Multidimensional Project‐Based Teaching in French Second Language (FSL): A Process‐Product Case Study

Abstract

The study describes the pedagogical approaches of 4 Grade 9 core French teachers and compares students' results on tests of general French proficiency and achievement tests, based on the objectives of a multidimensional project‐based instructional unit used by all 4 teachers during the time I observed them. The observation data suggest that the 4 teacher participants were implementing this new multidimensional project‐based approach in very different ways in their core French classes. Two teachers were classified as multidimensional project‐based and 2 as less‐multidimensional. Students from the multidimensional project‐based classes obtained higher test scores than those in the less‐multidimensional classes on some components of the French proficiency and achievement tests. It was not possible to conclude with certainty that project‐based multidimensional teaching was the single cause of superior test performance by the students from the multidimensional project‐based classes. Student involvement in curriculum decisions, a dual form‐meaning focus, and teachers' uses of French are discussed as possible confounding factors.