Introduction

Finding local experiential learning opportunities for students of French may be challenging in the United States; however, post-secondary educators can create opportunities for both their own students and children and adolescents in the local community through the development of language camps. This chapter provides an example of two different types of language camps that can be offered to language learners in the local community and demonstrates how these camps can involve learners at various levels of language proficiency. After describing activities that engage language learners in teaching French to others, the chapter presents recommendations to other language educators who wish to replicate this experiential context.

Summer Camps for Language Students

During the summer holidays throughout the United States, camps are available for parents who want their children to be actively engaged in learning to paint, act, swim or a myriad of other skills. Local museums, universities and community organizations generally offer summer programming, some of which can be quite expensive. For French students in large urban areas, summer camps may be provided by the local Alliance Française, for example, or an organization like Education Française Greater Houston or Austin French for Kids. In such programs, campers attend morning sessions of intensive language and conversation classes and engage in other indoor and outdoor activities such as arts and crafts, swimming and tennis in the afternoon. Again, these options can be quite costly. For instance, the Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Austin offers summer camps for youths and adolescents from ages 4–17 and charges $225 per week. For families with more resources, language campers can travel outside of their local area to Middlebury Language Schools, Concordia Language Villages or to foreign countries. For families with limited resources or who for other reasons do not want their offspring to travel, post-secondary educators can offer language camps at low or no cost to the area's schoolchildren and adolescents by involving their own students as camp instructors.