Expérimenter la comodalité et prendre en compte les besoins langagiers d’élèves plurilingues. Étude sur le ressenti d’enseignants d’établissements français en Amérique du Nord

This paper presents one fold of the research Français Plus: the way teachers in French International Schools in North America have lived the tremendous changes in how to teach and learn during the Covid-19 pandemic. Examining online survey responses from teachers, the data was structured into two analytical themes particularly relevant in this context: on the one hand, teachers’ engagement in comodal learning and on the other hand, teachers’ attention to students’ language learning needs in the specific contexts of French schools in English-dominant environments, at home and in everyday life. How have teachers experienced comodal learning (synchronous online and in-class teaching) – whereas this method was not initially designed for young learners, and taking into account the risk for educational authorities to make it a new teaching norm in schools? How did teachers manage plurilingual learners’ language needs, when many children do not interact in French outside the school environment, when face-to-face instruction is absent and is replaced by on-line communication, and they face multiple technological challenges? The plurality of situations teachers experienced provided subtle but enlightening results. Teachers reported that despite challenges, comodality offered affordances for learning gain, including in French as the language of learning. But French-speaking teachers also considered that the new imposed teaching modalities led to great frustration and considerable stress. This research draws our attention on institutions’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, the emergency uses of experimental technology, and ultimately on teachers’ training needs beyond that particular context.