Good news about our nascent Comenius link with the Institution Saint Louis (our exchange school), plus schools from Romania and Spain. Our initial planning meeting is in France on January 14th and 15th. This is a second Comenius link for Ripon Grammar School following a previous project with schools from Norway, Germany and Poland. The British Council seem to award their funds at the last moment, but we are up and running. An art teacher, Fiona Henson, is doing the paperwork, whilst members of the MFL department and maybe others will be doing the travelling. Should be semi-chaotic fun.
I'm sitting here with my copies of Cours Illustré de Français Book 1 and Longman's Audio-Visual French Stage A1 . I have previously mentioned the former, published in 1966, with its use of pictures to exemplify grammar and vocabulary. In his preface Mark Gilbert says: "The pictures are not... a mere decoration but provide further foundation for the language work at this early stage." He talks of "fluency" and "flexibility": "In oral work it is advisable to persist with the practice of a particular pattern until the pupils can use it fluently and flexibly. Flexibility means, for example, the ability to switch from one person of the verb to another..." Ah! Now, the Longman offering, written by S. Moore and A.L. Antrobus, published in 1973, just seven years later, has a great deal in common with Gilbert's course. We now have three colours (green, black and white) rather than mere black and white. The layout is arguably more attrac...
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