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JACQUIN François IUFM de Bourgogne

La production écrite en lycée : susciter la motivation et développer l’autonomie

PLC2 anglais Directeur de mémoire : M. Lamalle Date de soutenance : 27/04/2005 N° Dossier : 04STA00055

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La production écrite en lycée :

susciter la motivation et développer l’autonomie

Résumé : Le développement de l�autonomie dans le cadre de travaux de production écrite originaux et motivants en classe de première. Distinction entre travaux d�écriture non fictionnelle et travaux d�écriture fictionnelle ; explicitation du travail en amont et des démarches adoptées ; les travaux d�écriture fictionnelle sont organisés autour d�un important projet qui est l�écriture d�une nouvelle par chaque élève. Mots clés : Production écrite ; autonomie ; motivation ; nouvelle. Etablissement : Lycée Clos Maire Lieu : Beaune (21) Classe : Première Littéraire.

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Sommaire

Introduction 5

I. Absence ou insuffisance de méthode propre aux travaux de production écrite

et tentative de remédiation 7

II. Travaux d�écriture non fictionnelle 10

A. Brochure touristique 10

1. Travail en amont 10

2. Réalisation de la brochure 12

B. Rédaction d�un article de journal 12

1. Travail en amont 12

2. Rédaction de l�article 14

C. Rédaction de gros titres et de petits articles de la presse à scandale 14

III. Travaux d�écriture fictionnelle : rédaction d�une nouvelle 17

A. Travail en amont 17

1. Rédaction de la suite d�une nouvelle, The Landlady, de R. Dahl 17

2. Travail sur la description 19

3. Travail sur les enchaînements chronologiques 20

4. Travail sur les verbes rapporteurs dans les dialogues 20

5. Travail d�écriture à partir d�un texte lacunaire 21

6. Etude de The Father, de R. Carver, et de The Luncheon, de S. Maugham 22

a. The Father, R. Carver 22

b. The Luncheon, S. Maugham 25

B. Rédaction de la nouvelle 29

1. Comment commencer 29

2. Démarche adoptée : le « brainstorming » comme phase préliminaire 30

3. La rédaction et les premiers jets 32

4. La fiche de remédiation 32

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5. Le recueil de nouvelles 34

Conclusion 35

Bibliographie 36

Annexes 37

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Introduction

Il convient de préciser que j�ai effectué mon stage en lycée et que l�on m�a confié une

classe de première L LV1. L�anglais occupe une place importante dans cette série et

l�enseignant est donc en droit d�exiger un investissement important des élèves dans sa

matière. Ainsi, même si le niveau des élèves est moyen, on peut leur demander de s�impliquer

dans des projets qui nécessitent un travail important, ce qui n�est pas forcément possible avec

d�autres classes.

Lors de mes trois premiers mois d�enseignement, les travaux de production écrites que

j�ai donnés aux élèves étaient somme toute assez semblables. En effet, ceux-ci s�inscrivant

dans le cadre d�une séquence thématique, ils me permettaient de faire le bilan des acquisitions

des élèves en termes de savoirs et savoir-faire. Les sujets de ces travaux reprenaient la

problématique du thème étudié en classe :

Heroes and celebrities: ��In the future everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes.� A.

Warhol. Discuss�

�Is there somebody you admire or identify with? Why? Would you say he/she is a hero(ine) or

a celebrity?�

Real television: �Why are reality shows so popular? Give your opinion?�

Paparazzi and people�s privacy: �Should there be a law to regulate the press?�

Ageing and beauty: �Do you agree with Lord Henry that youth is the best time of life and that,

once you�ve lost it, life is hardly worth living?�

�What do you think of the importance given to physical appearances in today�s society?�

Ces sujets intéressent les élèves et font généralement naître un besoin de s�exprimer,

ce qui est en soi très satisfaisant. Néanmoins, l�élève a toujours la même position dans son

travail dans la mesure où il commente, critique et pèse le pour et le contre. Il rédige alors un

devoir de type argumentatif dans lequel il réutilise les notions-fonctions, le lexique et

certaines idées vus en cours. Ce type d�exercice est important, l�élève doit faire preuve

d�organisation et de logique pour le mener à bien ; toutefois, s�il est répété de manière

mécanique, à la fin ou au milieu de chaque séquence, il peut occasionner lassitude et

démotivation chez l�élève. Il est important de garder à l�esprit l�importance de la motivation

de l�élève et le but communicationnel des travaux de production écrite, ces deux composantes

étant étroitement liées.

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J�ai donc décidé de diversifier les compétences des élèves en terme de production

écrite en leur proposant des projets motivants dans lesquels ils seraient acteurs. On peut

séparer ces projets en deux catégories: ceux que l�on pourrait qualifier d�écriture fictionnelle

avec en point d�orgue la rédaction d�une nouvelle par chacun des élèves et les autres travaux

d�écriture (brochure touristique, article de journal et publicité). Quel que soit le projet, la

progression à adopter est importante car celle-ci doit donner les moyens à l�élève de devenir

autonome ou, du moins, plus autonome.

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I. Absence ou insuffisance de méthode propre aux travaux de production

écrite et tentative de remédiation

Après quelques semaines, j�ai remarqué dans les devoirs des élèves des problèmes de

logique, un manque de cohérence dans les idées ou bien des difficultés à utiliser le lexique et

les structures appropriés qui, pourtant, ont été étudiés en classe ; ce dernier paramètre est

particulièrement manifeste dans les copies où l�élève cherche systématiquement à traduire ses

idées littéralement du français en anglais. En effet, l�écueil principal est de vouloir partir de ce

que l�on ne sait pas au lieu de s�appuyer sur ses connaissances. La solution réside évidemment

dans une phase de mobilisation des connaissances (notions et fonctions, vocabulaire, idées�)

préalable efficace de type �brainstorming�. J�ai également observé lors des devoirs en classe

que les élèves n�utilisaient pas un brouillon et rédigeaient au propre dès le début.

Afin d�amener mes élèves à réfléchir sur les méthodes qu�ils mettent en place pendant

la production écrite, je leur ai demandé de décrire les différentes étapes qu�ils suivent lorsque

je leur propose, en fin de séquence (le lexique spécifique et un certain nombres de structures

ont alors été travaillés en classe), d�écrire un texte traitant d�un sujet tel que ceux cités

précédemment. Ceci n�ayant qu�un but informatif, je leur ai demandé de répondre

anonymement. En classant ces réponses en fonction des étapes préalables à un travail de

production écrite, il apparaît que :

La lecture du sujet se résume souvent à une simple lecture sans analyse.

La mobilisation des connaissances est quant à elle dans la plupart des cas circonscrite

à un simple point de vue, des impressions ou quelques détails anecdotiques.

La réalisation d’un plan est absente dans la majorité des réponses; la méthode

retenue est la suivante : « je commence à écrire et ensuite je vois au fur et à mesure� »

Lorsque l�on discute avec les collègues de lettres ou d�histoire-géographie, on

comprend que cette difficulté à s�organiser n�est pas propre aux travaux de production écrite

en anglais.

Nous avons par la suite essayé de constituer en classe une fiche méthodologique. Les

élèves ont réussi à dégager quatre grandes étapes qui correspondent plus ou moins à la

typologie proposée par Katkleen Julié dans Enseigner l’anglais (opérations mentales

préalables, opérations de mise en texte, opérations de contrôle et de réécriture éventuelle) et le

résultat est le suivant :

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Fiche méthodologique :expression écrite

1. Lecture de l’énoncé

a. Je lis l�énoncé et les consignes

b. J�essaie de bien cerner le sujet et de le délimiter.

2. Mobilisation des connaissances et des idées

a. Je mobilise mes idées et mes connaissances sur le sujet

b. Je regroupe les structures et les notions dont j�ai besoin.

c. Je cherche le vocabulaire spécifique au sujet.

d. J�essaie d�exprimer mon point de vue.

3. Réalisation d’un plan

a. Je formule mes idées en anglais (le recours au français est à éviter).

b. J�organise mes idées et les enchaîne logiquement.

4. Rédaction

En classe ou à la maison

a. Je développe mes idées en paragraphe.

b. J�utilise des mots de liaison.

c. Si je bute sur une difficulté lexicale, j�essaie de reformuler.

d. Si je bute sur une difficulté grammaticale, je reformule et j�utilise une construction que je

connais.

Devoir à la maison

a. Je cherche dans mon cours, dans mon livre de grammaire

b. J�essaie de ne pas avoir trop recours au dictionnaire et de l�utiliser à bon escient (s�assurer

du sens du mot dans le contexte�)

Cet apport méthodologique est essentiel : les Instructions Officielles de 1989 stipulent

explicitement que la tâche de l�enseignant est d�apprendre à apprendre.

Le problème est qu�il est difficile d�imposer une méthodologie ; il s�agit plutôt d�une

suggestion d�aide que l�élève est invité à confronter avec sa démarche, aussi rudimentaire

soit-elle. Ce type d�activité réflexive a pour avantage d�amener les élèves à réfléchir sur leur

comportement lorsqu�ils sont confrontés à un devoir d�expression écrite et favorise ainsi leur

autonomie qui doit être constamment en développement ; en effet les Instructions officielles

nous rappellent que l�« on ne rend pas vraiment autonome, on rend de plus en plus

autonome ». Il convient de signaler que la majorité des élèves utilisent désormais un brouillon

et essaient de mobiliser leurs connaissances avant d�écrire au propre.

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La méthode proposée aux élèves citée précédemment s�applique pleinement aux sujets

donnés à la fin d�une séquence à l�instar des exemples en introduction. Toutefois, bien des

éléments de cette méthode sont transférables à d�autres travaux de production écrite, plus

originaux, comme ceux qui font l�objet de ce mémoire. En ce qui concerne l�élaboration d�un

plan, par exemple, tout travail de production écrite se doit d�avoir une ligne directrice, un but,

un message à faire passer qui va nécessiter la mise en place de stratégies discursives

appropriées pour obtenir les effets escomptés sur le lecteur. Cette adéquation entre les moyens

mis en �uvre et les effets que l�on cherche à produire se retrouve dans tout travail écrit, du

texte argumentatif à l�écriture fictionnelle en passant par les publicités ou brochures

touristiques.

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II. Travaux d’écriture non fictionnelle

A. Brochure touristique

Les élèves doivent effectuer une brochure touristique sur l�Irlande.

1. Travail en amont

Un projet tel que celui-ci nécessite de prendre en compte des paramètres essentiels

dans toute situation de communication mais particulièrement importants lorsque l�on sort de

la rédaction de texte argumentatif ; il convient de faire prendre conscience aux élèves de leur

rôle, c�est à dire de savoir à qui ce travail s�adresse et dans quel but il est effectué (en sortant

du cadre institutionnel du cours d�anglais). L�émetteur d�une brochure touristique est, par

exemple, une agence de voyage et, comme dans n�importe quelle publicité, il s�agit de vanter

les mérites d�un produit, en l�occurrence une région touristique, et le destinataire est en fait un

client potentiel. La stratégie du publicitaire que devient l�élève par identification consiste à

déterminer certains éléments clé avant de commencer à rédiger la brochure :

Le public-cible (target public)

Arguments de vente (sales argument / appeal)

Slogan (slogan / catchphrase)

La première étape a consisté à étudier un message publicitaire sur l�Australie dans

lequel les paramètres cités précédemment apparaissent clairement (K7 CRDP Lycée 99-00

item5b). Les élèves ont pu trouver à partir de la fiche de travail suivante que le public visé

était les jeunes cadres, que les arguments de vente avaient pour ligne directrice le changement

et le dépaysement à tous les niveaux, ce qui est repris par le slogan : « Australia, discover the

other side of yourself ». Commercial for Australia

Matching : 1. scaredy cat a. sb who likes doing dangerous things 2. speed freak b. coward 3. daredevil c. sb who does not stop working 4. sluggard / lazybones d. sb who is mad about speed 5. workaholic e. a very lazy person Fill in the following grid with these words (scaredy cat / speed freak / daredevil / camel-rider / workaholic / lazybones)

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names was has become Toby Daniels Andy Smith Tom Jackson Find three activities shown in the commercial Try to find what the target public, sales argument / appeal, and slogan / catchphrase of this advert are.

Cette étape a donc apporté aux élèves des savoir faire méthodologiques pour étudier

des publicités et ainsi créer leur propre brochure publicitaire.

La deuxième étape avait pour but d�aider les élèves au niveau du contenu, de leur

fournir des éléments informatifs qu�ils puissent inclure dans leurs travaux ; en effet, j�ai

montré à la classe un documentaire vidéo d�environ trois minutes sur l�Irlande (K7 CRDP 97-

98 item1). Ce documentaire était très riche et fournissait une quantité d�informations telle

qu�il a fallu apporter une aide aux élèves et leur montrer le documentaire trois fois ; en effet,

les élèves n�ont pas manqué d�être séduits par les paysages qui leur étaient proposés, ce qui

constitue un atout majeur lorsque l�on veut faire effectuer à la classe un travail nécessitant un

certain investissement personnel. Lors de ma présentation succincte du travail à effectuer,

certains élèves ont laissé échapper leur joie (« c�est super� »), ce qui est suffisamment rare

pour être noté. A partir du documentaire, la tâche à effectuer était de prendre beaucoup de

notes afin d�avoir le maximum d�éléments pour rédiger la brochure. Les élèves sachant qu�ils

devront s�aider de ces notes, l�exercice de compréhension orale prend tout son sens pour les

élèves qui deviennent actifs. L�aide proposée aux élèves se résume à une petite carte de

l�Irlande avec les noms des lieux mentionnés dans le documentaire outre une boîte à outils

lexicale :

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Il apparaît que les supports utilisés dans les deux étapes du travail préliminaire sont

des documents vidéo.

2. Réalisation de la brochure

Ce travail s�est quant à lui effectué à la maison. Les élèves se sont pour la majorité

pleinement investis dans ce travail ; ils n�ont pas hésité à inclure des photographies et ont

soigné la présentation afin d�avoir la brochure la plus attirante et convaincante possible

(annexe 3: deux brochures intéressantes et non corrigées). Ils ont également essayé de choisir

un slogan accrocheur comme par exemple : « Breathe the �Eire� of a green country » ou « Let

the spirit of Ireland inspire you ». Le fait de se débarrasser de la présentation habituelle des

travaux de production écrite (feuille A4 à carreaux) semble avoir libéré les élèves, leur

donnant envie d�écrire tout en laissant le soin à certains d�entre eux plus faibles de montrer

qu�ils sont motivés et que ce type de travail leur plait car il fait intervenir des savoir faire

(qualité de la présentation, originalité, force de persuasion) autres que linguistiques. Je n�ai

d�ailleurs rien écrit sur les brochures pour respecter ce travail soigné ; je leur ai simplement

donné une feuille séparée sur laquelle figuraient les points forts, les différentes erreurs des

élèves et les propositions de correction ainsi que mes commentaires et la note. Les élèves

m�ont ensuite rendu une version manuscrite séparée de leur brochure dans laquelle les erreurs

avaient été corrigées, ce qui rend l�exercice pleinement profitable sur le plan linguistique.

Ce type de travail s�est donc avéré particulièrement approprié pour motiver les élèves

et ce, entre autres, car il offrait un but communicationnel clair, d�où l�intérêt de faire écrire

des publicités ou des brochures publicitaires.

B. Rédaction d’un article de journal

But communicationnel : l�élève devient journaliste et rédige un article sur une affaire étudiée

en classe et dans laquelle il a été impliqué dans le cadre d�une activité de communication du

type jeu de rôle.

1. Travail en amont :

Le document support est un enregistrement audio et il ne s�agit pas d�un extrait de

bulletin d�information, que l�on pourrait qualifier d�équivalent oral de l�article de journal. Un

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travail de compréhension orale permet aux élèves de dégager les grandes lignes de l�histoire.

Un camionneur australien prend des amphétamines afin de pouvoir conduire plusieurs jours

d�affilée sans dormir, ce qui est monnaie courante dans le milieu. Après avoir ainsi conduit

pendant plusieurs jours, le camionneur s�arrête dans un motel pour prendre un verre. Là, on

refuse de le servir car le personnel pense qu�il est saoul. Le camionneur repart, s�arrête,

détache ses remorques, et fonce dans le motel avec son camion, tuant cinq personnes et en

blessant vingt autres. Ce dernier avoue ne pas se souvenir de quoi que ce soit.

Document support (manuel New Flying Colours, p.53):

Drive-in

We talked about the Lawson case, which had been tried in the Alice court. Lawson was a truckie, who, when apparently drunk, had been refused a drink by the lady proprietor of an Outback motel. He had gone out into the glare of noon, unhitched his trailer, and, twenty minutes later, had driven his truck through the bar at 35 m.p.h., killing five drinkers and wounding twenty. After the incident, Lawson went missing in the bush, and, when found, said he could not recall a thing. �Do you believe that?� I asked. �Believe it? Of course I believe it! Mr Lawson�s a very nice and truthful person, and his company kept him dreadfully overworked. The trouble with his defence is that he wasn�t drunk, he was drugged.� �What on?� �Amphetamines, poor thing! Hadn�t slept a wink for five days. All these truckies feed on amphetamines. Pop them in their mouths like sweeties! One, two three, four, five and Whooeee�! They�re away. No wonder he was a little blotto!� �Did that come out I court?� �The five days, yes, the amphetamines, no.� �Why ever not?� �Unmentionable! Amphetamines and the trucking business? Un-mentionable! Imagine if there had been an inquiry. Amphetamines are this country�s answer to distance. Without them, the place�d seize up. �It�s a weird country�, I said. �It is.� Extrait de The Songlines (1987) de Bruce Chatwin

L�histoire étant claire pour les élèves, je les ai séparés en petits groupes leur assignant

un rôle précis en vue d�une confrontation des différentes personnes impliquées au cours d�un

procès au sens large; cinq groupes jouaient respectivement le rôle du camionneur accusé, des

autres camionneurs, du pharmacien vendant les amphétamines, du représentant du ministère

des transports, des dirigeants de l�entreprise de transport, ainsi que du personnel du motel. ; en

effet, pour le cours suivant, les élèves devaient préparer des arguments pour se défendre mais

aussi pour accuser les autres, l�expression du reproche, de l�accusation et de la responsabilité

ayant été revue auparavant.

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Au cours suivant, les élèves avaient eu le temps de se mettre dans la peau de leur

personnage et de préparer leurs arguments. Les élèves ont donc communiqué en anglais et

durant tout le cours, mon rôle s�est résumé à distribuer la parole. Les élèves se sentant

impliqués, ils se sont montrés beaucoup plus loquaces qu�à l�accoutumée et m�ont gratifié

d�échanges très animés dans la langue cible ; le concept d�effacement du professeur au profit

de l�élève qui est au centre de l�apprentissage prend alors tout son sens ; il s�avère que cette

mise en situation est primordiale ; les élèves, contrairement aux adultes, je pense, ont besoin

de se sentir impliqués car, comme le soulignent les Instructions Officielles de second cycle,

« l�effort d�enseigner du professeur reste inopérant s�il ne rencontre la volonté d�apprendre

des élèves » (p.60). Lorsque les supports le permettent, il semble plus productif de donner un

rôle à l�élève, de le placer dans une perspective actionnelle que de lui demander de

commenter, avec distance, à la troisième personne une situation.

2. Rédaction de l’article

Ce commentaire à la troisième personne intervient avec la rédaction de l�article de

journal mais les élèves se sont appropriés la situation et les outils linguistiques nécessaires.

Dès lors, la rédaction de l�article ne pose plus de problèmes majeurs puisqu�il s�agit de

résumer brièvement les faits, de faire un compte-rendu du procès et de conclure en donnant

son opinion. La qualité de la production orale en amont est ici garante du succès de l�activité

de production écrite. Les deux compétences sont étroitement liées dans ce cas, l�autonomie

dans la production orale facilite l�autonomie dans la production écrite. Les travaux des élèves

montraient d�ailleurs qu�ils avaient compris les tenants et les aboutissants de l�exercice

(annexes 4 et 5). La partie la plus délicate a sans doute été la phase de compréhension orale du

travail en amont.

C. Rédaction de gros titres et de petits articles de la presse à scandale

De même, j�ai essayé un autre type d�activité qui fait la part belle à la production orale

comme moyen d�obtenir les informations nécessaires à un travail de production écrite. Il

s�agit d�un jeu de rôle que j�ai effectué lorsque la moitié de la classe était absente pour cause

de voyage scolaire. L�intérêt du jeu de rôle est qu�il crée la motivation et la maintient car il

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implique l�élève. Il permet également de créer un climat de travail qui suscite l�intérêt, la

curiosité, le plaisir et engage à la fois l�intelligence et le c�ur, c�est-à-dire la part cognitive

mais aussi affective de l�être. Enfin, il permet de mettre en place une situation de

communication évidente qui remporte l�adhésion des élèves.

L�activité dont il est ici question est issue d�un très bon ouvrage proposant aux

enseignants un large éventail d�activités de communication intitulé : Advanced

Communication Games, Longman (annexe 1). Dans le cas présent, les élèves se voient

confiée une carte sur laquelle figure le nom d�un personnage ou d�un journal de la presse à

scandale (The Daily Filth, the Daily Smut, the Grime Reporter, the Muckraker…). Chaque

personnage est célèbre et a une vie houleuse ; de plus, il a une dent contre un ou plusieurs

autres personnages et détient des informations compromettantes, ce qui ravit les journalistes

présents. Les élèves (personnages et journalistes) sont alors censés recueillir un maximum

d�informations sur les autres en se présentant et en discutant ensemble au cours d�une soirée

mondaine. La situation de communication se justifie pleinement grâce au déficit

d�information (« information gap ») qui est ainsi créé.

Cette phase orale débouche ensuite sur un travail de production écrite ; les élèves se

réunissent en petits groupes (de trois environ) avec leurs informations et rédigent les gros

titres de la presse à scandale, chaque groupe travaillant pour un journal en particulier ; la

consigne est claire : les gros titres doivent être accrocheurs et suivis d�un paragraphe

croustillant. Les pré-requis lexicaux avaient déjà été vus lors d�une séquence sur les

paparazzis et les différences entre presse à scandale (« tabloids ») et presse de qualité

(« broadsheets »). Le vocabulaire spécifique à chaque scandale (adultère, pratiques

frauduleuses�) était inscrit sur les fiches des élèves en fonction des informations dont ils

disposaient au début. Les fiches ayant été distribuées la veille, les élèves avaient pour tâche

d�élucider le lexique inconnu, ce que nous avions commencé de faire lors des dernières

minutes du cours précédent, et de s�approprier les renseignements sur la fiche afin de pouvoir

commencer l�activité dès le début de l�heure ; au niveau grammatical, afin de pouvoir

communiquer, les élèves doivent être en mesure de parler de situations présentes et passées,

ce qui en classe de première, n�est que du rebrassage et ne pose pas de gros problèmes. En

revanche, les élèves ont bien intégré le fait qu�il faut employer des formes elliptiques dans les

gros titres dans un souci de concision et ne pas hésiter à exagérer pour susciter l�intérêt du

lecteur. Les travaux de production écrite ayant seulement été effectués en classe en petits

groupes (« think-tank »), ceux-ci n�ont pas été terminés ; en classe entière, on aurait pu

donner le travail à finir à la maison.

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En tout cas, les élèves ont beaucoup apprécié ce type d�activité qui leur a permis dans

un premier temps d�incarner un personnage à la vie palpitante et de parler de scandales, ce qui

amuse et intéresse les élèves ; ils ont pu découvrir de manière ludique un autre type de travail

de production écrite. Cette diversité des travaux écrits favorise également l�autonomie à

terme.

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III. Travaux d’écriture fictionnelle

Rédaction d’une nouvelle

Il s�agit d�un projet d�envergure qui nécessite de mettre en place beaucoup d�activités

préliminaires. Il convient de familiariser les élèves à l�écriture fictionnelle au travers de

nouvelles étudiées pour leur faire découvrir les composantes d�un texte de fiction ; il s�agit

également de leur proposer des travaux de production écrite libérant progressivement

l�écriture en passant d�une production écrite semi-guidée à un travail de production écrite

libre, la rédaction d�un texte fictionnel long.

A. Travail en amont

1. Rédaction de la suite d’une nouvelle, The Landlady, de R. Dahl (annexe 2)

N�oublions pas que cette nouvelle ne constitue pas un simple support à un travail

d�écriture. L�objectif est également d�encourager les élèves à lire en anglais pour le plaisir.

J�ai ainsi choisi la nouvelle The Landlady de Roald Dahl car celle-ci ne présente pas de

difficultés majeures de compréhension ; de plus, R. Dahl joue beaucoup sur le non-dit et

l�atmosphère dans cette nouvelle, deux éléments qui ne manquent pas d�éveiller la curiosité

chez le lecteur. En outre, The Landlady laisse en quelque sorte le lecteur sur sa faim et fournit

donc un texte approprié à l�écriture d�une fin. D�ailleurs, beaucoup d�élèves, après avoir lu le

texte à la maison, croyaient que j�avais coupé la nouvelle et ne leur avais pas donné la fin.

Dans mon esprit, n�ayant pas étudié ou écrit de textes fictionnels avec les élèves, la rédaction

d�une suite à cette histoire allait me permettre de mesurer l�intérêt porté par les élèves pour les

textes fictionnels et ce type de travail d�écriture.

L�intérêt de ce travail est qu�il laisse la part belle à l�imagination tout en travaillant

dans un cadre donné ; en effet, il faut respecter la cohérence de l�histoire, l�idéal étant de ne

pas voir de rupture entre le texte de base et la suite. Toutes les composantes d�un texte de

fiction entrent alors en jeu sans que les élèves ne le sachent nécessairement : il faut se plier au

type de narration (ici à la troisième personne) choisi par l�auteur, il faut conserver les temps

employés (récit au passé) ; les élèves ont, si j�ose dire, instinctivement gardé la même

focalisation, pour reprendre un terme utilisé par Genette dans Figures III, c�est à dire que les

évènements étaient toujours vus de l�intérieur de l�histoire par le même personnage, Billy

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Weaver, en l�occurrence le personnage principal. Les élèves ont pour la majorité su coller à

l�atmosphère qui prévaut dans la nouvelle de R. Dahl ; enfin, le comportement et la

description de la vieille dame, l�intrigue et l�élément de suspense ont été conservés (annexe6).

J�appréhendais en fait ce type d�exercice car il était nouveau et qu�il semble difficile

d�exiger des élèves de faire preuve d�imagination ; pourtant, j�ai été agréablement surpris ; les

élèves sont loin de manquer d�imagination ; ceci est peut-être dû au fait qu�il s�agit d�élèves

de section littéraire ; ils ont pris plaisir à écrire la fin de la nouvelle et les seules difficultés

sont d�ordre linguistique ; si les élèves ont fait des efforts louables sur le plan lexical, un

certain nombre d�entre eux ont éprouvé des difficultés à rapporter des paroles au style indirect

dans un récit au passé ; ces problèmes ont donc fait l�objet d�un travail de remédiation par la

suite.

En plus du travail d�écriture, j�avais demandé aux élèves de répondre à quelques

questions de compréhension à propos du texte. La remise des copies a été accompagnée d�une

étude succincte de la nouvelle en anglais, visant notamment à faire découvrir aux élèves les

moyens mis en �uvre par l�auteur pour obtenir l�effet escompté au niveau du suspense, du

non-dit, de l�atmosphère et de la tension naissante entre l�accueil chaleureux (trop

chaleureux�) et les éléments étranges et dérangeants. De plus, lors de cette étude, les élèves

ont été amenés à citer en anglais les différents éléments d�une histoire (plot / structure, setting,

characterization, atmosphere, narrative point of view�)

Il convient également de mentionner le fait que si les élèves ont écrit des dialogues

cohérents et réussis dans l�ensemble, ils ont eu plus de difficultés avec les verbes rapporteurs

et les expressions que l�on peut employer pour parler du ton de la personne ou de la manière

dont elle s�exprime. En ce qui concerne les dialogues, ceux-ci comportent une logique interne,

et ne posent par conséquent pas de problèmes particuliers au niveau de la succession des

répliques. En revanche, les élèves ont eu quelques problèmes dans l�expression des

enchaînements chronologiques, produisant soit des énoncés agrammaticaux ou bien une liste

de phrases introduites par « then ». The Landlady m�a donc servi de support à des activités

spécifiques visant à améliorer la compétence de production écrite des élèves dans le domaine

des textes fictionnels. J�ai donc fait effectuer aux élèves trois activités différentes avec des

objectifs distincts pour travailler l�enrichissement de la description, les enchaînements

chronologiques et l�emploi des verbes rapporteurs dans les dialogues.

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2. Travail sur la description

Il s�agit ici d�inciter les élèves à enrichir leurs descriptions avec des adjectifs,

adverbes, compléments circonstanciels, etc. A partir d�un passage descriptif extrait de The

Landlady, les élèves avaient pour tâche de repérer les éléments que l�on pourrait ôter à la

description (adjectifs, adverbes, compléments circonstanciels, relatives et appositions) et

d�écrire la description que l�on obtient alors. Le passage est le suivant :

�On the carpet in front of the fire, a pretty little dachshund was curled up asleep with

its nose tucked into its belly. The room itself, so far as he could see in the half-darkness, was

filled with pleasant furniture. There was a baby-grand piano and a big sofa and several plump

armchairs; and in one corner he spotted a large parrot in a cage.�

Le résultat en est réduit à cette description squelettique :

�A dachshund was asleep. The room itself was filled with furniture. There was a piano

and a sofa and several armchairs; and he spotted a parrot.�

Les élèves ont ensuite été amenés à réfléchir sur ces transformations et à découvrir que

ces éléments qui avaient été supprimés permettent d�exprimer la subjectivité, d�apporter des

précisions qui rendent la description vivante, ce qui est important ; d�après J.C. Blumenthal et

L. Zahner, ce souci du détail permet de réussir une description ; en effet, pour eux, « a good

description makes you feel that �you are there� »

A partir de ce constat, les élèves ont eu comme travail à la maison à procéder de

manière inverse pour étoffer les phrases suivantes en ajoutant autant de détails que possible :

« it was Monday and he met a stranger on the bus / a group of boys are stranded on an island /

a woman wants to do the shopping. »

L�intérêt de cette activité est double dans la mesure où elle demande aux élèves de

mobiliser un certain nombre d�éléments linguistiques (adjectifs, adverbes, propositions

subordonnées, compléments circonstanciels�) mais également de faire preuve d�imagination

et de se représenter une scène en détail.

Avec du recul, il semble qu�il aurait été très fructueux de faire travailler les élèves sur

les mots composés, leur formation, leur sens, et de les inclure dans ces activités sur la

description et d�encourager les élèves à en utiliser dans leurs nouvelles.

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3. Travail sur les enchaînements chronologiques

L�objectif est ici de faire découvrir aux élèves qu�il existe de multiples manières

d�exprimer une séquence d�évènements et de les lui faire pratiquer afin de remédier aux

erreurs de construction et confusions en tout genre. Dans un premier temps, ils doivent

mobiliser leurs connaissances antérieures afin de reformuler de plusieurs manières une phrase

exprimant une séquence d�évènements : « he packed his suitcase, said goodbye to his wife

and left.» Si les élèves ont du mal, on peut les aider en leur proposant des mots clé les mettant

sur la voie (« afterwards ; as soon as �)

Les réponses attendues sont les suivantes :

�He packed his suitcase. Then he said goodbye to his wife and left.�

�He packed his suitcase. Afterwards he said goodbye to his wife and left.�

�After packing his suitcase, he said goodbye to his wife and left.�

�Having packed his suitcase, he said goodbye to his wife and left.�

�Once he had packed his suitcase, he said goodbye to his wife and left.�

�As soon as he had packed his suitcase, he said goodbye to his wife and left.�

Les élèves doivent ensuite effectuer les mêmes reformulations sur deux autres phrases, une

leur étant imposée et une autre dont le choix leur est laissé.

4. Travail sur les verbes rapporteurs dans les dialogues

L�objectif est que les élèves arrivent à utiliser un verbe rapporteur qui soit en accord

avec les paroles du personnage et qui reflète l�humeur de ce dernier. Il est en outre nécessaire

de donner des indications quant au ton sur lequel ces paroles sont prononcées. On peut

estimer que ces mots, nouveaux ou non, pourront faire partie du vocabulaire actif des élèves.

Les élèves devaient, à la maison, effectuer l�exercice suivant :

Fill in the blanks with one of the following verbs. If you don�t know their meaning, look up in

a dictionary :

whisper / shout / complain / enquire / beg / groan / suggest / stammer / declare / quaver / retort

1. �Get me out of here, mate, will you? My leg hurts,� he ������.

2. �Why don�t you go to a bank and borrow the money ? � he �����

3. �Hush� Mike ����.. Baby�s asleep.�

4. �What are you thinking about?� Mary �����

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5. �Luke,� she ��������, can you do me a favour � dance with Kate. She�s been

stuck with Chris Nerd for an hour�.

6. �He�s absolutely hopeless!� Lucy����

7. �I think you�re selfish, arrogant and rude,� she��������

8. �Would you like to go out with me?� she asked him. �I�m so p-p-pleased you�ve asked me

out. I don�t know wah-what to say,� he ������.

9. �Good grief ! Are you all right ? You�ve got blood all over your face!� his voice�.���.

10. �You�re mad! Get out of my house!� he ����������� �You�re the one

who�s mad!� she�����.

solutions: 1.groaned 2.suggested 3. whispered 4.enquired 5.begged 6. complained 7.declared

8. stammered 9.quavered 10.shouted / retorted

Le deuxième exercice consistait à trouver une réplique en fonction du verbe rapporteur

ou de l�expression donnée (he announced wildly / she asked curiously / he began quietly / she

objected impatiently / he answered half-heartedly).

Pour conclure, cette activité donne les moyens aux élèves d�employer des expressions

ou verbes rapporteurs varies et adaptés au contenu des paroles et à l�état d�esprit des

personnages.

5. Travail d’écriture à partir d’un texte lacunaire

Après l�écriture de la suite de The Landlady, j�étais rassuré quant à l�aptitude des

élèves à faire preuve d�imagination et j�ai donc décidé, afin de les entraîner à l�écriture de

textes fictionnels, de les faire travailler à partir d�un texte lacunaire de type « thriller » extrait

du Guide Belin de l’enseignement, lycée.

Replace each blank in the following passage by a complete sentence. When there is a word or expression in brackets, this must be included in your sentence. Two nights ago, I had the fright of my life. �������������.(1) I spent most of the evening at Roger�s house watching a video programme with his family. �������������(2) (thriller). As a result I was fairly jittery by the time I was ready to leave Roger�s place. ������������(3) (eventually). It was pitch dark. ���������.(4) (moon). The village street lights had all gone out at midnight. ���������(5) (however) I have lived in the village for more than 15 years. ���������.(6) I knew that I had parked my scooter by the second tree on the right of Roger�s house. �������������.(7) (groped for). When I came across the first tree I suddenly became aware of the old cemetery on my left. ������������.(8) (reminded). I almost felt as though I myself had become a participant in a horror movie. �����������(9) There was total silence everywhere. ���������(10) (my footsteps, echo). I continued to grope around in the pitch darkness. Where was that scooter of mine?...................................(11) (nervous). My imagination began to work overtime. �����(12)

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Most of the village folk had been in bed for ages. �������(13) I moaned in pain. ������������ (14) I picked it up and tried to start it at once. ����������. (15) I tried again. �����������(16) I cursed it under my breath. ����������(17) Suddenly, the engine roared into life. �����������..(18) (the scooter�s headlight). Instantly, I saw him in the spotlight. ����������(19) He was near enough to touch me. ���������..(20) I backed the scooter away from him. ����������.(21) (the graveyard). I fled like a frightened bat out of hell on my machine, making so much noise I probably woke the whole village; �������.. (22) When I finally got home, I rushed to the kitchen to get a drink. ��������(23) I told myself I was safe at home. ��������.(24) It was a long time before I got to bed.

Ce texte est composé de phrases complètes entrecoupées de blancs. La tâche de l�élève

était de compléter les blancs par une phrase complète en incluant de plus les mots entre

parenthèses dans leur production. Ce travail est très guidé et demande aux élèves un temps

d�adaptation pour se couler dans le moule qui leur est fourni ; le contexte, ce qui précède et

ce qui suit, revêt ici une importance capitale et rend ce travail particulièrement contraignant ;

les élèves doivent dans un premier temps lire et comprendre ce récit dans lequel il manque

une phrase sur deux.

L�objectif ici n�est pas de libérer l�écriture mais au contraire de faire travailler les

élèves sur les enchaînements logiques, la cohésion textuelle et d�encourager une certaine

forme de rigueur. Ce travail a été effectué en demi-classe et avec les dictionnaires ; les élèves

ont été encouragés à chercher des termes appropriés à l�atmosphère de l�histoire ; la

production des élèves a été limitée car ceux-ci ont éprouvé quelques difficultés à démarrer et

s�adapter à cet exercice ; néanmoins ce type d�activité, bien que très guidée, favorise

l�autonomie des élèves en leur apprenant à travailler à l�intérieur d�un cadre défini.

6. Etude de The Father, de R. Carver, et de The Luncheon, de S. Maugham

L�objectif principal de l�étude de ces deux nouvelles en ce qui concerne la rédaction

d�une nouvelle par les élèves est de leur faire découvrir l�importance de l�organisation du

texte, de leur faire prendre conscience du fait que rien n�est laissé au hasard.. L�étude de

textes littéraires ne représente apparemment pas une étape indispensable dans le

développement de l�autonomie pour l�écriture de texte de fiction ; cependant, il est difficile de

demander à un élève d�écrire s�il n�a pas lu auparavant ; comme le souligne Ann Raimes dans

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Techniques in Teaching Writing, « any reading the students do relates to writing in that what

they read was once written.»

Il y a deux types de lecture à encourager ; la lecture individuelle préconisée par les

instructions officielles dont le but est d�amener les élèves à devenir de « vrais lecteurs de plus

en plus autonomes et prenant goût à la lecture de livres [�] en anglais, en dehors du travail de

classe » (I.O. 2, p.35). L�objectif de cette lecture en continu est de « susciter chez l�élève le

goût, l�envie et le plaisir de lire et de lui faire prendre conscience qu�il peut comprendre plus

qu�il ne pense, donc de lui donner confiance.» (I.O. 1, p.103) N�oublions pas que plus les

élèves lisent, plus ils s�approprient le vocabulaire, les idiomes, les tournures de phrase,

l�organisation des textes et certaines connaissances culturelles. Le second type de lecture est

« intensive », « close reading » pour les anglophones, et correspond à l�étude ou au

commentaire d�un texte avec des tâches de repérage précises portant sur des détails

significatifs. Dans les deux cas, la lecture en langue-cible est un moyen, insuffisant mais

indispensable, de favoriser l�autonomie en production écrite.

Les textes choisis constituent également des « modèles » dont l�élève pourra dans une

certaine mesure s�inspirer. La démarche choisie ici emprunte quelque peu à celle préconisée

par Danielle Bailly dans Didactique de l’anglais (2) / La mise en œuvre pédagogique (p.47)

qui se décompose en quatre étapes. Il s�agit, selon D. Bailly, d�observer dans un premier

temps des textes-«modèles» (travail de compréhension écrite) puis de reproduire et adapter les

élèves à une tâche d�appropriation puis d�élaborer le texte proprement dit, à partir de tous les

éléments « empruntés » avant de passer en dernier à l�expression libérée. La phase de

reproduction à proprement est dans notre cas très limitée à cause de la nature des textes et de

leur complexité. Il ne s�agit pas ici de reproduire le modèle d�une lettre mais d�amener les

élèves à mettre en évidence les techniques des grands écrivains et leurs effets sur le lecteur.

a. The Father, R. Carver

The baby lay in a basket beside the bed, dressed in a white bonnet and sleeper. The basket had been newly painted and tied with ice blue ribbons and padded with blue quilts. The three little sisters and the mother, who had just gotten out of bed and was still not herself, and the grandmother all stood around the baby, watching it stare and sometimes raise its fist to its mouth. He did not smile or laugh, but now 5 and then he blinked his eyes and flicked its tongue back and forth through his lips when one of the girls rubbed his chin. The father was in the kitchen and could hear them playing with the baby. �Who do you love, baby?� Phyllis said and tickled his chin. �He loves us all,� Phyllis said, �but he really does love Daddy because Daddy�s a boy too!� 10 fingers! Just like its mother.�

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�Isn�t he sweet?� the mother said. �So healthy, my little baby.� And bending over, she kissed the baby on its forehead and touched the cover of its arm. �We love him too.� �But who does he look like, who does he look like?� Alice cried, and they all moved up closer around the basket to see who the baby looked like. 15 �He has pretty eyes,� Carol said. �All babies have pretty eyes,� Phyllis said. �He has his grandfather�s lips,� the grandmother said. �Look at those lips.� �I don�t know�� the mother said. �I wouldn�t say.� �The nose! The nose!� Alice cried. 20 �What about his nose?� the mother asked. �It looks like somebody�s nose,� the girl answered. �No, I don�t know,� the mother said. I don�t think so.� �Those lips�� the grandmother murmured. �Those little fingers�� she said, uncovering the baby�s hand and spreading out its fingers. 25 �Who does the baby look like?� �He doesn�t look like anybody ,� Phyllis said. And they even moved closer. �I know! I know!� Carol said. « He looks like Daddy!� Then they looked closer at the baby. �But who does Daddy look like?� Phyllis asked. 30 �Who does Daddy look like?� Alice repeated; and they al at once looked through to the kitchen where the father was sitting at the table with his back to them. �Why, nobody!� Phyllis said and began to cry a little. �Hush,� the grandmother said and looked away and then back at the baby. �Daddy doesn�t look like anybody!� Alice said. 35 �But he has to look like somebody,� Phyllis said, wiping her eyes with one of the ribbons. And all of them except the grandmother looked at the father sitting at the table. He had turned around in his chair and his face was white and without expression. The Father, R. Carver

Cette nouvelle a retenu mon attention car elle est très courte, ce qui rend son étude en

classe plus aisée, et qu�elle est plus adaptée à un public de première L qu�à d�autres élèves car

il n�y a pas d�action à proprement parler dans ce texte ; la brièveté et la simplicité de la langue

en font presque un modèle de minimalisme littéraire. Cette nouvelle porte la contradiction au

c�ur du familier et bouscule notre conception toujours trop stable de l�identité des êtres ; s�il

ne se passe rien dans cette nouvelle, ce n�est autre que la notion d�identité qui est ici en jeu.

En effet, faute de pouvoir être identifié, le père se trouve exclu, ce qui est renforcé par sa

position à l�écart du reste de la famille dans le texte.

Afin de mobiliser l�attention des élèves et de rappeler les éléments factuels de

l�histoire, les élèves ont d�abord répondu à un « quiz » portant sur le texte ; cette activité

préliminaire a été brève et a permis de s�assurer que le contenu explicite du texte avait été

compris. Ensuite, pour ce texte où l�atmosphère pesante est un élément incontournable, la

démarche a consisté à partir des premières impressions des élèves (« it�s boring » ; «I don�t

like this text ») et à leur demander de justifier leurs commentaires (« nothing happens » ; « the

reader feels ill-at-ease�»). Cette démarche de type heuristique permet de partir des effets sur

le lecteur pour remonter aux moyens mis en �uvre par l�auteur ; par exemple, les élèves sont

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partis de l�idée que le lecteur se sentait mal-à-l�aise pour découvrir que ceci était dû à

l�atmosphère pesante, elle-même due à la distance importante prise par le narrateur dans ce

récit à la troisième personne (description l.1-7), au fait que l�on pénètre dans l�intimité de

cette famille sur laquelle nous n�avons d�autres informations que le dialogue, le seul

personnage décrit étant le bébé ; (l�auteur a fait le choix de montrer, « showing », au lieu de

dire, « telling », dans cette nouvelle) ainsi qu�au questionnement insistant des jeunes filles qui

devient quasi-obsessionnel et crée une tension, à la mise à l�écart du père qui reste muet et

presque absent dans cette scène (il se trouve dans une autre pièce), et à la chute.

L�organisation du texte et sa structure jouent pleinement leur rôle : le père se trouve en

marge dans l�organisation du texte même puisqu�il est relégué à la fin des paragraphes et n�est

l�objet que du regard détaché du narrateur. Les élèves ont alors réfléchi sur la place du père

dans la nouvelle en cherchant des éléments dans le texte. Quant au retournement de situation,

le bonheur d�avoir découvert à qui ressemble le bébé est anéantit lorsque les filles ne peuvent

dire à qui ressemble leur père. Les élèves ont trouvé que le tournant de la nouvelle se situe au

moment où l�on passe de l�identité du bébé à celle du père. Cette étude ne peut bien sûr

s�effectuer sans un certain guidage de la part du professeur qui renvoie les élèves à certains

passages du texte ou les met sur la piste lorsque c�est nécessaire ou pose un minimum de

questions (« place of the father ? / what are we told about him ? »). Les élèves ont ensuite

émis des hypothèses quant à la vie de la grand-mère dans le passé et à la situation présente et

à venir (travail sur la modalité épistémique).

L�étude de la nouvelle s�est avérée plus fructueuse que l�on aurait pu penser au vu des

impressions négatives des élèves après une première lecture. Ces impressions négatives ont

donc constitué le point de départ de l�étude des moyens mis en �uvre par l�auteur et de leurs

effets.

b. The Luncheon, S. Maugham I caught sight of her at the play and in answer to her beckoning I went over during the last interval and sat down beside her. It was long since I had last seen her and if someone had not mentioned her name I hardly think I would have recognized her. She addressed me brightly. �Well, it�s many years since we first met. How time does fly! We�re none of us getting any younger. Do 5 you remember the first time I saw you ? You asked me to luncheon.� Did I remember? It was twenty years ago and I was living in Paris. I had a tiny apartment in the Latin Quarter overlooking a cemetery and I was earning barely enough money to keep body and soul together. She had read a book of mine and had written to me about it. I answered, thanking her, and presently I 10 received from her another letter saying she was passing through Paris and would like to have a chat with her but her time was limited and the only free moment she had was on the following Thursday; she was spending he morning at the Luxembourg and would I give her a little luncheon at Foyot�s afterwards?

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Foyot�s is a restaurant at which the French senators eat and it was so far beyond my means that I had ever thought of going there. But I was flattered and I was too young to have learned to say no to a 15 woman. (Few men, I may add, learn this until they are too old to make it of any consequence to a woman what they say.) I had eighty francs (gold francs) to last me the rest of the month and a modest luncheon should not cost more than fifteen. If I cut out coffee for the next two weeks I could manage well enough. I answered that I would meet my friend � by correspondence � at Foyot�s on Thursday at half-past 20 twelve. She was not so young as I expected and in appearance imposing rather than attractive. She was in fact a woman of forty (a charming age, but not one that excites a sudden and devastating passion at first sight), and she gave me the impression of having more teeth, white and large and even, than were necessary for any practical purpose. She was talkative, but since she seemed inclined to talk about me I was prepared to be an attentive listener. 25 I was startled when the bill of fare was brought, for the prices were a great deal higher than I had anticipated. But she reassured me. �I never eat anything for luncheon,� she said. �Oh, don�t say that!� I answered generously. �I never eat more than one thing. I think people eat far too much nowadays. A little fish, perhaps. I 30 wonder if they have any salmon.� Well, it was very early in the year for salmon and it was not on the bill of fare, but I asked the waiter if there was any. Yes, a beautiful salmon had just come in, it was the first that they had had. I ordered it for my guest. The waiter asked her if she would have something while it was being cooked. �No,� she answered, �I never eat more than one thing. Unless you had a little caviare. I never mind 35 caviare.� My heart sank a little. I knew I could not afford caviare, but I could not very well tell her tha. I told the waiter by all means to bring caviare. For myself I chose the cheapest dish on the menu and that was a mutton chop. �I think you�re unwise to eat meat,� she said. �I don�t know how you can expect to work after eating 40 heavy things like chops . I don�t believe in overloading my stomach.� Then came the question of drink. �I never drink anything for luncheon,� she said. �Neither do I,� I answered promptly. �Except white wine,� she proceeded as though I had not spoken. 45 �These French white wines are so light. They �re wonderful for the digestion.� �What would you like?� I asked, hospitable still, but not exactly effusive. She gave me a bright and amicable flash of her white teeth. �My doctor won�t let me drink anything but champagne.� I fancy I turned a trifle pale I ordered half a bottle. I mentioned casualyy that my doctor had absolutely 50 forbidden me to drink champagne. �What are you going to drink, then?� �Water.� She ate the caviare and she ate the salmon. She talked gaily of art and literature and music. But I wondered what the bill would come to. When my mutton chop arrived she took me quite seriously to 55 task. �I see that you�re in the habit of eating a heavy luncheon. I�m sure it�s a mistake. Why don�t you follow my example and just eat one thing? I�m sure you�d feel ever so much better for it.� �I am only going to eat one thing,� I said, as the waiter came again with the bill of fare. She waved him aside with an airy gesture. 60 �No, no, I never eat anything for luncheon. Just a bite, I never want more than that, and I eat that more as an excuse for conversation than anything else. I couldn�t possibly eat anything more � unless they had some of those giant asparagus. I should be sorry to leave Paris without having some of them.� My heart sank. I had seen them in the shops and I knew that they were horribly expensive. My mouth had often watered at the sight of them. 65 �Madam wants to know if you have any of those giant asparagus,� I asked the waiter. I tried with all my might to will him to say no. A happy smile spread over his broad, priest-like face, and he assured me that they had some so large, so splendid, so tender, thatit was a marvel. �I�m not in the least hungry,� my guest sighed, �but if you insist I don�t mind having some asparagus.� I ordered them. 70 �Aren�t you going to have any ?� �No I never eat asparagus.� �I know there are people who don�t like them. The fact is, you ruin your palate by all the meat you eat.�

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We waited for the asparagus to be cooked. Panic seized me. It was not a question of how much money I should have left over for the rest of the month, but whether I had enough to pay the bill. It would be 75 mortifying to find myself ten francs short and be obliged to borrow from my guest. I could not bring myself to do that. I knew exactly how much I had and if the bill came to more I made up my mind that I would put my hand in my pocket and with a dramatic cry start up and say it had been picked. Of course it would be awkward if she had not money enough either to pay the bill. Then the only thing would be to leave my watch and say I would come back and pay later. 80 The asparagus appeared. They were enormous, succulent and appetizing. The smell of the melted butter tickled my nostrils as the nstrils of Jehovah were tickled by the burned offerings of the virtuous Semites. I watched the abandoned woman thrust them down her throat in large voluptuous mouthfuls and in my polite way I discoursed on the condition of drama in the Balkans. At last she finished. �Coffee?� I said. 85 �Yes, just an ice-cream and coffee,� she answered. I was past caring now, so I ordered coffee for myself and an ice-cream and coffee for her. �You know, there�s one thing I thoroughly believe in,� she said, as she ate the ice-cream. �One should always get up from a meal feeling one could eat a little more.� �Are you still hungry?� I asked faintly. 90 �Oh, no, I�m not hungry; you see, I don�t eat luncheon. I have a cup of coffee in the morning and then dinner, but I never eat more than one thing for luncheon. I was speaking for you.� �Oh, I see!� Then a terrible thing happened. While we were waiting for the coffee, the head waiter, with an ingratiating smile on his false face, came up to us bearing a basket full of huge peaches. They had the 95 blush of an innocent girl; they had the rich tone of an Italian landscape. But surely peaches were not in season then? Lord knew what they cost. I knew too � a little later, for my guest, going on with her conversation, absentmindedly took one. �You see, you�ve filled your stomach with a lot of meat� � my one miserable little chop � �and you can�t eat any more. But I�ve just had a snack and I shall enjoy a peach.� 100 The bill came and when I paid it I found that I had only enough for a quite inadequate tip. Her eyes rested for an instant on the three francs I left for the waiter and I knew she thought me mean. But when I walked out of the restaurant I had the whole month before me and not a penny in my pocket. �Follow my example,� she said as we shook hands, �and never eat more than one thing for luncheon.� �I�ll do better than that,� I retorted. I�ll eat nothing for dinner to-night.� 105 �Humorist!� she cried gaily, jumping into a cab. �You�re quite a humorist! But I have had my revenge at last. I do not believe that I am a vindictive man, but when the immortal gods take a hand in the matter it is pardonable to observe the result with complacency. Today she weighs twenty-one stone. The Luncheon, S. Maugham L�écrivain de nouvelle doit prendre en compte la brièveté du genre ; il doit présenter

les personnages et la situation, développer l�intrigue et le retournement inattendu, s�il y en a

un, en un nombre limité de mots. La construction du texte est donc capitale ; dans cette

nouvelle, la structure reprend celle de l�idée séminale du récit, le repas, et permet de créer une

attente chez le lecteur qui va anticiper jusqu�au dénouement final. Dans cette nouvelle, les

différents éléments dignes d�intérêt pour aider les élèves dans l�écriture de leur nouvelle sont

les suivants :

- L�utilisation des pronoms « her » et « she » à la place du nom dans le premier

paragraphe permet à l�auteur de susciter l�intérêt du lecteur puisque ce dernier ne connaît pas

le référent et que son seul moyen de le découvrir est de lire la suite du texte.

- L�introduction de l�histoire proprement dite grâce à une analepse (« flashback ») à la

fin du premier paragraphe ; il s�agit d�une technique couramment employée que les élèves

peuvent s�approprier et utiliser dans leurs travaux.

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- Il convient de faire remarquer aux élèves quand les principaux éléments de l�histoire

sont introduits (« characters, setting, situation » → réponses aux questions en WH-).

-Les élèves doivent être en mesure d�exprimer le dilemme du narrateur qui se trouve

être répété et accentué tout au long de l�histoire : celui-ci a invité la femme dans un restaurant

prestigieux bien au-delà de ses moyens et ne veut pas la décevoir ; il commande donc les

différents plats en se demandant s�il pourra payer l�addition.

-Tout au long du repas, le contraste entre ce que la femme dit ou prétend et ce qu�elle

fait en réalité crée une tension et un effet comique qui, combinés au fait que l�histoire suit la

structure d�un repas, conduisent le lecteur à anticiper le dénouement et à partager l�angoisse

du narrateur à l�idée de devoir payer l�addition. Demander aux élèves de compléter un tableau

de ce type permet de mettre en évidence la structure du texte à travers ce schéma récurrent:

What she says (l.27;34 ;42 ;60) What she asks for How he reacts

- Le comportement prévisible de la femme ainsi que la description caricaturale qui en

est faite permet également d�introduire les notions de « flat characters / round characters »qui

figureront dans la rubrique « characterization » de la fiche récapitulative « writing a short

story on my own ».

Les activités que l�on propose aux élèves en classe pour associer leur lecture à un

travail d�écriture sont de deux types ; on peut dire que les élèves travaillent avec le texte ou à

partir du texte ; ils travaillent avec le texte lorsqu�ils examinent les choix de l�auteur

concernant des aspects linguistiques ou logiques spécifiques tels que la ponctuation, la

grammaire, la structure des phrases, l�organisation du texte, c�est-à-dire le rapport entre les

moyens employés par l�auteur et l�effet associé. Les élèves travaillent à partir du texte

lorsqu�ils l�utilisent pour écrire leur propre texte, c�est-à-dire lorsqu�ils le résument, le

complètent (fin de l�histoire dans le cas de The Landlady), ou bien réagissent.

Les deux types d�activité ont donc été mises en place dans le cas de The Landlady

puisqu�il y a eu production écrite et travail avec le texte ; en revanche, l�étude des deux autres

nouvelles a seulement consisté en un travail avec le texte puisque le travail à partir du texte a

fait l�objet d�activités de production orale (les élèves réagissent, spéculent en allant au-delà du

texte, il y a élargissement du sujet �)

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Toutes ces activités liées à la lecture de textes ont ici été analysées à l�aune de la

recherche de l�autonomie dans les travaux de production écrite. Il va sans dire qu�il s�agit

d�activités essentielles dans le cadre d�un travail de compréhension écrite et qu�un support

écrit peut également constituer un très bon déclencheur de parole. L�étude de textes est de

toute évidence une activité incontournable au lycée comme nous le rappellent les instructions

officielles, « bien que ne constituant qu�une activité de classe parmi d�autres, l�étude d�un

texte écrit n�en constitue pas moins une activité très importante de la classe d�anglais au

lycée » (p. 28).

B. Rédaction de la nouvelle

1. Comment commencer

Avant de commencer, les élèves devaient avoir réfléchi à leur histoire et avoir au

moins une idée quant à l�intrigue. Il faut reconnaître que trop de liberté peut paralyser les

élèves et que la peur de la feuille blanche est souvent présente; certains élèves se sont excusés

car leur idée n�était pas originale voire frisait le plagiat ; il convient alors de rassurer et

d�éviter que les élèves soient paralysés par l�obligation d�inventer. Jean Guénot nous rappelle

dans Ecrire, guide pratique de l’écrivain que « tout a toujours été dit, pour peu que l�on ait

lu » et nous donne le conseil suivant : « copiez donc à votre mode, avec vos moeurs et selon

votre démarche ». L�idée de départ importe peu, c�est son exploitation la mise en place de

l�histoire et sa rédaction qui nous intéressent. Pour les quelques élèves bloqués, j�ai donné

trois pistes :

1. �A man / woman is driving along on a desert road when he/she sees a hitchhiker on

the side of the road��

2. �Imagine a situation with two characters whose lives are completely different. Swap

their situations��

3. �A man is reading a compelling novel ; in the forest, two people meet and decide to

kill somebody ; the murderer enters the house of the future victim and moves closer to

the man who is reading�.�

Les élèves en panne d�inspiration se sont très rapidement débloqués ; même s�ils n�ont

pas suivi la piste proposée à la lettre, il semble qu�un détail ait suffit à les faire démarrer ; une

d�entre eux a d�emblée choisi d�écrire une histoire partant de la rencontre avec un auto-

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stoppeur. Une fois l�idée principale adoptée, il faut commencer à construire une histoire

complète autour.

2. Démarche adoptée : le « brainstorming » comme phase préliminaire

Ce travail se veut progressif ; la démarche préconisée dans un premier temps est de

procéder à un « brainstorming » à partir des différents éléments constitutifs d�une nouvelle

mentionnés dans la fiche récapitulative suivante qui reprend dans les grandes lignes les

différents éléments dégagé en cours ; cette fiche a également pour but d�aider les élèves à

construire leurs personnages (« building characters ») en essayant de cerner sa personnalité ;

les élèves peuvent ainsi dans un premier temps choisir les adjectifs appropriés parmi des

paires d�antonymes ; cette fiche rappelle également le rôle important que jouent les sens,

notamment dans les passages descriptifs.

Writing a short story on my own Before you start, it might be helpful to focus on:

- Plot: What is going to happen? - Setting: Where and when will the story take place? - Characterization: Who are the main characters? What do they look like? - Structure: How will the story begin? What will be the problem? How is the

problem going to be solved? - Tone (earnest, ironical, cynical, humorous…) and atmosphere (scary, ordinary

life…) depending on the type of story you choose. - Point of view: first-person, third-person…

Building characters To start with, concentrate on physical appearances (size, build, age, hair, clothes…) Example: What do we know about the appearance of this character? How does she feel about herself? "She looked at herself in the wardrobe mirror and made a horrible face, baring a mouthful of teeth covered with a brace. Automatically she pushed her glasses into position, ran her fingers through her mouse-brown hair so that it stood wildly on end, and let out a sigh almost as noisy as the wind." Is your character: Clever/thick; shy/talkative; insecure/self-confident; selfish/generous; brave/a coward; self-satisfied/modest; clumsy/skilful; nice/nasty …? Flat character / Round character: Flat characters represent a single idea or quality; they are not changed by circumstances and are sometimes called types or caricatures. Round characters are more complex and they are likely to be changed by circumstances and surprise the reader.

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Try to show how your character is. There are two major ways of revealing character traits in fiction, TELLING or SHOWING. The narrator can either tell us what the characters are like, or show how they behave, what they say or think, and let us draw our own conclusions from it.

What would your characters do if : a fierce dog barked at them? someone called them a cruel name? they saw a robber escaping? someone asked them what their favourite type of music is? someone asked them what their hobbies are? Senses Where appropriate, the senses can be used to describe and develop experiences, setting and character: What does it smell like? What can be heard? What can be seen? What does it taste / feel like?

Il s�agit d�encourager les élèves à faire des associations d�idées et de mots. ; les élèves

devaient travailler sur l�intrigue (« plot »), le cadre spatio-temporel (« setting »), les

personnages (« characterization ») et éventuellement l�atmosphère si celle-ci est importante

pour l�histoire choisie dans un ordre qui leur appartenait. Ce fonctionnement par association

et ce découpage, tout arbitraire soit-il, de l�histoire en gestation apportent à l�élève une

stratégie destinée à générer des idées et à mobiliser ou chercher le vocabulaire approprié au

fur et à mesure ; les élèves construisent leur « spidergramme »; on utilise couramment cette

technique lors d�une phase d�anticipation car cette dernière ne demande pas aux élèves

d�organiser leurs idées ou bien de construire des phrases et leur permet donc de réagir

spontanément. Il convient également de rappeler que les arborescences ou constellations

obtenues sont faciles à lire du fait de leur disposition spatiale, ce qui facilite ainsi le passage

aux étapes suivantes de tri, d�organisation et d�étoffement.

Les élèves n�ont pas tous employé cette méthode de travail ; il est très difficile et

même malvenu d�imposer une méthode de travail pour un exercice de production aussi libre

et individuel que la rédaction d�une nouvelle dont le sujet a été laissé au choix de l�élève ;

certains élèves ont commencer à rédiger des phrases sans avoir jeté des notes au brouillon au

préalable.

Cette technique proposée ne doit pas être appliquée de manière exhaustive et rien

n�empêche l�écrivain en herbe de commencer son histoire sans avoir tout prévu; en effet, les

idées jaillissent également au fur et à mesure de la rédaction de l�histoire ; cette phase de

« brainstorming » a donc été effectuée en classe pendant une heure en demi-classe ; la plupart

des élèves ont adhéré à cette méthode de travail qui reprend les premières étapes des travaux

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de production écrite habituels, à savoir la mobilisation des connaissances et des idées ainsi

que la réalisation d�un plan, et les adapte à l�écriture fictionnelle ; on peut parler de transfert

méthodologique.

3. La rédaction et les premiers jets

La rédaction des nouvelles a été effectuée à la maison en partie au cours des vacances

de février ; tous les élèves m�ont rendu leur nouvelle ; la qualité des travaux était bien

évidemment très hétérogène. Cependant, dans l�ensemble, les élèves ont fait de gros efforts,

tant dans la construction de l�histoire elle-même que dans la recherche d�un vocabulaire

adapté et riche. Il est important d�encourager les élèves et de mettre en valeur leurs idées,

comme nous le rappelle J. Thomas : « Many ESL students assume that writing means creating

grammatically perfect sentences. [�] Teachers can help to dispel this view that writing and

grammar are synonymous by emphasizing the importance of ideas in any piece of writing and

by showing a genuine interest in what students are saying, not just how they are saying it »

(J.Thomas, �Countering the �I Can�t Write English� Syndrome� in Tesol Journal, Spring

1993, p.13). Il me semble que l�écriture d�invention, à cause de la liberté laissée à l�élève,

constitue vraiment un exercice de production écrite qui valorise les élèves pour leurs idées.

J�ai tenu compte de cet investissement important dans la notation ; cependant, lors du

retour des nouvelles aux élèves, je les ai prévenus qu�il s�agissait d�une note conditionnelle,

susceptible d�être modifiée (baissée) si ces derniers ne faisaient pas leur travail de correction

sérieusement. Dans beaucoup de copies, j�ai pu me rendre compte qu�un certain nombre de

points de grammaire n�avait pas été compris. Il m�a semblé alors nécessaire de changer ma

manière de corriger et notamment de ne pas me contenter de signaler les erreurs et

maladresses commises. J�ai donc décidé de faire rédiger aux élèves leur propre fiche de

remédiation en plus de la correction du devoir.

4. La fiche de remédiation

J�ai utilisé deux couleurs dans mon système de correction des nouvelles ; la correction

habituelle apparaissait en rouge tandis que j�ai utilisé un stylo noir pour les points devant

figurer sur la fiche de remédiation (annexe 7 : deux fiches de remédiation numérisées qui

m�ont été rendues avec la version définitive). J�ai donné aux élèves les références dans le livre

de grammaire pour qu�ils puissent chercher la nature de leur erreur.

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L�objectif de la rédaction d�une fiche de remédiation est multiple ; tout d�abord, cela

pousse l�élève à revenir sur ses erreurs et surtout à remonter à la source de son erreur ; en

effet, l�élève doit mentionner sur sa fiche de remédiation son erreur, la correction, la règle

correspondante et au moins un autre exemple. L�objectif essentiel, selon moi, est

d�encourager les élèves à chercher ou vérifier certains points dans le livre de grammaire qu�ils

ont acheté (Maîtriser la grammaire anglaise au lycée, aux éditions Hatier) ; il s�agit là encore

d�essayer de rendre les élèves plus autonomes et responsables dans leur apprentissage.

La variété des erreurs commises fait qu�il est impossible de faire un petit recadrage en

classe sur certains points, comme on peut le faire à la suite d�un devoir écrit traditionnel

lorsque la majorité des élèves ont eu les mêmes difficultés et commis les mêmes erreurs. Il est

un type d�erreur que j�ai délibérément refusé de faire apparaître sur la fiche de remédiation,

tant le nombre d�élèves concernés était important ; il s�agit des erreurs concernant le discours

indirect. Ce point avait été vu avant la rédaction des nouvelles, mais apparemment n�avait pas

été totalement assimilé. Les élèves concernés ont donc dû corriger les erreurs correspondantes

et toute la classe a effectué des exercices sur le discours indirect. Il y avait également un

grand nombre d�erreurs liées à une traduction erronée des mots suivants : pendant, après,

depuis, encore et toujours. Le livre de grammaire n�apportant pas de réponse claire pour ces

points, j�ai décidé de faire une fiche pour les élèves :

Traduction de « pendant » For introduit une durée, un laps de temps : She lived here for three years. Elle a habité ici pendant trois ans. During introduit un événement ou une époque : She lived here during the war. Elle a habité ici pendant la guerre. While introduit une proposition : It happened while she was here. C�est arrivé pendant qu’elle était là. The phone rang while I was watching TV.

Traduction de « après » After s�utilise devant un nom ou un pronom : After you, after the holidays, after Christmas. Après vous, après les vacances, après Noël. Then s�utilise pour traduire après dans le sens de « ensuite » : I watched the news and then we had dinner. J�ai regardé le journal et après / ensuite nous avons dîné. Later (on) s�utilise en fin de phrase, lorsque « après » n�a pas de complément : I’ll do it later. Je le ferai après / plus tard.

Traduction de « depuis » : For ou since avec le present perfect Since : point de départ, date de début d�une action : For: durée, laps de temps: I’ve been here since Monday. I’ve been here for two days.

�Encore� et �toujours�!

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Selon leur sens et contexte, ces deux mots peuvent se traduire par still, always, yet et again : Il pleut toujours en mars. It always rains in March. . Est-ce qu�il pleut toujours? Is it still raining ? Il pleut encore assez fort It’s still raining heavily (still : action qui continue) Il pleut encore ! It’s raining again (again: action qui se répète) Les élèves concernés ont ainsi pu inclure certains de ces points dans leur fiche de

remédiation.

5. Un recueil de nouvelles

Le travail de correction a été effectué sérieusement pour deux raisons à mon avis ; les

élèves ne voulaient pas voir leur note baisser et surtout cette correction a revêtu une utilité

nouvelle à leurs yeux ; en effet, je leur ai demandé de me remettre une copie numérisée de

leur nouvelle avec les corrections et améliorations souhaitées (annexe 8). Le projet consistait

à créer un recueil de nouvelles de la classe avec les travaux de tous les élèves, ce recueil étant

alors mis à la disposition de tous au CDI et en ligne. Chaque élève s�est également vu

remettre une copie numérisée du recueil sur la disquette qui m�avait été remise. Poussés par la

curiosité, les élèves vont ainsi lire les nouvelles corrigées de leurs camarades de classe et ainsi

lire en anglais. Kathleen Julié nous rappelle dans son ouvrage Enseigner l’anglais que « la

production écrite doit toucher l�élève [�] et surtout, impérativement, être lue. » Dans le cas

des nouvelles, cette condition est ainsi pleinement remplie puisque les nouvelles vont pouvoir

être consultées par tous. Ce projet a remporté l�adhésion de la classe.

J�ai choisi d�inclure certains devoirs en annexe de niveaux divers car si tous les élèves

ont fait des efforts, il demeure que les élèves ont travaillé dans leur niveau avec leurs

compétences. Il m�a également semblé important de faire figurer le devoir d�une même élève

avant et après correction ainsi que deux fiches de remédiation qui m�ont été rendu numérisées.

Ce type de travail a nécessité un investissement important de la part des élèves mais

également de l�enseignant. En effet, la variété des nouvelles et des maladresses et erreurs à

relever a rendu le travail de correction particulièrement long ; en revanche, dans de nombreux

cas j�ai pris plaisir à lire les productions des élèves à cause de cette même variété.

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Conclusion

Au cours de cette année de stage, j�ai pu prendre le temps nécessaire à la recherche et

la mise en place d�activités de production écrite originales permettant de sortir du cadre des

devoirs d�écriture de fin de séquence. J�avais peur de me heurter au refus des élèves au début ;

j�ai donc adopté une démarche progressive au niveau de l�investissement requis et de la

difficulté des travaux demandés. J�ai été en fait relativement surpris de remarquer que ces

devoirs ont enthousiasmé des élèves qui, dans l�ensemble, ne sont pas de grands travailleurs.

Ces activités ont ainsi constitué une source de satisfaction cette année ; la plupart des idées

pourront être réutilisées à l�avenir et même au collège si l�on prend soin de les adapter au

niveau auquel on les destine. En effet, le projet de création d�une brochure touristique pourrait

très bien être mis en place au collège en ciblant de manière précise les notions-fonctions à

travailler et en adaptant le travail en amont.

Il convient également de rappeler qu�une grande partie du travail a été effectué à la

maison et que les recherches préalables effectuées par les élèves (vocabulaire�) ainsi que les

corrections et fiches de remédiation demandées permettent de développer l�autonomie des

élèves dans le domaine de la production écrite. Le succès de ces activités est en partie dû au

fait qu�elle correspondent soient à une situation de communication réelle et placent l�élève

dans une perspective actionnelle (brochure touristique, article de journal�) ou bien qu�elles

s�adressent à un lecteur autre que l�enseignant (nouvelle). Il ne faut pas négliger l�importance

du travail en amont qui est garant du bon déroulement du travail choisi. Enfin, ces activités

requièrent un investissement relativement important de la part de l�enseignant mais celui-ci

peut être largement compensé par les satisfactions offertes. N�ayant travaillé cette année en ne

disposant que d�une expérience très réduite, j�ai conscience que de nombreux aspects de ma

démarche peuvent être améliorés à l�avenir

36

Bibliographie

Advanced Communication Games, Longman.

Didactique de l’anglais (2) / la mise en œuvre pédagogique, D. Bailly.

Ecrire, guide pratique de l’écrivain, J. Guénot.

Enseigner l’anglais, K. Julié.

Guide Belin de l’enseignement, lycée.

Techniques in Teaching Writing, Ann Raimes, Oxford University Press, 1983.

The English Language, J.C. Blumenthal et Louis Zahner, 1959.

Writing Advanced, Oxford Supplementary Skills, Ron White.

Writing, Expression écrite Premières / Terminales, Jeanie Maisonnare-Legendre, Hatier.

Site du ministère de l�éducation de Nouvelle-Zélande : http://english.unitechnology.ac.nz

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Annexes Annexe1: exemple d�activité de communication de type jeu de rôle

SCOOP !

MAXWELL STAR This is your party. You have thrown this impressive party in London in honour of the launch of your new newspaper, Scoop. You have invited many colourful famous people, as well as reporters from many other rival newspapers. You want to impress the other newspapers with how much power and prestige you have. You want this party to be a party to remember, with favourable reports in the rival pres. So It�s your job to make sure everyone has a good time. You are the host, so you get to know everyone�s names very quickly, introduce everyone to everyone, and make sure no one sits alone in a corner or is bored. You are especially welcoming to reporters, promise them there will be lots of good stories for them as long as they give you a favourable mention. PHILIP COOK You are a successful businessman for a London fashion company called Mitchell and Co., and you are convinced the firm is about to crash. The director, Alec Mitchell, has been involved in a lot of shady deals recently: you�ve heard rumours of drug deals too. You�ve also heard he�s planning to get out to South America before the police catch up with him, and you wouldn�t be surprised if he took a lot of the firm�s money with him. You�d like to spread this story � you�re not very fond of Alec, especially as you suspect that he�s been having an affair with your wife Patricia. You�d like to find out more about this � tactfully. It could help your case against Pat: you�re planning to ask her for a divorce, though she doesn�t know this yet. For some time you�ve been in lve with the film star Annette Astro and at last she�s agreed to marry you. Don�t let anyone know this though: the papers would love to get hold of the scandal, and Annette is very nervous about her public image PATRICIA COOK You are married to Philip Cook, a businesswoman who works for a large fashion firm. You live in the London suburbs and work in London. You are secretary to the director of another large clothes manufacturing company. Your boss, Michael Rownham, is very influential, and has chosen to stand as an MP in the next election. You don�t trust him an inch though: for some time you�ve been convinced that he�s been embezzling money from the firm � and now you have evidence to prove that he�s embezzled thousands of pounds of the firm�s money. He�s been spreading malicious rumours about you and Alec Mitchell, your husband�s boss, so you�d like to pay him back by exposing his fraudulent activities. Tell as many people as possible about your suspicions � including the newspapers! The rumours about you and Alec are true actually � you�ve been having an affair for some time � but you don�t want anyone, especially not your husband, to know. But you are curious about what your husband�s been up to! You�ve heard rumours that he�s been seeing an actress, and you�d like to find out more about it. He denies of course, but� Try and find out what�s going on � tactfully! BARBARA MITCHELL You are a government official at the Ministry of Defence. You live in London with your husband, Alec, who is head of a big clothes manufacturing community. You don�t see much of each other, as your jobs keep you very busy. Perhaps that�s just as well, as you haven�t been getting on too well recently. Something rather od happened to you yesterday. You met a frien for an evening drink in a quiet little pub. The pub is nowhere near the Ministry, so you hadn�t expected to see anyone you know. But you overheard a familiar voice, and at a nearby table you saw Guy Maclean, a civil servant in your department. He was talking to a man with a foreign accent. When the man left, he took Guy�s briefcase with him � you�re sure it was Guy�s briefcase: you�ve often seen him with at work. Guy left a little later: you don�t think he saw you. Could he be working as a secret agent for another country? You got to work early this morning and had a look through the papers that Guy is dealing with: there are some important ones missing. There could be a perfectly innocent explanation, but you feel sure you�re right and that Guy is passing over secret information. You�ve got a grudge against Guy anyway, ever since he was promoted � it should have been you that got that promotion. You�d like to see him go � and here is your chance. Spread the story around, tell the papers �no one will ever know that it was you who leaked the information. ALEC MITCHELL You are director of a large clothes manufacturing company in London called Mitchell and Co. � but not for much longer! The company is about to crash, so you�re getting out as fast as you can, with your money intact!

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Money is no problem for you actually, since a large part of your income comes from a sideline you have � dealing in cocaine! That�s where the money really is! You�re worried that the police are on your trail though, so you�re planning a get-out to South America. You already have a ticket booked on a flight to Rio. No one knows about this, of course � and no one must know. So act as naturally as possible. Another small secret: you�ve been having an affair with Patricia Cook, the wife of one of your managers. No one knows about this, though now you don�t care whether they do or not, as you�re leaving anyway. Of course you�re leaving Pat behind � she knows nothing about your plans. All very sad, but then, hat�s life! (You�re leaving your wife Barbara, too.) One thing you�d like to know: a few days ago you tried to get some of your connections in the fashion world, an Italian called Angelo Astro, to do some smuggling for your drugs operation. He travels a lot, so he�d be ideal. You know he has heavy debts (his wife is a film star and has very expensive tastes!), so you were sure that he could be persuaded, but he refused. Now you are frightened he�ll tell the police about your activities, and that they�ll arrest you before you have time to leave. Perhaps you could find something to blackmail him with! MICHAEL ROWNHAM Success is your middle name! You�ve been a successful businessman for years � you run a clothes manufacturing company in London � and now you�re on the way to becoming a successful politician: you�ve been selected to stand as an MP in the next election � you�re pretty sure of winning too. However, you have a guilty secret: for some time your expenses have outrun your income, so you have been supplementing your income with money taken directly from the firm. No one has ever noticed � but now you�re worried that your secretary has put her finger on it! You are afraid she will expose you. She�s no angel herself: you know that she�sbeen having an affair behind her husband�s back with Alec Mitchell, the head of a rival firm. Let her know that you know and that you are thinking of telling her husband � that may keep her quiet. Spread rumours about her to frighten her but don�t actually tell her husband. There�s something you would like to find out: you�ve heard rumours that Mitchell and Co., your big rivals, are about to crash. See if you can find out more about this. ANGELO ASTRO You are a successful young fashion designer � and the third husband of the film star Annette Astro. A few days ago Annette told you that she wanted to divorce you. You are very upset and very angry. Everything you�ve done has been for Annette. It was only for her � to satisfy her expensive tastes � that you got involved in a Mafia gold-smuggling ring. You really regret this now, and would do anything to get out, but you have heavy debts and need the money. Annette is very sensitive to bad publicity, and you�ve threatened to write an article for the papers called �My Wife Deceived Me!�, but she�s made up her mind to marry this man Philip. You love Annette and can�t let her go like this. One faint hope: you know the man that Philip works for, the head of the clothes company Mitchell and Co. Everyone thinks that Alec Mitchell is a respectable member of society, but you know better. Only you know that the whole business is crooked � just a cover-up for a drug-dealing operation. You know this because Alec approached you and suggested that you do some work for him. You didn�t want to get involved: gold is one thing, drugs are quite another. If you disclosed the facts about Alec, the whole firm would collapse, and Philip would go with it. Very bad publicity for Annette to be connected with a drugs case; she�d have to drop him. Well, you�re desperate, so it�s worth trying: spread the story about Alec to as many people as possible. ANNETTE ASTRO You are a famous film star. You have been married three times. Your present husband is Angelo Astro, a highly successful fashion designer. However husband number three is on the way to becoming ex-husband 3! You have been in love with another man for some time: a London businessman called Philip Cook, and you are planning to marry him. Angelo has been very difficult about the divorce. He feels very bitter, and is threatening to write an article for one of the Sunday papers, called �My Wife Deceived Me!� This would be very bad for your image! There was enough scandal when you divorced number 2 to marry Angelo, and the papers carried headlines like �Heartbreaker Annette Does It again�. The only thing to do, as far as you can see, is to tell everyone about Angelo, before he tells them about you! You are the only person who knows that Angelo has Mafia connections and has been involved in a gold-smuggling racket. You could sell your story to the press. You can see the headlines now: �My Husband Turned To Crime: a wife�s struggle between love and conscience�� GUY MACLEAN You are a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence. You have quite an important job, and access to a lot of classified material. For some time now, you have been selling state secrets to another country. A terrible thing happened last night. You had arranged to meet your �contact� in a pub to hand over some papers. You talked for a while, and then he left, with your briefcase. You finished your Scotch and got up to go. As you left, you saw someone from the Ministry at a nearby table � Barbara Mitchell, an official from your department. You don�t

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know when she came in, whether she saw you with your �contact�, or even whether she saw you at all � she gave no sign that she�d seen you. Was it your imagination, or did she look at you suspiciously this morning? And had someone been looking through the papers in your office, or was that your imagination too? Luckily, you know something about her. Her husband, Alec Mitchell, is involved with the drug traffic. You don�t know if she knows this or not, but if it came out, it would ruin her career. Perhaps you�d better spread the story around � it might stop her poking her nose into your affairs. DAILY FILTH REPORTER You are interested in getting a couple of good stories for your paper this weekend. You have two leads: Angelo Astro, the third husband of the famous film star, Annette Astro, is involved in some way with the Mafia. Find out if this is true, how he feels about it, and whether she has a fourth husband in mind. You have also heard that Alec Mitchell, the fashion tycoon, is involved in some way with drugs. Investigate this lead. Follow up any other stories you hear about too � your paper is short of news this week. DAILY SMUT REPORTER You are interested in getting a couple of good stories for your paper this weekend. You have a few leads: Annette Astro the famous film star is planning to divorce her third husband. Find out if this is true, how he feels about it, and whether she has a fourth husband in mind. You have also heard that Alec Mitchell, the fashion tycoon, is involved in some ways with drugs. Investigate this lead. Follow up any other stories you hear about too � your paper is short of news this week. GRIME REPORTER You work for a Sunday newspaper and are interested in getting a couple of good stories for your paper this weekend You have two leads: Annette Astro, the famous film star, is planning to divorce her third husband. Find out if this is true, whether she has a fourth husband in mind and how Angelo, her present husband feels about it.You have also heard that Alec Mitchell, the fashion tycoon, is involved in some ways with drugs. Investigate this further. Follow up any other leads you get too � your paper is short of news this week. MUCKRACKER REPORTER You are interested in getting a couple of good stories for your paper this weekend. You have a couple of leads: you have heard that Angelo Astro, the third husband of Annette Astro, the famous film star, is involved in some way with the Mafia. Investigate this. You have also heard that Michael Rownham, who is standing as MP in the next election, has been embezzling large amounts of money from the firm he works for. Follow this up. Follow up any other stories you hear too � your paper is short of news this weekend.

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Annexe2: The Landlady, R. Dahl

Billy Weaver had travelled down from London on the slow afternoon train, with a change at Swindon on the way, and by the time he got to Bath it was about nine o�clock in the evening and the moon was coming up out of a clear starry sky over the houses opposite the station entrance. But the air was deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks. �Excuse me,� he said, �but is there a fairly cheap hotel not too far away from here?� �Try the Bell and Dragon,� the porter answered, pointing down the road. �They might take you in. It�s about a quarter of a mile along on the other side.� Billy thanked him and picked up his suitcase and set out to walk the quarter-mile to the Bell and Dragon. He had never been to Bath before. He didn�t know anyone who lived there. But Mr Greenslade at the Head Office in London had told him it was a splendid city. �Find your own lodgings,� he had said, �and then go along and report to the Branch Manager as soon as you�ve got yourself settled.� Billy was seventeen years old. He was wearing a new navy-blue overcoat, a new brown trilby hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. He walked briskly down the street. He was trying to do everything briskly these days. Briskness, he had decided, was the one common characteristic of all successful businessmen. The big shots up at Head Office were absolutely fantastically brisk all the time. They were amazing. There were no shops on this wide street that he was walking along, only a line of tall houses on each side, all of them identical. They had porches and pillars and four or five steps going up to their front doors, and it was obvious that once upon a time they had been very swanky residences. But now, even in the darkness, he could see that the paint was peeling from the woodwork on their doors and windows, and that the handsome white façades were cracked and blotchy from neglect. Suddenly, in a downstairs window that was brilliantly illuminated by a street-lamp not six yards away, Billy caught sight of a printed notice propped up against the glass in one of the upper panes. It said BED AND BREAKFAST. There was a vase of pussy-willows, tall and beautiful, standing just underneath the notice. He stopped walking. He moved a bit closer. Green curtains (some sort of velvety material) were hanging down on either side of the window. The pussy-willows looked wonderful beside them. He went right up and peered through the glass into the room, and the first thing he saw was a bright fire burning in the hearth. On the carpet in front of the fire, a pretty little dachshund was curled up asleep with its nose tucked into its belly. The room itself, so far as he could see in the half-darkness, was filled with pleasant furniture. There was a baby-grand piano and a big sofa and several plump armchairs; and in one corner he spotted a large parrot in a cage. Animals were usually a good sign in a place like this, Billy told himself; and all in all, it looked to him as though it would be a pretty decent house to stay in. Certainly it would be more comfortable than The Bell and Dragon. On the other hand, a pub would be more congenial than a boarding-house. There would be beer and darts in the evenings, and lots of people to talk to, and it would probably be a good deal cheaper, too. He had stayed a couple of nights in a pub once before and he had liked it. He had never stayed in any boarding-houses, and, to be perfectly honest, he was a tiny bit frightened of them. The name itself conjured up images of watery cabbage, rapacious landladies, and a powerful smell of kippers in the living-room. After dithering about like this in the cold for two or three minutes, Billy decided that he would walk on and take a look at The Bell and Dragon before making up his mind. He turned to go. And now a queer thing happened to him. He was in the act of stepping back and turning away from the window when all at once his eye was caught and held in the most peculiar manner by the small notice that was there. BED AND BREAKFAST, it said. BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST. Each word was like a large black eye staring at him through the glass, holding him, compelling, forcing him to stay where he was and not to walk away from that house, and the next thing he knew, he was actually moving across from the window to the front door of the house, climbing the steps that led up to it, and reaching for the bell. He pressed the bell; Far away in a back room he heard it ringing, and then at once � it must have been at once because he hadn�t even had time to take his finger from the bell-button � the door swung open and a woman was standing there. Normally you ring the bell and you have at least a half-minute�s wait before the door opens. But this dame was like a jack-in-the-box. He pressed the bell � and out she popped! It made him jump. She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw him, she gave him a warm welcoming smile. �Please come in,� she said pleasantly. She stepped aside, holding the door wide open, and Billy found himself automatically starting forward into the house. The compulsion or, more accurately, the desire to follow after her into that house was extraordinarily strong. �I saw the notice in the window,� he said, holding himself back. �Yes, I know.� �I was wondering about a room.�

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�It�s all ready for you, my dear,� she said. She had a round pink face and very gentle blue eyes. �I was on my way to The Bell and Dragon,� Billy told her. �But the notice in your window just happened to catch my eye.� �My dear boy,� she said, �why don�t you come in out of the cold?� �How much do you charge?� �Five and sixpence a night, including breakfast;� It was fantastically cheap. It was less than half of what he had been willing to pay. �If that is too much,� she added, �then perhaps I can reduce it just a tiny bit. Do you desire an egg for breakfast? Eggs are expensive at the moment. It would be sixpence without the egg.� �Five and sixpence is fine,� he answered. �I should like very much to stay here.� �I knew you would. Do come in.� She seemed terribly nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one�s best school-friend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas holidays. Billy took off his hat, and stepped over the threshold. �Just hang it there,� she said, �and let me help you with your coat.� There were no other hats or coats in the hall. There were no umbrellas, no walking-sticks � nothing. �We have it all to ourselves,� she said, smiling at him over her shoulder as she led the way upstairs. �You see, it isn�t very often I have the pleasure of taking a visitor into my little nest.� The old girl is slightly dotty, Billy told himself. But at five and sixpence a night, who gives a damn about that? �I should�ve thought you�d be simply swamped with applicants,� he said politely. �Oh, I am, my dear, I am, of course I am. But the trouble is that I�m inclined to be just a teeny weeny bit choosy and particular � if you see what I mean.� �Ah, yes.� �But I�m always ready. Everything is always ready day and night in this house just on the off-chance that an acceptable young gentleman will come along. And it is such a pleasure, my dear, such a very great pleasure when now and again I open the door and I see someone standing there who is just exactly right.� She was half-way up the stairs, and she paused with one hand on the stair-rail, turning her head and smiling down at him with pale lips. �Like you,� she added, and her blue eyes travelled slowly all the way down the length of Billy�s body, to his feet, and then up again. On the first-floor landing she said to him, �This floor is mine.� They climbed up a second flight. �And this one is all yours,� she said. �Here�s your room. I do hope you�ll like it.� She took him into a small but charming front bedroom, switching on the light as she went in. �The morning sun comes right here in the window, Mr Perkins. It is Mr Perkins, isn�t it? �No,� he said. �It�s Weaver.� �Mr Weaver. How nice. I�ve put a water-bottle between the sheets to air them out, Mr Weaver. It�s such a comfort to have a hot-water bottle in a strange bed with clean sheets, don�t you agree? And you may light the gas fire at any time if you feel chilly.� �Thank you,� Billy said. �Thank you ever so much.� He noticed that the bedspread had been taken off the bed, and that the bedclothes had been neatly turned back on one side, all ready for someone to get in. �I�m so glad you appeared,� she said, looking earnestly into his face. �I was beginning to get worried.� �That�s all right,� billy answered brightly. �You mustn�t worry about me.� He put his suitcase on the chair and started to open it. �And what about supper, my dear? Did you manage to get anything to eat before you came here?� �I�m not a bit hungry, thank you,� he said. �I think I�ll just go to bed as soon as possible because tomorrow I�ve got to get up rather early and report to the office.� �Very well, then. I�ll leave you now so that you can unpack. But before you go to bed, would you be kind enough to pop into the sitting-room on the ground floor and sign the book? Everybody has to do that because it�s the law of the land, and we don�t want to go breaking any laws at this stage of the proceedings, do we?� She gave him a little wave of the hand and went quickly out of the room and closed the door. Now, the fact that this landlady appeared to be slightly off her rocker didn�t worry Billy in the least. After all, she was not only harmless � there was no question about that � but she was also quite obviously a kind and generous soul. He guessed that she had probably lost a son in the war, or something like that, and had never got over it. So a few minutes later, after unpacking his suitcase and washing his hands, he trotted downstairs to the ground floor and entered the living-room. His landlady wasn�t there, but the fire was glowing in the hearth, and the little dachshund was still sleeping in front of it. The room was wonderfully warm and cosy. I�m a lucky fellow, he thought, rubbing his hands. This is a bit of all right. He found the guest-book lying open on the piano, so he took out his pen and wrote down his name and address. There were only two other entries above his on the page, and, as one always does with guest-books, he started to read them. One was a Christopher Mulholland from Cardiff. The other was Gregory W. Temple from Bristol.

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That�s funny, he thought suddenly. Christopher Mulholland. It rings a bell. Now where on earth had he heard that rather unusual name before? Was he a boy at school? No. Was it one of his sister�s numerous young men, perhaps, or a friend of his father�s? No, no, it wasn�t any of those. He glanced down again at the book. Christopher Mulholland 231 CathedralRoad, Cardiff Gregory W. Temple 27 Sycamore Drive, Bristol As a matter of fact, now he came to think of it, he wasn�t at all sure that the second name didn�t have almost as much of a familiar ring about it as the first. �Gregory Temple?� he said aloud, searching his memory. �Christopher Mulholland?...� �Such charming boys,� a voice behind him answered, and he turned and saw his landlady sailing into the room with a large silver tea-tray in her hands. She was holding it well out in front of her, and rather high up, as though the tray were a pair of reins on a frisky horse. �They sound somehow familiar,� he said. �They do? How interesting� �I�m almost positive I�ve heard those names before somewhere. Isn�t that queer? Maybe it was in the newspapers. They weren�t famous in any way, were they? I mean famous cricketers or footballers or something like that?� �Famous,� she said, setting the tea-tray down on the low table in front of the sofa. �Oh no, I don�t think they were famous. But they were extraordinarily handsome, both of them, I can promise you that. They were tall and young and handsome, my dear, just exactly like you. Once more, Billy glanced down at the book. �Look here,� he said, noticing the dates. �This last entry is over two years old.� �It is?� �Yes, indeed. And Christopher Mulholland�s is nearly a year before that � more than three years ago;� �Dear me,� she said, shaking her head and heaving a little sigh. �I would never have thought it. How time does fly away from us all, doesn�t it, Mr Wilkins?� �It�s Weaver,� Billy said. �W-e-a-v-e-r.� �Oh, of course it is!� she cried, sitting down on the sofa. �How silly of me. I do apologize. In one ear and out the other, that�s me, Mr Weaver.� �You know something?� Billy said. �Something that�s really quite extraordinary about all this? �No dear, I don�t.� �Well, you see �both of these names, Mulholland and Temple, I not only seem to remember each of them separately, so to speak, but somehow or other, in some peculiar way, they both appear to be sort of connected together as well. As though they were both famous the same sort of thing, if you see what I mean � like�well�like Dempsey and Tunney, for example, or Churchill and Roosevelt.� �How amusing,� she said. �But come over here now, dear, and sit down beside me on the sofa and I�ll give you a nice cup of tea and a ginger biscuit before you go to bed.� �You really shouldn�t bother,� Billy said. �I didn�t mean you to do anything like that.� He stood by the piano, watching her as she fussed about with the cups and saucers. He noticed that she had small, white, quickly moving hands, and red finger-nails. �I�m almost positive it was in the newspapers I saw them,� Billy said. �I�ll think of it in a second. I�m sure I will.� There is nothing more tantalizing than a thing like this which lingers outside the orders of one�s memory. He hated to give up. �Now wait a minute,� he said. �Wait just a minute. Mulholland� Christopher Mulholland� wasn�t that the name of the Eton schoolboy who was on a walking-tour through the West Country, and then all of a sudden�� �Milk?� she said. �And sugar?� �Yes, please. And then all of a sudden�� �Eton schoolboy?� she said. �Oh no, my dear, that can�t be possibly right because my Mr Mulholland was certainly not an Eton schoolboy when he came to me. He was a Cambridge undergraduate. Come over here now and sit next to me and warm yourself in front of this lovely fire. Come on. Your tea�s all ready for you.� She patted the empty place beside her on the sofa, and she sat there smiling at Billy and waiting for him to come over. He crossed the room slowly, and sat down on the edge of the sofa. She placed his teacup on the table in front of him. �There we are,� she said. �How nice and cosy this is, isn�t it?�

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Billy started sipping his tea. She did the same. For half a minute or so, neither of them spoke. But Billy knew that she was looking at him. Her body was half-turned towards him, and he could feel her eyes resting on his face, watching him over the rim of her teacup. Now and again, he caught a whiff of a peculiar smell that seemed to emanate directly from her person. It was not in the least unpleasant, and it reminded him � well, he wasn�t quite sure what it reminded him of. Pickled walnuts? New leather? Or was it the corridors of a hospital? �Mr Mulholland was a great one for his tea,� she said at length. �Never in my life have I seen anyone drink as much tea as dear, sweet Mr Mulholland. �I suppose he left fairly recently,� Billy said. He was still puzzling his head about the two names. He was positive now that he had seen them in the newspapers � in the headlines. �Left?� she said, arching her brows. �But my dear boy, he never left. He�s still here. Mr Temple is also here. They�re on the third floor, both of them together.� Billy set down his cup slowly on the table, and stared at his landlady. She smiled back at him, and then she put out one of her white hands and patted him comfortably on the knee. �How old are you, my dear?� she asked. �Seventeen.� �Seventeen!� She cried. �Oh, it�s the perfect age! Mr Mulholland was also seventeen. But I think he was a trifle shorter than you are, in fact I�m sure he was, and his teeth weren�t quite so white. You have the most beautiful teeth, Mr Weaver, did you know that?� �They�re as not as good as they look,� Billy said. �They�ve got simply masses of fillings in them at the back.� �Mr Temple, of course, was a little older,� she said, ignoring his remark. �He was actually twenty-eight. And yet I never would have guessed it if he hadn�t told me, never in my whole life. There wasn�t a blemish on his body.� �A what?� Billy said. �His skin was just like a baby�s.� There was a pause. Billy picked up his teacup and took another sip of his tea, then he set it down again gently in its saucer. He waited for her to say something else, but she seemed to have lapsed into another of her silences. He sat there staring straight ahead of him into the far corner of the room, biting his lower lip. �That parrot,� he said at last. �You know something? It had me completely fooled when I first saw it through the window from the street. I could have sworn it was alive.� �Alas, no longer.� �It�s most terribly clever the way it�s been done,� he said. �It doesn�t look in the least bit dead. Who did it?� �I did.� �You did?� �Of course,� she said. �And you have met my little Basil as well?� She nodded towards the dachshund curled up so comfortably in front of the fire. Billy looked at it. And suddenly, he realized that this animal had all the time been just as silent and motionless as the parrot. He put out a hand and touched it gently on the top of its back; the back was hard and cold, and when he pushed the hair to one side with his fingers, he could see the skin underneath, greyish-black and dry and perfectly preserved. �Good gracious me,� he said. �How absolutely fascinating.� He turned away from the dog and stared with deep admiration at the little woman beside him on the sofa; �It must be most awfully difficult to do a thing like that.� �Not in the least,� she said. �I stuff all my little pets myself when they pass away. Will you have another cup of tea?� �No, thank you,� Billy said. The tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds, and he didn�t much care for it. �You did sign the book, didn�t you?� �Oh, yes.� �That�s good. Because later on, if I happen to forget what you were called, then I could always come down here and look it up. I still do that almost every day with Mr Mulholland and Mr�Mr�� �Temple,� Billy said. �Gregory Temple. Excuse my asking, but haven�t there been any other guests here except them in the last two or three years?� Holding her teacup high in one hand, inclining her head slightly to the left, she looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes and gave him another gentle little smile. �No, my dear,� she said. �Only you.�

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Annexe 7 : deux fiches de remédiation

Fiche de remédiation (1) Erreur: It's the more horrible night... Correction: It�s the most horrible night... Règle: A l'aide du superlatif, on compare plus de deux éléments et on dit que l'un d'entre eux est supérieur à tous les autres. Exemple: This is the most fascinating show I've ever seen. Erreur: We can called .... Correction: We can call... Règle : Les modaux sont toujours suivis de la base verbale. Exemple : We can hear the baby cry. Erreur: They are no storm and... Correction : There was no storm and... Règle : La tournure there is /there are est utilisé pour dire qu'il existe quelque chose. there is est suivi du singulier ; there are est suivi du pluriel. Exemple: There is a gold watch on the table. Erreur: Johanna went immediately... Correction: Johanna immediately went... Règle: Dans les phrases avec un adverbe, l'ordre est le suivant, sujet + adverbe + verbe. Exemple: I often think of you. Erreur: Reigned a silence very heavy... Correction: Reigned a very heavy silence... Règle : L'adjectif épithète se place généralement avant le nom, même lorsqu'il est modifié par un adverbe comme very. Exemple: It was a very interesting story.

Fiche de remediation (2)

Erreur: If only I didn�t take this car Correction: If only I hadn�t taken that car Règle: Après if, le past perfect exprime quelque chose qui ne s’est pas réalisé dans le passé (past perfect du non réel) : le past perfect décrit quelque chose qui était en rupture avec la réalité. Exemple: If the witness had known, he would have said nothing. Si le témoin avait su, il n�aurait rien dit. [Le témoin ne savait pas] Erreur: He came to me for borrow a book Correction: He came to me to borrow a book Règle : pour exprimer le but, les conjonctions les plus courantes sont (in order) to + verbe (pour), so that + proposition / in order that + proposition (afin que. so that et in order that sont suivies d�un modal. Attention : « pour » (but) = to différent « pour » (cause) = for Exemple: He was arrested for smuggling drugs. Il a été arrêté pour avoir fait passer de la drogue Erreur: When he come her, I�m fell well Correction: When he comes here, I feel good Règle: Pour décrire une action habituelle ou qui se répète, l�habitude ou la répétition ayant valeur de généralisation. On a très souvent dans ce type d�énoncé des marqueurs de la répétition (on Saturdays, every month, always�) Exemple: Heather goes to Chicago every month. Heather va à Chicago tous les mois. It rains a lot in Scotland Il pleut beaucoup en Ecosse.

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Annexe 8: short-stories Les quatre premières nouvelles ont été écrites par des élèves de niveau moyen à satisfaisant. La dernière nouvelle a été écrite par une élève dont les parents sont anglophones. J�ai choisi d�inclure ces nouvelles car elles représentent des genres et des styles différents et montrent l�investissement des élèves.

My Angel All love stories are magic, but sometimes, it goes beyond reality� Monday, September 22nd The bathroom - here, we face reality: too many kilos, cellulite. Yet, I was a pretty girl before the accident, I had a fine complexion, beautiful smooth hair, blue eyes. I was courageous, merry, funny� But now, when I look myself in the mirror, I see a horrible face. I�m disfigured, I�ve got a lot of scars on my face, many rolls of fat. I feel insecure. I�ve got many hang-ups. I sleep no more, that�s why I�ve got bags under my eyes. Ah! If only I hadn�t taken that car, I wouldn�t be like that! I�m ugly; therefore my boyfriend, Christopher dumped me. I suffer terribly. The more so as he goes out with my best friend! Who could imagine that? Not me! It�s hell without him. I love him so much! This is my situation for the moment. Tuesday, October 15th

I work in a public library in New-York. It pleases me to do that. All sorts person can be seen; some people are odd. I have spotted a �funny fellow�. He�s handsome! He talked to me with simplicity. At that moment, I forgot Christopher! Today it�s my birthday, nobody has called me. I speak no more with my parents. Most of my friends have become �ex-friends�. I don�t have any brother or sister; I feel lonely. I used to ski at this time of the year but this year, I want to do nothing. The only positive thing is that my scars are less and less visible. Wednesday, October 16th To my great joy the �funny fellow� has come back. He read a comic all the afternoon. He has joined the public library, so I know his name: Enzo. He lives in New-York in a housing estate; the same where my parents live! He came to me to borrow a book and our eyes met�it was magic! He seems to be generous, happy. I envy him. Saturday, October 19th

Enzo has come back. I must say I am delighted! He comes every afternoon, he is used to sitting at the same place, near me. I appreciate Enzo�s presence. He has become, little by little, my silent confident. When he comes here, I feel good. I forget Christopher. From now on, my motivations are: my job and Enzo. This sensation when I see him is very strange. He has got some magic power! Sunday, October 20th

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I feel low. I hang around, between the television and the kitchen. My mother called me; she would like us to become reconciled. But is it a good idea? She has never understood me. Monday, October 21st Why is the public library closed on Mondays? I would like to work 24 hours a day, just to see Enzo. Tuesday, October 22nd He came back, what a relief! And it was magic again! Friday, October 25th Before the closing, Enzo talked to me and I�ve got a date with him tomorrow!!! The more I see him the more I love him. I realize that I don�t love Christopher anymore. It was easier that I could have imagined�it may be thanks to Enzo!? It must be possible that�I fell in love with him! When I see him, my heart pounds wildly, I shake, I long to kiss him. Although I was very distressed by Christopher, I live again thanks to Enzo. Sunday, October 27th I spent a magnificent evening. It went off well. It is the first time I have been with a real romantic boy. We went to the restaurant and then we walked around the lake, hand in hand. I was so happy! He said to me: �I love you�. I was on cloud nine. However, he seemed to be anxious. He kissed me and he said: �I have to leave. Listen: it�s incredible but it�s true, I�m an angel!� �Yes you are!� I said. �You are so marvelous!� I wanted to kiss him but he disappeared in a blue sparkle light and a crystal-clear music! (1 month later) Friday, November 26th He didn�t come back. I feel blue. I�ve got more sorrow now than when I was with Christopher. I�m downcast, dejected as if I were alone in this word. I don�t go out any more except on Saturday; I walk around the lake� My life is like Juliet without Romeo, Scarlet without Rett Butter; I�m Sarah without Enzo. Monday, November 29th Enzo came back! He still loves me! On Saturday, I had been walking around the lake when he appeared to me in a blue light. He gave his up wings in order to stay with me! From now on, he�s a mortal. But our love will be immortal. THE END

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1658

She was waiting in this corridor, in this shabby corridor. The same corridors which are

so long that they seem never to finish. Some greenish water streamed down the yellowish

walls. There was some mould everywhere, on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling,

everywhere. There was a row of benches on each side of this narrow corridor. All the girls

were sitting, orderly like sardines in a tin. There was a hundred like her, waiting in this sultry

air. Some of them were very young, about fourteen. There were girls from all classes, from all

regions. She had the impression that most of them were playing their lives, they looked really

anxious. She stared at all of them, one after the other. The girl in front of her was called

Noémie, she was French, she was tall and blond. Noémie was wearing a brown suit. She

thought that Noémie was very elegant; Noémie was everything she wasn�t. Noémie spoke

loud, Noémie was very charismatic, all the girls listened to her. But most of them were not as

distinguished as Noémie. She was there, amidst this sweaty and stinking human mass; she

seemed to suffocate. It was strange to see that the grime didn�t trouble her, contrary to the

heat and the smell which burnt her throat so much so that she wanted to vomit. She wanted to

go back, she didn�t feel at ease in this world which was totally unfamiliar to them. She felt all

the more out of place that she needed her fix, she had nothing with her, nobody there seemed

to have something. She began to feel really bad. Her limbs shivered, she perspired... she made

up her mind, she was going to go back, to go out... she stood up and went to the door or

something which looked like a door. As she was about to press the handle, a hoarse voice

called her number, the number 1658. A number � that was what she was reduced to, she was

the 1658 now, just the 1658 without any other identity.

There was no going back now, so, in spite of her physical state, she turned round and walked

along the never-ending corridor. All the girls stared at her; they looked down on her as if she

were next to nothing. She arrived in front of a door which was as shabby as the previous one.

She slided the door. She arrived in a dark room, she couldn�t see anything because of the dark

and because of the spotlight which dazzled her. Somebody ordered her to go to the chair and

sit down. She complied with the instructions.

�tell me your number?�, she was surprised by this voice which seemed to come from

nowhere.

�1658�

�So can you explain to me why you are here?�

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�I need some money.� The man was nonplussed by the frankness of her answer and by the

coldness of her voice. He kept silent for a while before carrying on.

�Have you got a job?�

This question seemed to irritate her.

�No, it�s difficult for somebdy like me to have a job.�

�Somebody like you?�

�Yes.�

�What�s wrong with you?�

�I�m a woman, that�s all. In this city, women can�t have a job. That�s life.�

�Now you�re going to look at your hand and talk to it as if it were your best friend and let

yourself go.�

She put her hand in front of her eyes.

�Have you ever seen a sunset? It�s so beautiful. What? You�ve something more beautiful?

Well, I guess you�re right. It�s so sad. Yesterday I cried so long. Why? Because I�m sick and

tired of living in a world ruled by sex, money and violence. People are hopeless; what they

say is just nonsense, one might as well say that as listen to the wind. I want to die. I want to

die. I want to die!� While she was speaking she began to cry.

The man seemed to be very moved by this young woman who looked like a little girl. And yet

he stopped her.

�What is for you the work of an actress about?�

�Well, I think an actress...� She reflected because now she wanted to be totally honest with

this man. �Well, an actress who wants to be a good actress has to give herself up for the part. I

hope it�s that, I hope.�

�That�s all, but number 1658, take off your clothes...�

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THE TREE OF THE WORLD

Eolis, the town of the elves, formerly inhaled peace and serenity. But that day, it was about to be destroyed. It was raining meteorites on the Tree of the World and monsters made crazy took advantage of this to break out of their caves. The wells dried out and people were frightened. In order to have peace again, somebody had to break into the Tree of the World and to crush the Evil which lived in Evil Place, the cursed place. So, it�s here that our hero, called Kuros, intervenes. Kuros was the only knight warrior brave enough to enter the Tree of the World. Strong enough to handle the brilliant sword, powerful enough to triumph over monsters, Kuros headed for the Tree of the World in the thick forest. It was there that the Evil raged. But his power spread much further than around the forest. The monsters of the forest would try to stop whoever wanted to approach the Tree of the World. Only �brilliant sword�, a redoubtable weapon, could destroy them. Kuros was now ready to carry out his mission. He had got ready for years: he had learned to fight, he had trained to become agile and he had now all the experience he needed to save the town of the elves. He absolutely wanted to manage to overcome the Evil because when Kuros was only a child, the Evil killed his parents who tried to protect him. He would never forget this bad memory. It was moreover what enabled him to find the force and the courage which was in him. Kuros knew that he would have to go through some trials which were extremely difficult. He walked for miles. Kuros met a man who was smoking. This man asked him: �Do you have a weapon for fighting?� Kuros answersed him that he hadn�t got one. The man took a weapon out of his bag and he said: �This weapon is the one which can overcome the Evil. It’s called the “brilliant sword”. Kuros grabbed the sword and brandished it, thanked him and pursued his journey. The forest appeared in front of him. A black knight was at the entrance. He had a long sword. The black knight said to him: �Nobody can enter the forest, except the servants of the Evil.” Kuros answered: �I am the warrior of Good and I shall pass.” The black knight retorted: �WATCH IT!” And there, both blades knocked against one another. The fight was difficult, but Kuros remembered the technique of a Lord who always managed to destroy his enemies. He rehearsed the movements of this Lord against the black knight. The latter died with the helmet split. Suddenly, the sword of Kuros changed of colour and turned silver. Then, it gets loose from his hand and Kuros thrust it into the armour of the black knight. In no time, a flash struck the sword. After that flash, Kuros saw that the body of the black knight had disappeared and that there was not just the sword which had become silver; the armour has turned silver too. The armour rose over the body of Kuros. He took back his sword, moved away and penetrated into the forest. While he was walking, he heard a scream. He discovered in front of his eyes the skeleton of a dragon with on its back a hunchback with a black helmet. The dragon crashed violently two meters in front of Kuros. The hunchback, in a deep voice, said: �I am the guard of the haunted forest. Everybody enters, nobody can’t go out.”

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Suddenly, the branches of the trees lengthened to knock Kuros. All of sudden, the roots and spices were interwined with the legs of Kuros. The hero reacted and cut everything which came to him. As for the black knight, he remembered one anecdote: the druid Blizzar, who had often taken Kuros to the forest, had explained to him that in order to be accepted by the forest, it was necessary to pray for �Mother Nature”. Kuros planted his brilliant sword in the ground, knelt down and prayed. Little by little, the roots and spices returned into the ground and the branches of the trees retired. Kuros took his sword by the blade and launched it like a spear into the head of the skeleton of the dragon and it eventually pierced the hunchback's stomach. The dragon had become a heap of bones on the ground and the roots of the trees got intertwined around the hunchback. Then, a flash went out of this ball of roots. Kuros ran towards his sword and he realized that the black helmet had become silver too and rose over his head. After having overcome the malefic guard of the forest, he continued to walk and he discovered the Tree of the World. Kuros planted his sword into the trunk. The Tree opened and Kuros could see a parallel world. He entered the mouth of the Tree and then, he discovered in front of him a black castle. The drawbridge was about to collapse. Kuros felt that he hadn�t got much time left. So, he ran. The Evil was at the top of the castle. Before reaching it, he had to fight with human skeletons, with the living dead and armours which moved on their own. The fight was rough but Kuros vanquished them. Then, he arrived in the room of the Evil; he noticed that it was only a black crystal ball surrounded with a magnetic field. One pure soul could cross this field without being killed. The knight plucked up much courage and moved towards the ball. The magnetic field disappeared. Black gloves lay next to the ball. Kuros took them and slipped them on. The gloves became silver. Kuros was the ELECT of Good. He removed his armour, his helmet and hid sword. All this equipment sparkled and became gilded. He took back his equipment, took his sword and split the black ball. In no time, the monsters became humans, the castle became white, the forest became clearer and the town of the elves was soaked in the sun. A celebration was organized in honour of Kuros, who had become the supreme guard of the Town. Kuros will forever be a legendary HERO.

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Night Terror

It is a dark night. You can hear noises outside: the breeze of the wind, the shutters creaking, the dogs howling and the distant rumble of the storm. In his bed the child is terrified. He is trembling with fear, hidden under his duvet. He is seventeen and his name is Luke. Luke is afraid of the dark and of storms - and of the monsters in his bedroom. Every night, monsters want to eat Luke, and he wakes up with a jump after a horrible nightmare. First, there is the monster under his bed. He is small and squeaky. His laughter is highpitched and he has got dry green hands with very long yellow nails. He catches children by their feet and he eats them under his bed, with satisfaction. Because of this terrible monster, Luke does not dare to wake up during the night. Next, there is the ogre behind the door. He is tall, strong and dark like a shadow. His big hands scratch the door open and shut with sinister creaks. He has got long sharp teeth and he is always hungry. At last, there is bogeyman in the wardrobe. His bright eyes stare at Luke with envy, through the cracks of the door. He is too big for the wardrobe, so he often wags his tail and he moans about his bad position:�I want to be under the bed!� The squeaking voice of bogeyman makes Luke quiver every time. The storm breaks out and Luke smothers a cry of terror for fear the monsters might hear it and want to eat him quickly, excited by the noise. So only monsters can fall asleep�. But they have already slept all day. He spoke to his parents about them several times but they only responded monsters were figments of his imagination and did not exist. Then why does the door squeak? Why does the bed tremble? Why is there somebody speaking in the cupboard? Luke has already worked out several tactics to escape from them � he has filled the cupboard with cushions so that bogeyman cannot enter there. He keeps the door supported against the wall with chains so that the ogre cannot slip behind it. On the other hand he has not found any solution for the monster under his bed. This one is yet much worse than the others � hand always climbing up his bed in order either to draw his bedspread to the floor or to try to strangle him. The only means of getting rid of this monster is to jump very far from the edge of the bed while avoiding to knock himself against the door or the cupboard and run downstairs to sleep on the settee in the living-room. He has even tried to speak to them, to bring food to them like bread or fruit, but they did not et it. Obviously, they prefer the fresh flesh of children. His last idea is more astonishing, more brilliant, but also more dangerous� Luke would like another monster to come to his rescue, a monster much larger than the ogre, bogeyman and the little green monster under his bed joined together. It would swallow them easily and everything would be settled. What he would do of the giant monster after that is something he has not thought of yet�

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The Woman in Black

The snow lay deep around the fortress, a blazing whiteness broken only by the leafless trees that poked out from the snow like feeble twigs. The sky was a uniform, pale grey that seemed to hang low over the world, stifling everything beneath it. And in the middle of it all stood the stark grey fortress that was castle Ridgeburn. All in all the bleak scene looked like a painting by an artist who had too few colours in his pallet, silent, dreary and dead. That is until the figure in black came into the painting. A woman, cloaked all in black, making her way unhurriedly towards the keep. She was like a black speck on the pure white of the snow, marring its flawless surface with her footprints. She approached the stone keep slowly, the guard had spotter her long before she arrived at the gate. �What do you want?� he barked at her as soon as she came within earshot. She did not reply, but simply continued forward through the snow until she was at the gate. The guard repeated his question, no more kindly than the first time. �I come seeking shelter for the night� She spoke calmly, smoothly, her voice carrying a slight musical undertone that was both beautiful and eerie, like a single violin in the night, �among other things�. The guard shifted uneasily in place. �Remove your hood.� He ordered at last. The woman raised her hands, her fingers were white as bone and thin as spiders� legs, they curled around the fabric of the hood gracefully, and for a moment the guard feared that beneath eh black hood would be nothing but a skull. But as she slid the hood backwards all that was underneath was the face of a young girl. Yet somehow it struck the guard as being almost as frightening as a skull, and yet the most beautiful face he had ever seen. Her jet black hair slithered out of her hood and down her shoulders, framing a long, thin, face, as white as alabaster. As he looked at her the guard met her huge black eyes for a moment, then looked away involuntarily, suppressing a shiver. When he looked back up she was smiling, but without warmth or humour, a smile that was at once sad and eerie. �Well?� she spoke at last �Am I to be let in or left to freeze to death out here and be forced to give your name to the devil so that he may seek you out after?� Her lilting tomes seemed to be mocking him yet there was something threatening there and the guard, as he looked into her eyes again, did not doubt that she would indeed give his name to the devil if she had the chance. He reluctantly unbarred the door. The girl glided in silently. �You can stay with the servant tonight.� He told her weakly, locking the gate very methodically and slowly so as to not have to look at her again �If you go to the kitchen they�ll fed you and find you a place to sleep.� She nodded, then she said �The Lord and Lady of this castle have had a child recently have they not?� The guard didn�t quite know how to respond so he only nodded. �A girl isn�t it?� He nodded again, dumbly. She smiled that eerie smile again and walked of gracefully. The lord of Ridgeburn Castle looked at his tiny daughter in her little white crib, she was perfect, she was beautiful. He kissed her gently on the forehead and left the child�s room. He closed the door quietly, turned around and his heart skipped a beat, there she was, a figure cloaked all in black, as if the lord of darkness had wrapped the depths of night around her. He blinked and she was gone, and he wasn�t sure if he had truly seen her at all, or if he had just imagined her. But dread had suddenly closed around him like an iron fist. She stood calmly in the dead frozen castle garden. He had seen her and that was enough, he knew what this meant, he knew what he had done, he would know why, why she had to do

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what she was to do. And so she waited, waited for night to come and plunge the castle into a pitch worthy of nightmare as she knew it would, that was when she would move. The castle awoke to the sound of a scream. The lord sat bolt upright in bed his wife stirring drowsily beside him. A moment later the nursemaid burst into his chambers in hysterics. �The baby...she�s gone!� was all the woman managed to stammer out between sobs. The lord rose from bed, he knew where she had gone, he thought as his mind strayed back to that brief black apparition. He sent his guards out to search the countryside for the woman in black, bust she had left no footprints, the guards were baffled, the lord was not, she could undoubtedly do much more than leave no footprints if she so wished. And that lord knew that it was hopeless, there would be no finding her if she didn�t mean to be found. This was his reward for Betrayal.