French L7: Example 2
Example 2: Communicating via Facebook
Il existe plusieurs façons de communiquer avec des anciens amis. De nos jours le site le plus populaire est Facebook. Personnellement je trouve Facebook indispensable pour rester en contact avec ma famille et mes amis qui vivent toujours en France. Je peux échanger des photos de vacances et des vidéos avec eux. De plus, on peut choisir les détails et les informations que l’on veut partager.
[Adapted from a year 12 student’s writing]
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Context and text type
An extract from an opinion piece on 'Facebook as a means of communication'.
Text type
Personal point of view, formal. Productive.
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Examples showing how the student is:
Communicating information, ideas and opinions through increasingly extended and varied texts
The writer introduces the topic with a general statement, then narrows the focus to a particular website:
- Il existe plusieurs façons de communiquer avec des anciens amis. De nos jours le site le plus populaire est Facebook.
The writer is able to develop and share personal perspectives:
- Personnellement je trouve Facebook indispensable pour rester en contact avec ma famille et mes amis qui vivent toujours en France.
The text increases in complexity through its use of on. In this way the writer moves beyond expressing personal opinions and actions to describe in more objective language an advantage which is available to everyone:
- De plus, on peut choisir les détails et les informations que l’on veut partager.
Beginning to explore the views of others
The statement, De nos jours le site le plus populaire est Facebook, summarises a popular viewpoint.
It is over to the reader who engages with the text to consider the writer’s opinions and explore their own views.
Beginning to develop and share personal perspectives
The writer shares opinions, offering perspectives that could be advantageous to the reader:
- De plus, on peut choisir les détails et les informations que l’on veut partager.
Beginning to justify own ideas and opinions
The writer justifies the opinion that Facebook is essential by stating particular benefits:
- rester en contact avec ma famille et mes amis, échanger des photos de vacances et des videos.
Beginning to support or challenge the ideas and opinions of others
The writer appears to take into account those who express concerns about the kinds of information that appear on Facebook by switching from 'I' statements to the use of on:
- De plus, on peut choisir les détails et les informations que l’on veut partager.
By using this technique, the writer introduces a level of objectivity into their description of the advantages of using Facebook, and directly acknowledges and addresses, known concerns.
Beginning to engage in sustained interactions and produce extended texts
The extract contains extended text relevant to the topic. The five sentences differ in length, structure and purpose.
The ideas are arranged logically, with the topic introduced in the first sentence.
Interpreting ways in which the target language is organised in different texts and for different purposes
The written text has a topic sentence and supporting sentences with examples.
The switch from 'I' statements to the use of on is used to persuasively address concerns that some readers may have with Facebook as a social networking site.
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Opportunities for developing intercultural communicative competence
Is Facebook a phenomenon in French societies? If so, who is using Facebook, and why? Your students could investigate their own use of Facebook, and how Facebook is used in a particular French society by people of the same age, noting similarities and differences. Then explore with your students how these similarities and differences relate to practices and values in different cultures. Would your students communicate differently with French speakers on Facebook (or other social networking sites) as a result? In what ways?
Last updated January 16, 2013
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