Pastiche

Students can imitate written texts in French at any level. In 101-102, try fill-in-the blank pastiche, or imitations of small pieces of written French, such as want-ads.

See an example of an imitated print-ad.

Most 100-level books feature sample want-ads, buy and sell, and personals. I've used the post cards at the beginning of each chapter in Vis-à-vis with great success: I underline certain phrases (including the designated writers and recipients), then have students in small groups write a post card to another group. (The "bonne nouvelle / mauvaise nouvelle" postcard on p. 211 is good to work with. Students supply the good and bad news). Then, time permitting, groups exchange and respond to the post cards. Since I've never outgrown my passion for cut-and-paste, I encourage students to design the postcards (but on larger pieces of paper) if they are so inclined.

At higher levels, you can use longer texts, brochures, even poems (see Autour de la littérature p. 22, for example). Try to stick to a paragraph or a very short poem. Be sure to give clear instructions. Are students replacing content only, but maintaining sentence structure? Are they imitating tone? Changing tone within smimilar structure? Imitating style?

Cheryl Krueger
University of Virginia