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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)

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