En France, en ligne

We'd resisted getting the internet here in France for a long time, but we finally caved, mainly because Elspeth needs to go online for her work. So we now have a nifty, fast connection with Orange (France Télécom in disguise, I think). Cheap broadband is not easy to get in France, as the main players all seem to charge for a complete package of telephone, internet and TV. anyway, it's all working, so here I am.

We picked up Joel from Nantes airport last night and are now enjoying relaxing in the April sun listening to Dream Theater in the background.(I occasionally enjoy a touch of prog metal.)
Before going to the airport we spent an hour or so in Nantes. My memories of Nantes are confined to the time when we ended our bike round along the Nantes-Brest canal a few years ago. I had forgotten how characterful the old centre is.

My students have largely settled in well and we enjoyed two pleasant days together last week, the first at Futuroscope, the second in Saintes and at the Château de la Roche Courbon. Futuroscope still looks fresh and they add something new each year. The latest headline attraction is Arthur 4D which is a combination of moving seats, 3D film and surround sound. Not bad, though no great quantum leap forwards from the film it replaced, Le Défi d'Atlantis.

So, for the rest of the week we hope to go out a bit, get some exercise, take a boat trip down the Charente, watch Mad Men on DVD and enjoy the weather.

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What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought. ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).

The 2026 GCSE subject content is published!

Two DfE documents were published today. The first was the response to the consultation about the proposed new GCSE (originally due in October 2021) and the second is the subject content document which, ultimately, is of most interest to MFL teachers in England. Here is the link to the document. We are talking about an exam to be done from 2026 (current Y7s). There is always a tendency for sceptical teachers to think that consultations are a bit of a sham and that the DfE will just go ahead and do what they want when it comes to exam reform. In this case, the responses to the original proposals were mixed, and most certainly hostile as far as exam boards and professional associations representing the MFL community, universities, head teachers and awarding bodies are concerned. What has emerged does reveal some significant changes which take account of a number of criticisms levelled at the proposals. As I read it, the most important changes relate to vocabulary and the issue of topics

La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans,

Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

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