As Chair of the Department of Languages, I am pleased to present our Newsletter after an interruption of nearly 6 years! Meanwhile the Department, its faculty members, lecturers and employees have never stopped being dynamic with many students interested in languages and new courses offered despite a fire in July 2008 that completely destroyed three offices of Faculty members and of our secretary Cindy Lamontagne. After a period of recovery while the Department was relocated into the Bartley Residence, we are back in our previous location (Braun Building 2^nd floor) in new and modern facilities.

This year we welcomed new instructors in our team. In October, Dr Isabelle Lemée, specialized in Applied Linguistics, came from Dublin, Ireland, with extensive teaching experience and many research publications to her credit. Her enthusiasm and energy have already inspired faculty members and students. Chloé Arrault, who joined us last year as an assistant, is now teaching two first-year French courses.  This year, with Virginie Vignas and Cynthia Cravo, our assistants from France, we are able to offer more lab hours as weekly conversation sessions every Friday. Le Club français has been very active since September with screenings of French films (the Thunder Bay community is always welcome), evening games, and a continental breakfast.

New this year, the Department has established a lecture series during lunch break that consists of presentations by members of the Department as well as out-of-town speakers. On November 15, the first talk was presented by Dr. Lemée on "Sociolinguistic competence and identity construction in the speech of French L2 learners ". In January, Dr. Béatrice Vernier-Larochette will do a presentation entitled "le récit de filiation; a disguised autobiography".

The enrolment of students majoring in French continues to be healthy. To adapt to students interests we added new courses : "Women's writings in France",  "African and Caribbean literature"; we also reintroduced "French for Beginners" and  "Elementary French" (grade 9 French required) to allow students with little or no background in French to major in this topic. In the spring, an etymology course is going to be offered by Distance Education, and "Elementary French" will be offered on campus.

Last summer, several of our students took intensive French courses in Québec (program Explore) and in France (Program Ontario Rhônes Alpes) and their feedback on this experience was excellent. We always encourage students to immerse themselves in French surroundings as this is the best way to master French as a second language.

German, Finnish, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Ojibwe, Classics  are offered on a regular basis and these past two years Finnish and Spanish have been offered every year at three levels to allow students to minor faster in these two languages.

Let me now conclude this message with a Spanish proverb: "El que sabe dos idiomas vale por dos"/"One who knows two languages is worth two".

Béatrice Vernier-Larochette, PhD

I am Virginie Vignas, a post graduate student of the University of Angers located in the West of France, where I earned a degree in English. Before coming to Thunder Bay to be a Teaching Assistant, I was doing a master's degree in teaching English in secondary school to get the French post graduate teaching diploma. Until now, my experience in Canada is really amazing and the idea about staying in this amazing country is actually crossing my mind. 

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Cynthia Cravo

My name is Cynthia Cravo. I had the pleasure to be hired by the University of Lakehead, with the help of a French Institution called the CIEP, to be a French assistant for this year 2012-2013. I arrived with Virginie, the other French assistant, September the 6^th in Thunder Bay, after a very long trip, and were picked up by Béatrice at the airport. Since we arrived, everyone was very welcoming and supportive. We still found ourselves being very lucky to be part of this experience, and everything is going well so far.

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Chloé Arrault

 

My name is Chloé Arrault. I was a language assistant in the Department of Languages at LU last year. This year, I lecture 2 courses in French : "Elementary French" and "French civilisation". "J'ai décidé d'enseigner de façon interactive pour permettre aux étudiants de réfléchir par eux-mêmes et de les amener à découvrir les notions. A partir de documents (textes, vidéos, images, fiches d'activités ...), ils répondent à des questions que j'ai sélectionnées sur des thèmes géographiques, historiques et culturels. Ce contenu élaboré en commun pendant la classe compose leurs cours. Ils sont régulièrement placés en atelier de productions collectives". Chloé has enjoyed her first year as a lecturer in the Department.

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Extra-curricular activities

During this fall, the French team of the Department of Languages have organized several events, which have been enjoyed by a large number of students.

Halloween!

This year the Department of Languages decided to celebrate Halloween. Students were also encouraged to do so. Professors and languages assistants were seen heading to classes dressed up in various characters. Students were seen in various outfits too! The office was also decorated hence creating a nice and creepy spirit! Well done everyone on this Halloween celebration.

Dr Vernier-Larochette, C. Cravo, V. Vignas, Dr Lemée