A-level French revision links 2016

Here are this year's interactive and other for A2 Level French revision. I would not overload students with long lists of links. These are fine.

With regard to listening, if you subscribe to frenchteacher.net already, you could make a stapled booklet of video listening worksheets. Students will prefer active listening to just general listening to the radio or websites. You could also put together Gianfranco Conti's set of Revision Quickies from TES Resources.

First stops

http://mfl.jimdo.com/resources/french-a2-level/
(a mine of all sorts of material: essay planning, vocabulary and vocabulary)

Interactive grammar

http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/fr/exercices_interactifs/?id=90

http://www.class.uh.edu/mcl/fll/french/frexercises/chapitre5/index.htm

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/

Listening

http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/enseigner-apprendre-francais/accueil_apprendre.php

http://laguinguette.com/

http://www.bonjourdefrance.com/index/indexapp.htm

Reading

http://www.languagesonline.org.uk/Hotpotatoes/Index.htm

http://web.cortland.edu/flteach/civ/

Essay writing

http://www.alevelfrench.com/home/file.php/1/sample_resources/LET-EDEXCEL-milieu_social.pdf (literature essay with tips)

There is also plenty of free reading material with exercises on frenchteacher.net, bien sûr.

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 langua...

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 ...

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