Christmas strip bingo

If you've played strip bingo with classes before you know the drill. If not, this is what you do. I've added a vocabulary list after the instructions. Apologies for any poor formatting.

Display the list of French Christmas vocabulary on the board.

Hand out long strip of paper to each pupil (e.g. A4 cut/torn into three vertical strips)

Tell pupils to write down 15 French Christmas words using the whole length of their strip of paper (make sure they spread them out quite evenly).

Tell them that you will say Christmas words randomly. When they hear a word at either end of their strip they may tear it off (thus revealing a new word). You keep saying Christmas words. The first pupil to get rid of all their words is the winner. Remember to keep saying the same words over and over!

Advent Calendar –un calendrier de l’Avent Present/gift –Un cadeau

Angel – un ange Reindeer - Un renne

Bells – les clochettes Chestnuts – les marrons

Robin – Un rouge-gorge Snowman – un bonhomme de neige

Candle – une bougie Christmas Day – le jour de Noël

Christmas - le Noël Sledge – Un traîneau

Christmas cake – un gâteau de Noël Christmas Eve – la veille de Noël

Christmas Card – une carte de Noël Snowfall – La chute de neige

Christmas Carol – un chant de NoëlNew Year’s Eve – le Saint-Sylvestre

Christmas Tree – un sapin de Noël New Year’s Day – le jour de l’An

Church – l’église Stars – des étoiles

Cracker – un diablotin Stocking – une chaussette

Cranberry Sauce – la sauce à la canneberge Stuffing – la farce

Decorations – les décorations de Noël Yuletide log – une bûche de Noël

Fairy Lights – la guirlande électrique Turkey – la dinde

Father Christmas – Le père noël Mistletoe – le gui

Comments

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

Search This Blog