by film. Since "Parlons Fran?ais" is an approved FLES program using the audio-lingual approach, the use of visual and auditory instructional devices is almost mandated. The elimination of the printed word does away with texts and other written materials and methods. If the classroom teacher lacks competent fluency in the language, she may use the record player and the tape recorder to provide correct listening skills and oral production materials for her students. The unique records provided in this program are of excellent quality and durability. The great number of records involved would present a problem of storage, handling, and, of coiu-se, cost if they were of the standard type. To solve this problem, the discs are pressed on extremely thin plastic material and are bound in a fold-back booklet which is completely placed on the turntable. Illustrations of the course material are inter-leafed on the paper between each recording. The 40 records for student drill are comparable in size to a 7" by 7" notebook. The "play-thebook" format is appealing to children and encourages their participation. The tape recorder plays an important role in this program, as in any spoken word subject area. While used basically for pronunciation drill and correction, it has another valuable function-evaluation. Testing has been carried on in one phase of our evaluation in the following manner. The FLES consultant records, on tape, a series of three French phrases, of which only one correctly describes a picture or scene on each child's paper. The child is asked to select the correct phrase. A, B, or C, and circle the selected letter on his paper. This use of tape, which can be sent to all classes, allows for more accurate evaluation by providing test materials which are standard throughout all classes. Still pictures, realia, and other static visual materials provide a security and point of departure for student participation in dialogue sequences. In our 4th grade rooms the identifying names of many of the normal classroom physical materials have changed to their French counterpart. Other areas or resources provided by this district's audiovisual department, such as human resources and field trips, are being studied for future utilization in this study of the culture of France, its people, and their language. Local community native speakers and adult students of the French language, plus the numerous French organizations of nearby New York city offer great potential for motivation and enrichment in the program. Our experience with 'Tarlons Frangais" has proven the point that mechanical devices, audiovisuals, when properly programmed, can join hands with human beings, the competent professional classroom teacher, to provide a program almost undreamed of. I, therefore, repeat, "Vive la technologie." Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — November, 1962 649