Language Awareness in the French Classroom

As part of our thinking about the future of French study, we developed a pilot program to address novice-level students’ opinions and beliefs about learning French. Drawing on the principles of the Language Awareness (LA) movement of the late 1980s, we designed three presentations for use in the classroom to guide students in their thinking about foreign language study in general and French study in particular. This article reviews the theoretical principles of LA, describes our three Language Awareness Forums (LAFs), and presents preliminary findings regarding the effectiveness of using the LAFs as part of the regular course of study.