Hereafter are some of the main ideas that constitute my teaching philosophy and lead my practice as a French and Drama teacher.
- Communication must be in French as often as possible, from oral greetings to complex written exchanges;
- Cultures and civilisations must exceed the Franco-French perspective and include other francophone countries and regions;
- There is not one true French language, but many French languages. However, the teacher must stay within some form of 'standard French' he/she defines, as long as differences and sometimes alternatives with other forms of French are acknowledged;
- In the teaching process, French must be treated as an actual tool and media, and not simply as a goal. Electronic written communication, such as Edmodo posts or emails, is particularly useful in that perspective;
- The teacher must invite students to take French outside of the classroom, and share with them information about real life events, films, food, articles, art, music, video games, etc. related to French. Languages are alive and exist outside of the books and school. The Internet and the Alliances Françaises are obviously excellent ways to achieve this;
- The teacher's purpose must always be that all students will be one day able to speak/read/write fluently in French, as they might study, live, work or travel within a French speaking environment. While achieving 100% of fluency for all students is obviously not realistic, it nonetheless must remain the idealistic goal of the French class;
- Learning French tremendously helps developing English grammar, vocabulary, spelling and expression, and this must be emphasized as both a motivation and a tool. More generally, parallels in mechanisms between French and other languages must be emphasized as often as possible;
- Etymology and philology are essential tools, to be used daily;
- The teacher must be hard and demanding with students, and harder and more demanding with him/herself;
- As French and drama are unfortunately sometimes considered as lesser subjects compared to maths or English, French and drama teachers must be, perhaps even more than other teachers, examples of professionalism: Discipline, commitment, academic integrity, accuracy, respect, tolerance, dynamism, curiosity, global mindedness, punctuality, honesty.
- The teacher must be culturally respectful. Being respectful in that aspect is not following political correctness, but can be illustrated by the following examples: demonstrating curiosity for one another's culture; being diplomatically critical with all cultures, and mercilessly critical with your own; criticizing or praising specific aspects of a culture, but never a culture as a whole, as this is not possible or fair; emphasizing cultural differences as a richness; encouraging comparison as an understanding tool and not a ranking one; establishing for all the right to differ, to be wrong, to change opinions; banning intellectual and cultural leniency; inciting students to exchange their point of view; and making gently fun, together, of everyone’s cultural flaws or habits – the teacher's in particular!