Respect for all: Haiti

This activity was used with pupils in key stage 4, year 10.

Aims

• To develop a cultural understanding of people living in Haiti
• To gain an understanding of how people's lives and experiences might be similar or different to pupils' own.

Activity objectives

• To learn about a non-European French-speaking country (Haiti) by:
  - considering culture here and comparing it with that of Haiti and its resident communities;
  - considering the experiences and perspectives of Haitian people.
• To learn and practise French language and grammar.
• To learn some basic geographical, economic and social facts about another country.

This activity addresses aspects of developing cultural awareness from the programme of study for modern foreign languages (French).

Activity description

This project was made up of two parts:

• finding out about Haiti through a map activity; a quiz; and matching photographs with captions in French;
• investigating the daily lives of two young people in Haiti through a reading activity and a listening activity.

All the activities, photographs and interviews were drawn from Allons en Haïti (ActionAid, 2001), an activity pack and CD-ROM.

Map activity

The pupils were given a map of Haiti to complete in French using clues in the key.

Quiz

Multiple-choice questions (in French) got pupils thinking about basic geography, economics and social matters. Questions were of the type:

• How much does a Haitian worker earn per week?
• Which languages do people in Haiti speak?

Matching photos with captions

Twenty A4-sized colour photos from Port-au-Prince (the capital of Haiti) and the far west (the poorest and most remote area of Haiti) were given to the pupils to match with captions written in French. The photos displayed a wide range of visual information, such as women market sellers, young children collecting water, and young men learning masonry at a vocational training school.

Reading activity

Pupils were given written accounts (in French) of a typical day in the life of a young man living in the far west. The students completed a variety of tasks, including comparing what they do on a typical day with what the young person in Haiti does at specific times.

Listening activity

The pupils listened to an 18-year-old man talking about his job (peanut farming) and then completed an activity to test their comprehension of the recording.

Commentary

The pupils were engaged and motivated by the activities. As well as learning many new words, phrases and points of syntax quickly, they also gained an insight into culture in Haiti. They asked many questions about the way people live in Haiti and found out about everyday life in a country of which many of the pupils had not previously heard.

Pupils learning French in the UK are rarely shown images of people who speak French in less developed countries. Investigating the lives of people living in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, was interesting for the pupils. They learnt that Haitians have often been the victims of racism in countries in which they have traditionally settled (eg France, USA and Canada). The pupils also learnt about the power of the media in representing people from less developed countries. Instead of being the passive victims of war, disaster and disease (as the media often portrays them), the ordinary people of Haiti lead ordinary lives, showing enormous resourcefulness in the face of problems such as lack of income and food.

The pupils were asked for their comments on their work on Haiti. Their responses included the following:

'People in Haiti find it difficult growing food, the weather stops them. The people there work hard for little money. I liked learning about the way people there live.'

'People in Haiti talk French and Creole and do farming. It was interesting doing it in French. I learnt quite a lot about the people. They work very hard, but they enjoy themselves.'

'Most people do farming for a living and also not everyone has enough food because of drought. I would like to learn more about the ordinary people and culture.'

Follow-up activities

The activities described here were used as introductory activities for a class project on Haiti. The project included investigating the similarities and differences between French and Creole speakers, looking in greater detail at some of the problems people face in their daily lives, and exploring some of the solutions they have come up with.

People in poor countries are often portrayed as passive victims of disaster; these activities showed that such people are in control of their lives and manage the development of their own societies with ingenuity and resilience.

Resources

Allons en Haïti, ActionAid, 2001 (activity pack and CD-ROM for key stages 3 and 4 and GCSE French). Resource available at www.actionaid.org/schoolsandyouth/deved/catalogue/Languages.html

The modern foreign languages schemes of work can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net.

Modern foreign languages introduction

All subjects and activities

Respect for all introduction