Louisiana Teaches Joys of Language

Michel Delvenne was in the middle of a lively session of his fifth-grade French class.

“How do we say ‘joy of living’?” the teacher asked.

Every boy and girl in the room raised a hand. Delvenne pointed to a boy, who jumped from his chair and shouted, “ Joie de vivre !”

“What is it, class?” the teacher asked.

The students shouted in unison: “ Joie de vivre! “

Delvenne, 23, came to this Mississippi River town (its name means “good hunting”) a year ago from his home in Poulseur, Belgium. One of 220 foreign teachers recruited by the Louisiana Department of Education, he is a participant in a pioneering program: every student in grades four through eight is now supposed to study a foreign language.

“We have this very strong French heritage in Louisiana. It is being lost by younger generations. Fewer and fewer people are speaking French. That is why French was introduced over 20 years ago in elementary schools, to try to protect and prolong that heritage,” said Kenneth Phillips, 51, principal of the Belle Chasse School.

“My wife’s parents speak French, but they never taught their children because non-Cajuns made fun of individuals with a French accent,” Phillips said. “That attitude was widespread in the past.”

In 1968, the state Legislature created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) to foster and preserve French language and culture. In 1974, the Legislature passed a law authorizing all 66 school districts in the state to offer French in elementary schools; six years later, the state authorized the offering of other foreign languages as well.

In 1984, all school districts were ordered to begin teaching foreign languages in the fourth grade, moving up one grade a year until the program was in place, fourth through eighth grade, by 1988.

Although only seven districts have implemented the program 100%, many more are close to having it fully in place. However, several still have a long way to go.

Each day at the Belle Chasse School, Michel Delvenne teaches a total of 150 students in six half-hour French classes. “Many girls and boys are really into it. Some are comme ce, comme ca, “ said Delvenne.

In his fifth-grade class, eight of the students speak Cajun French; four others know a smattering of the language.

“They are descendants of Acadians who came to Louisiana in the late 1700s from Nova Scotia,” Delvenne said. “They speak the French that was spoken in French Canada more than two centuries ago. I teach the French spoken today. A lot of words are similar. The accent is different. Many words are totally different.”

Danielle Badalamenti, 11, would agree. Her “momma is 100% French, my daddy half-French. Mr. Michel is teaching us modern French. I go home every day and speak to my momma and daddy the way Mr. Michel talks.”

“My father said the modern French is Greek to him,” one Cajun student confided.

Said Preston Monahan, 12: “We’re lucky to be able to learn another language at our age.” Added Nelson Manuel, another 12-year-old: “My grandmother told me to learn to speak French. She said it’s good for me. We watch French-language programs on cable TV at home.”

Delvenne became a French teacher in Louisiana upon graduation from the Institut Supereur Pedagogiquede L’Etat Liege in Liege, Belgium. “I heard about this program. It sounded like a great adventure. You sign up for a year and can renew it for one or two years. As a foreign teacher, I am paid $15,650 a year with my trip provided over and back,” he said.

“For me, it has been a good experience. I am learning about life in America. I like teaching American children, especially when they enjoy learning the French language.”

“When the program first started, there was no tradition of teaching foreign language in elementary schools. That’s why we went abroad to recruit teachers,” said Richard Guidry, 40, the state Board of Education’s liaison at CODOFIL’s headquarters in Lafayette. CODOFIL works closely with the Department of Education in the French-language program.

Now, in addition to the 220 foreign teachers, there are 284 language instructors from Louisiana teaching a total of 80,000 students a foreign language, with 95% of them taking French.

Guidry noted that most of the initial resistance to teaching French in elementary schools was from Cajun families.

“Some said they had suffered enough punishment because they spoke French. Others said modern French was not their dialect, that it was like teaching British English to Americans.

“The French language program is giving our children a better self image of our culture,” said Guidry, a 10th-generation Louisiana Cajun. “They are learning their heritage didn’t grow up in Cypress roots in Louisiana, that it came from the rich French culture in Europe.”

Jacques Henry, 34, director of CODOFIL, explained that the state of Louisiana has signed accords with the foreign and education ministers of the three nations--France, Belgium and Canada--to recruit teachers to come here. The corps of teachers, he said, are usually young, single men and women.

(A similar agreement has been signed between Louisiana and Mexico. The one Japanese-language course is taught in an elementary school in Morgan City, where a number of Japanese reside.)

As part of its role to protect, promote and prolong the French heritage in Louisiana, CODOFIL produces 26 hours of French language radio programs at KRVS, the National Public Radio outlet in Lafayette, and produces a weekly hour-long French-language television show featuring interviews and news. CODOFIL also has a $50,000 scholarship program.

Perry Waguespack, 44, director of the Bureau of Academic Support in the Louisiana Department of Education, heads up the foreign language program for elementary schools.

“Louisiana is way ahead of the game in teaching foreign language in elementary schools,” he said. “Other states are just beginning to pick up on it. At present, our program is mandated for academically able students and left optional for others. We are talking about mandating it for all students.”

The benefits of the program go beyond the acquisition of another language. Said Waguespack: “Test scores of kids in the program and those not in the program have been compared. The kids in the foreign language program do much better in basic skills of reading and math than the kids not in the program.

“We here in Louisiana believe being bilingual is a real asset. Teaching French in elementary schools started out as a cultural thing but it has gone far beyond that now. Eventually we would like to see every boy and girl from kindergarten through eighth grade in the state enrolled in a foreign language class.”