Des mots en situation à l’accès au sens: le FLE qui bouge

Abstract

This study starts from the “mise en situation” approach in the teaching/learning FLE (Français Langue Étrangère) process and the difficult balance between implicit and explicit lexicon acquisition. It focuses on organised construction of a teaching unit/course for a target of beginners through several steps: categorization, vocabulary organization, regular contextual resources, de-contextualization and re-construction of lexicon. All this facilitates memorization of words in specific situations created and proposed by teachers. It is clear that associations of words and situations only apparently depend on preparation of specific tasks and on different stimuli for learners who are asked to participate actively and to work as if the context was natural and real. This article demonstrates as learning words does do not consist of proposing/accumulating a lot of them, because they are soon forgotten though in a specific situation, but of a particular network where every single term is connected to another/others in order to create an association of ideas. Meaning, content, form and etymology represent constant points of strength where the module/lesson can stimulate memory and let words take part of students’ lexicon. Grammar represents a sort of glue, which guarantees continuity and relationship to words. This study tries to demonstrate that learning lexicon is not sufficient to expose students to words, though in situation. It is necessary to help them create a network where anchored concepts as processes are essentially a menu of functions where words are parts of a whole: the language. In fact as Jean Abraham says: «La communication consiste à comprendre celui qui écoute». And words can facilitate communication considerably.