Building a more inclusive pedagogy of French as a foreign language for East Asian students

Nathalie Lawson, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds

The aim of this project is to gain a better understanding of the challenges and learning needs of Chinese- and Japanese-speaking students studying French as a foreign language. This understanding will enable me to develop teaching approaches and learning materials that better support these students, thereby improving their success and retention on the French Languages for All modules.

The study adopts a qualitative research design and uses a combination of online questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, learning diaries, and focus group discussions to gather primary data. These methods will provide insights into the specific difficulties that native speakers of Chinese and Japanese encounter when learning French, as well as the strategies they employ (if any) to overcome them.

Based on the findings, I will make recommendations for the development of targeted teaching strategies and resources that better address the needs of Chinese- and Japanese-speaking learners and support them in achieving their full academic potential.