I am teaching the course “Introduction to French Philosophy” in French language to 4th year Taiwanese French learners since 2014. I started by a lecture format with a study of the main philosophical texts in French. However, I tried to find a way to involve more my students into the practice of philosophizing while using French language. In 2019, I was trained on teaching philosophy to children following the methodologies of Matthew Lipman and Chiara Pastorini. It is a holistic approach where the students are not only listeners but also actors. Using mind and body, the whole person is engaged in the thought process. I adapted this holistic practice to my class taught in French. For a notion’s course, I introduced brainstorming where the students define it, and two or three workshops on philosophical questions linked to it. For instance, for the course on “Art”, we study the question: “Art: imitation or creation?” I propose to the students first to draw a bouquet of flowers they imagine; and second, I ask them to draw the bouquet I exposed in the class. With this activity, they “live” the problem and it helps them to better understand lectures and texts. They concretely and actively learn how to conduct a reasoning by acquiring the abilities of conceptualizing, arguing and problematizing in French. Then, the format of discussing in forum helps them to use French (oral and written production and comprehension) when they feel ready, surrounded by benevolence and open mindedness.
