Growing in confidence: UFV students learn how to teach French

For Emalee Braun, enrolling in a course about teaching French meant confronting a long-standing fear she’d carried for years.

“I almost dropped the class in the first week. I didn’t think my French was good enough to teach anyone else,” she said.

That feeling — known as linguistic insecurity — is one many students taking the Designs for Teaching French as a Second Language (Education 480) course recognize all too well. Some grew up speaking French but stopped using it. Others learned it in school but associate it with anxiety, grades, or the pressure to sound “perfect.”

Instead of discouraging students, Dr. Joanne Robertson, an associate professor who teaches the course, intentionally designed EDUC 480 as a space where those doubts can be openly acknowledged and gradually replaced with confidence.

Offered through the School of Education, the course prepares future teachers to teach French in K–12 classrooms. This spring marked an important milestone for the course. After being offered as a special topics course since 2021, EDUC 480 was officially approved as a regular offering in UFV’s course calendar and became part of UFV’s new French Teacher option within the Bachelor of Education program.

For students like Emalee, the impact of the course was deeply personal.

“I had this idea that if I wasn’t fluent enough, I had no business teaching French. This course helped me understand that teaching isn’t about perfection,” she noted. “It’s about creating a space where students feel comfortable learning alongside you.”

Throughout the semester, students spent time not only studying teaching strategies but also volunteering and teaching in local French Immersion and Core French classrooms. That hands-on experience, Emalee says, was pivotal.

“Being in the classroom changed everything. It reminded me why I cared about French in the first place. I stopped focusing on what I didn’t know and started thinking about how I could help students feel confident,” she remarked.

Marianne Klassen, another student in the course, shared a similar shift. For her, EDUC 480 rekindled a connection to the language that had faded over time. “For so long, French felt stressful. This course brought back the joy and reminded me that language learning can be meaningful and fun.”

Robertson describes the course as a bridge between theory and practice — one that encourages students to see themselves as capable teachers even when their confidence wavers.

“Language learning is a lifelong journey. You don’t reach a final destination and stop,” Robertson explained. “What matters is helping future teachers develop the confidence and agency to keep learning, and to model that mindset for their students.”

That message resonated across a classroom made up of students at very different stages of their teaching journeys.

This year’s class brought together students from a range of backgrounds, including undergraduates from UFV’s Modern Languages department, Bachelor of Education students, practising teachers, and education assistants. All were at different stages of their careers, but united by a shared goal.

For Isabelle Ramdial, an undergraduate student in UFV’s Modern Languages program, the course offered a new perspective on what teaching French could look like.

“I was definitely nervous at first,” she shared. “This course isn’t about learning French — it’s about learning how to teach it. The strategies we were learning made me realize how many doors this could open in the future.”

The course has also proven valuable for educators already working in classrooms. Devyn VanDam, a French Immersion teacher and UFV alum, took EDUC 480 during her first year of teaching.

“I’m teaching French right now, and this course totally shifted how I approach my classroom,” she said. “It pushed me to think outside the box and make learning more real and meaningful for students.”

For Emalee, that collective shift – from fear to confidence – has been transformative.

“I realized I didn’t need to hide my French anymore,” Emalee expressed. “I could show up as I am and keep growing. That was really empowering.”

As schools across Canada continue to seek qualified French teachers, EDUC 480 helps students move from self-doubt to confidence as they prepare for their own classrooms.

The course is part of UFV’s French Teacher option within the Bachelor of Education program, which includes specialized coursework and practicum experiences in Core French or French Immersion classrooms.