Présentation- Overview

Since  2002 at South Thibodaux Elementary School (Lafourche Parish School Board) as a part of my French lessons, I incorporated the game of chess as a language teaching tool.  My main goal was to connect French to the core curriculum in order to strengthen the academic skills of the students. I did not want them to see foreign language as the fifth wheel of the carousel.  My intention was to find a pedagogical method to create a connection between French and other subjects like Mathematics, Language and Arts. By doing so, I succeeded by minimizing discipline problems as well as arousing the interest of students.  The concept of teaching French Lessons with the use of Chess is still yielding excellent results.  These wonderful results opened the door to my set up of an after school chess program; offering this learning opportunity other students who do not experience the benefits of this game in my French classes. I can say that the French-Chess program combined with other factors in the school environment has vastly improved students’ performance. I still share with other French Teachers, the benefits of the French-Chess program through workshops. I am also working on a guide entitled, ‘’A Practical Guide to Teaching French as a Second Language in the Classroom’’.

Pourquoi les Echecs dans la classe de Français Langue Étrangère?

Les échecs sont en essence un outil pour exercer son esprit. Des études sérieuses ont démontré que  les échecs peuvent améliorer la performance scolaire. Un jeune participant a un programme cohérent d’échecs développe entre autre : pensée critique, logique capacité a résoudre les problèmes. Habilité de la mémoire, concentration et visualisation, confiance et patience, détermination et équilibre, expression individuelle et esprit sportif sont d’autres apports positifs de la pratique du Roi de Jeux. Et peut-être, de façon primordiale, les étudiants qui participent aux programmes d’échec améliorent leur estime de soi. Tous ces éléments combinés peuvent aider  grandement à obtenir de bons résultats aux examens scolaires. Ainsi le jeu d’échecs  aide les étudiants a :

  • Améliorer la compréhension en mathématiques et aussi la performance à l’oral ;
  • Améliorer la discipline, le contrôle de soi en permettant d’être concentré; sur un sujet donné plus longuement ;
  • Améliorer leur habilité à organiser leur pensée ;
  • Améliorer leurs notes.

L’interdisciplinarité nous permettra, tout en enseignant le français et les échecs, d’aborder des notions telles que :

  • La géométrie de l’espace ;
  • Nombre et numération ;
  • Les nombres entiers naturels ;
  • Les mesures...

Ce programme est une realité a South Thibodaux Elementary School [Lafourche Parish, Louisiana]

 

Why Chess in the French as Second Language Classroom?

Chess is the aerobics of the mind. Chess has been shown to improve academic performance. A youngster taking part in a chess program develops critical thinking; logic, reasoning, and problem solving abilities; memory, concentration and visualization skills; confidence; patience; determination; poise; self-expression; and good sportsmanship. And perhaps more importantly, children who participate in chess programs improve their self-esteem. In addition, some serious studies testify that chess can help students to:

  • Improve behavior allowing them to focus for longer period of time;

  •  Improve their math and verbal performance;

  • Improve their organizational thought and their grades
  • Become better problems solver.

All those factors combined can help greatly to get good scores performance in their studies. Our goal is to teach chess through French by using cross) curriculum activities. By that means, we will be able to introduce some basic math concepts as:

  • Geometry and spatial sense; Number sense, numeration; Concept of whole number operations; Whole number computation; Measurement…

The French through chess is implemented at South Thibodaux Elementary School [Lafourche Parish, Louisiana] every year in my classroom.