French language sessions at the "Language and Brain" Center

From November 27th to December 1st, lab members had the unique opportunity to engage in learning and practicing the French language using the Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA).

Initially introduced in Canadian schools in the early 2000s, the NLA aimed to facilitate students' integration into their bilingual environments by equipping them with effective communication skills in French.

Grounded in a socio constructivist perspective, the theoretical framework of the NLA draws upon research in cognitive psychology and neurolinguistics, from which it takes its name. The vibrant classroom atmosphere, which captivated the participants, is a direct result of applying the "authentic communication principle," generating pleasure and motivation while avoiding the use of traditional textbooks.

After gaining confidence in exchanging information effortlessly through extensive practice of linguistic structures, participants progressed to master the written form of the language. This involved activities such as reading, writing, and analyzing elements that may pose challenges to acquisition.

Gabriel, a native French teacher and independent researcher in second language acquisition, served as the language model and supervisor. He is also the founder of Le Quartier Francophone, a Moscow-based language center specialized in this methodology since 2020.

In collaboration with CIFRAN, a Canadian neuroeducation center, Le Quartier Francophone organized training sessions for French language university teachers from MGLU (Linguistics) and MISIS (Science and Technology). 

Thanks to the recommendations of Olga Dragoy, the head of the “Language and brain” center, demo sessions for future teachers at HSE's Faculty of Russian as a Foreign Language were recently conducted.

https://lequartierfrancophone.ru/en/training-for-language-teachers/

On a mission to propagate an alternative approach to teaching French and Russian as foreign languages, teaching and gathering feedback from the scientists at the lab have undoubtedly proven mutually beneficial for all involved.