Skip to main content

Frenchteacher updates

This is one of my regular updates to blatantly promote my website to new users and remind existing users of what has been added in recent weeks. Fans of parallel texts may appreciate some of the new additions. I am always on the look-out for interesting reading material for intermediate level.

Since the middle of July:
  • Parallel reading texts on migrants to Europe. With true/false/not mentioned and retranslation sentences. Low intermediate level. 
  • A text with questions in English about migrant smugglers working in Calais. Apparently most of the trafficking networks are British and are thought to launder their earnings through night-clubs, for example. This could be used with a good Y11 class or for AS-level (high intermediate).
  • Parallel texts and exercises on fair trade. Easy text, true/false and vocabulary to complete. Could be used from Y8 to Y10, depending on ability. 
  • Four new parallel reading texts with exercises: the first about a girl left behind at the motorway services, the second about a drunken man who falls from a third floor balcony as he tries to spit on a police van, the third about a heroic charity walk, and the fourth (in Y10-11 section) on dogs who can detect cancer. All texts have true/false/not mentioned exercises and other comprehension. Good for Y9-10 (low intermediate) 
  • A-level text and exercises on refugees. Article, vocab to complete, questions for discussion on the text, fluency task and translation into French. (Advanced)
  • Parallel reading for intermediate (GCSE) level. A heroic deed. This one is based on an authentic article about a 13 year-old who takes the wheel of a bus when the driver has a heart attack. I sometimes imagined that scenario on school trips to France. Never happened fortunately. Anyway, there are parallel texts, true/false/not mentioned and a gap fill summary to do. You could exploit this in other ways too. (Intermediate) 
  • Parallel texts on the Tour de France. Comes with correct sentences in French to identify and gapped sentences. This adds to the stock of parallel texts in Y7 and Y8. 
  • A parallel text/gapped French-English translation about Minecraft. Each gap has the starting letter of the missing English word. Text with questions in English. "An act of heroism." Optional oral or written extension task. Based on an authentic magazine article. 
  • Text and exercises about the impressive and popular Taylor Swift. Text, vocabulary to complete, true/false/not mentioned, translation into English. (Intermediate) 
  • Parallel reading about Maglev trains (magnetically suspended trains or trains à sustension magnétique in French. Parallel texts, true/false/not mentioned and a gapfill text in French. You could give this to a good Y9 class. 
  • Parallel text about robots for near beginners/low intermediate. Texts in French and English with correct French statements to identify, general discussion points (in English) and sentence completion in French. (Very low intermediate)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 langua...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 ...
5 comments
Read more

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, ...
1 comment
Read more