Siegrist, Katherine Meghan

Reading for the Love of It... in French!
Best Practices for Motivating French Immersion Students to Read in French

Abstract

French Immersion students in Canada generally do not enjoy reading in French and classroom reading-related activities in French, leaving them weaker in their French proficiency (vocabulary acquisition and oral and writing abilities) and less familiar with Francophone cultures. The goal of this study was to determine what exemplary French Immersion teachers are doing to motivate their students to read in French and to share this information with other teachers in order to help them motivate their students. Semi-structured interviews of three teachers were analyzed using categorical coding procedures to identify themes related to the teachers’ experiences. Results showed that teachers who are successful in motivating their students to read in French use a wide variety of strategies, including ones unique to the French Immersion context, and are highly motivated themselves to improve this area of their students’ education. A wider sample will need to be studied in future in order to determine whether the findings can be generalized.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Clare Kosnik and the members of my research group (Celeste Dickson, Britney Coleman, Lindsey Keith, Sarah Grace, Julie Carette, and Niki Roknic) for their continual advice and support. I would also like to thank Kathy Hipfner-Boucher for leading me to two of my three research participants. A very large thanks goes out to my research participants, without whose generous hearts I would not have been able to complete this research. Finally, a very special thank-you to my friends and family for all their encouraging words throughout this process, from the first day in the library to the last word on the page.