Parlez-Vouz English?: Student Teaching in the French Education System
Abstract
When I first decided to student teach in Martinique, a
French department in the southern Caribbean, my idea was
greeted with skepticism and confusion by those around me.
After all -- why Martinique? In most Americans' minds,
Martinique is a lush tropical paradise reserved to the
jet-set elite or to those who have saved their pennies to
pay for that once-in-a-lifetime Caribbean cruise. Besides,
they don't even speak English down there! This latter point
made a good starting place for my explanations, since the
major reason that I chose to student teach in Martinique was
due to the fact that French is the official language there.
I am currently completing requirements for a
bilingual/bicultural endorsement on my Michigan secondary
teacher's certificate, which requires coursework in
intercultural communications, sociology, linguistics and ESL
(English as a Second Language). In addition, the final
requirement - the experiential component - stipulated that I
student teach either in a bilingual school in the United
States or outside of the country, in an area where my second
language, French, is the language of instruction. Administrator only due to personally identifying information in case study.