During the month of March, a popular basketball tournament called March Madness takes place with college basketball teams across the U.S. In French class, a similar competition takes place in the French classroom with French-speaking musicians and songs across the world, called Manie Musicale.
Manie Musicale, according to the official online site, is “a bracket-style competition for students and teachers of French”. The bracket consists of 16 songs from francophone countries across different continents, including North America and Africa. The students attempt to predict which song will win the tournament, similar to March Madness brackets, while simultaneously voting for their favorites, allowing them to learn French while having fun. Many schools worldwide participate in this competition, and ADM is one of them.
“The purpose of Manie Musicale is to do a unit on music to explore the different francophone areas in the world that speak French through music,” Lori Rezek, the French teacher, said. “So the songs represent a lot of different countries, a lot of different nationalities, and it’s important to me for the students to know that French is not just spoken in France but all around the world.”
While Rezek stresses the significance of the competition on the students’ learning, the students themselves understand and acknowledge its importance as well. Zane Johnson, a sophomore, finds Manie Musicale as a way for him to experience the different cultures of francophones.
“There’s French, there’s people from Africa, South America, Canada — it’s all these different places,” Johnson said. “We kind of get a little look into their cultures.”
While knowledge of different francophone cultures is important, frequently hearing French in contexts other than normal conversation helps build the necessary language skills Rezek teaches. Kayla Van, a French II student, finds that experiencing the language through music improves her understanding.
“At the bottom of each music video, there’s always [a] translation into English,” Van said. “You can read that, so we’re learning new words.”
While the growth of the students as language learners is demonstrated through opinion, others believe the activity falls short of preparing speakers for real-world encounters. One sophomore, Brooklyn Beebe, went on the France and Spain trip to Europe with Rezek, where she heard authentic French.
“The songs are really repetitive, so that it’s like you kind of know what they’re saying,” Beebe said. “I feel like in France, nobody really spoke to me in French a lot. It was more like reading the French, but when we looked at the lyrics and stuff, it’s kind of similar.”
In the French classroom, Manie Musicale is a wonderful outlet for learning new words, both in reading and in listening. But in addition to the educational value that Manie Musicale brings it also brings a form of entertainment and an engaging activity for the students to participate in.
“It’s not very competitive in our class. We cheer for our favorite songs, and sometimes we boo for the other songs because they’re sometimes kind of bad,” Van said.
Rezek also understands the fun that Manie Musicale provides the students.
“I think it’s relaxing. I think it’s kind of a break from the regular things we do, writing and reading and speaking and recording and all those things.” Rezek said. “And I know that they’re interested in it because they either are happy or upset when their songs win or lose in their brackets.”
Ultimately, Manie Musicale’s purpose is more than a competition. It provides students with a well-needed respite from coursework, while also serving as valuable insight into different cultures and languages of the world, allowing French students to learn skills that they may use outside of the classroom.
“…Students like music, so it’s a great way to connect with students and get them interested in the language,” Rezek said. “My goal is hopefully that they’re listening to some of the music outside of class, too. “
