French immersion language arts and literature

Overview

In French immersion language arts and literature, students develop the ability to communicate in French as an additional language. Students read, write, listen, speak, view, represent and use strategies for understanding and communicating clearly and fluently in a variety of situations.

By exploring a wide variety of texts from local, national and international sources, students are exposed to diverse viewpoints and cultural experiences. Students enrich their understanding of the Francophonie around the world, develop open-mindedness, and increase their sense of belonging to various communities.

French immersion language arts and literature allows students to experience Canadian linguistic duality, to develop a positive image of their own bilingual/multilingual identity, and to experience the cognitive and social benefits of learning a new language.

What is new: March 2023

The new K to 6 French immersion language arts and literature curriculum is ready to move into classrooms, starting with K to 3 in September 2023. School authorities may choose to implement grades 4 to 6 in September 2023 or wait until September 2024. Review the information below to see:

how draft content becomes new curriculum
a comparison between current and new curriculum
a snapshot by grade of what students will learn in the new curriculum

Find out what is next for K to 6 curriculum renewal.

Resources (updated April 2024)

How to use new.LearnAlberta.ca (video)
Read the new and draft K to 6 curriculum on new.LearnAlberta.ca
Download the new K to 6 curriculum fact sheets
Download the draft K to 6 social studies curriculum fact sheet

From draft to new curriculum: Content update summary

What we heard about the draft K to 6 curriculum
We listened to all feedback from classroom piloting and engagement activities and heard these common concerns across all draft K to grade 6 subjects:
- Load
  - some content is too heavy within a subject, grade or learning outcome
- Age-appropriateness
  - some knowledge, understandings, and skills/procedures need to be better aligned with students’ developmental level in a specific grade
  - more pre-requisite learning is needed to support the knowledge, understandings and skills/procedures
- Wording clarity
  - clearer expectations and verb choice are needed in some content for students to achieve learning outcomes
  - clearer descriptions are needed for some knowledge, understandings or skills/procedures
- First Nations, Métis and Inuit content
  - additional content is needed to support First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives
  - some content needs to represent First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives and contributions more authentically
Feedback on French immersion language arts and literature
The engagement feedback on the draft K to 6 French immersion language arts and literature curriculum from March 2021 indicated the need to:
- expose students to diverse, authentic francophone cultures and perspectives
- develop and enhance appreciation for a bilingual or multilingual identity
- increase opportunities to develop students’ abilities to speak French
- strengthen the learning progression to better reflect additional language learner needs
Feedback from classroom piloting in the 2022-23 school year suggested updates to provide more examples and adjust the content load to meet the specific needs of students learning an additional language.
What we updated
In May 2022, we updated the draft K to 6 French immersion language arts and literature curriculum from March 2021 to reflect feedback from all engagement activities. We also aligned the draft curriculum with top-performing jurisdictions, both within Canada and internationally, as well as those with knowledge-rich curriculums.
In March 2023, we finalized new K to 6 French immersion language arts and literature curriculum by updating the draft curriculum from May 2022 to reflect feedback from all engagement activities and classroom piloting.
Since first releasing the draft K to 6 French immersion language arts and literature curriculum in March 2021, we have made the following content updates:
- Load: Refined examples and redistributed content across multiple grades while considering age-appropriateness.
- Age-appropriateness: Shifted content between K to 6 grades or into grades 7 to 12.
- Wording clarity: Analyzed and aligned verbs in learning outcomes to Bloom’s Taxonomy to ensure the higher-level verbs are used in all K to 6 grades, and/or edited for clear and correct language use.
- First Nations, Métis and Inuit content: Made updates based on feedback from stakeholder groups and jurisdictional scans.
- Francophone perspectives and contributions: Added and revised statements to reflect the diversity of perspectives and cultures across francophone communities, and added opportunities for students to understand the value of bilingualism and multilingualism.
- Learning French as an additional language: Strengthened the content to foster purposeful and authentic communication in French, shifted content across K to 6 grades or into grades 7 to 12 to better reflect additional language learning, and adjusted some verbs based on the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Current and new curriculum comparison

The following list shows how elements in the current K to 6 French language arts curriculum, published in 1998, compare to the new curriculum. The comparisons provide examples and do not represent all the changes that were made.

	Current curriculum (1998) examples	New curriculum (March 2023) examples
Learning French as an additional language	There are limited opportunities for students to learn the value of learning French. The relationship between a student’s first language and French is only referenced in Kindergarten.	There are opportunities to develop a sense of belonging and a bilingual/multilingual identity throughout the curriculum. There are clear references to similarities between languages to support students’ learning of French.
Oral communication	Oral language is generally addressed through listening and speaking.	There are clear expectations for students to develop oral language skills by understanding, speaking, interacting, and collaborating.
Phonological awareness The ability to identify and manipulate sounds in oral language	There is a limited emphasis on recognizing and manipulating sounds.	There is a strong emphasis on spoken sound recognition and manipulation in grades K to 2 to support reading and writing skills.
Phonics	There is a limited emphasis on understanding the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics).	There are clear expectations for students to learn phonics from K to 4 then apply this learning to reading and writing in later grades.
Vocabulary	There is limited emphasis on learning skills that help to develop vocabulary.	Students learn to develop and use vocabulary through understanding word formation, meaning, and spelling.
Reading	Reading comprehension strategies are not presented in a clear progression. There is limited emphasis on literary works from diverse sources.	Reading comprehension strategies follow a clear progression to enable students to understand information and ideas. There are opportunities to explore a variety of traditional, classical, and contemporary works from local, national and international sources across K to 6.
Text	The term text is not clearly defined. There is limited emphasis on the function, characteristics, and structure of texts.	The term text is clearly defined to be more inclusive and diverse and to support digital and non-digital learning. It includes information and ideas provided in books, reports, websites, media, diagrams, pictures, oral stories and more. The functions, characteristics, and structures of various forms of fiction and non-fiction texts are clear and explicit.
Writing	The writing process is not clearly defined or developed.	The writing process is clearly and explicitly developed to support fiction and non-fiction writing.
Grammar	Content is not clearly defined and is based on traditional French grammar.	The new French grammar is presented in a clear and detailed sequence and supports learning a new language.

Snapshot by grade

In new K to 6 French immersion language arts and literature curriculum, students will explore content that develops essential skills for communicating, learning, reflecting and making connections with others.

Note: Examples are loose translations that capture the meaning of the original French text rather than word-for-word translations.

Kindergarten
- Explore verbal and non-verbal language to show understanding and communicate using a few familiar words in French
- Make connections between French words and their meaning
- Recognize connections between spoken and written language
- Notice clues to support a general understanding of messages
- Recognize letters and a few French words
- Communicate ideas in different ways
Grade 1
- Experiment with listening to understand and speaking French on very familiar topics
- Use new words and make connections between spoken and written language
- Manipulate sounds, syllables and words when speaking
- Make connections between letters and the sounds they represent to develop reading and writing skills
- Use clues to understand short message on familiar topics
- Represent ideas using a few sentences and referring to examples
Grade 2
- Identify the overall meaning of spoken messages on familiar topics
- Speak using basic French sentences on familiar topics
- Recognize spelling patterns and use new words to communicate
- Make connections between letters and the sounds they represent to read and write
- Explore the organization and features of fiction and non-fiction texts
- Demonstrate an understanding of the overall meaning of messages in short fiction and non-fiction texts
- Write short fiction and non-fiction texts to express ideas, using basic sentence elements
Grade 3
- Identify important ideas within spoken messages on a variety of familiar topics
- Speak in French on a variety of familiar topics in spontaneous and structured communication situations
- Use knowledge of words, letters and sounds to expand vocabulary
- Identify features and structures within different types of written texts
- Use reading strategies and demonstrate understanding of fiction and non-fiction texts
- Use the writing process and basic sentences to express ideas in fiction and non-fiction texts
Grade 4
- Speak and understand messages on a variety of topics in different contexts
- Use knowledge of words, letters and sounds to support understanding and communication
- Recognize text types based on purpose, features and structure of fiction and non-fiction texts
- Apply reading strategies to understand a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts
- Use the writing process and complete sentences to express ideas in fiction and non-fiction texts
Grade 5
- Listen to and understand the main and secondary ideas in spoken communications
- Communicate consistently in French in spontaneous and structured situations, considering the topic, intent and context
- Examine the characteristics and structure of texts
- Select and apply comprehension strategies and demonstrate understanding of various texts
- Consider texts and purpose to generate, plan and write ideas using sentence grammar
- Set personal language learning goals
Grade 6
- Interpret the meaning of messages in spoken communications based on the topic, purpose and audience
- Speak consistently in French and consider strategies for improving language skills
- Analyze words to enrich vocabulary, comprehension and expression
- Use comprehension strategies to analyze and interpret various genres and types of texts
- Generate, plan and write ideas, respecting text form requirements and sentence grammar
- Demonstrate perseverance in the pursuit of personal goals