Skip to main content

Lots of new goodies on frenchteacher

I've been quite productive recently, focusing mainly on new listening resources. In particular, I have begun producing worksheets linked to the authentic recordings on Audio-Lingua from the Académie de Versailles (with permission). Here is the complete list of new resources posted in the last three weeks, in order from most recent to oldest:

1. An audio listening worksheet linked to an authentic Audio-Lingua recording. This one is for AS/A-level and is about Corsican food and consists of a vocabulary list, questions in French and an oral summary task. Also good for advanced adult students.
Y12-13 (Advanced)
2. GCSE (intermediate) audio listening. Linked to an authentic recording from Audio-Lingua. This one is Elise talking about work experience. Tick correct sentences, gap-fill and translation of phrases.
Y10-11 (Intermediate/GCSE)
3. A-level audio listening. Topic: national heritage days. Exercises are questions in French and translation/transcription from the recording. Expect more of these worksheets linked to Audio Lingua.
Y12-13 (Advanced)
4. Two listening resources for GCSE. These are worksheets linked to short audio recordings on Audio Lingua. The two topics are daily routine and holidays. The first is Foundation level, the second Foundation/Higher. Expect to see more like this. As with video listening sheets these can be done in class or at home.
Y10-11 (Intermediate/GCSE)
5. A-level listening, lecture style. This is a talk about impressionism. The aim is to practise listening and develop cultural knowledge for the AO4 objective of the A-level specifications. There is a growing collection of such instant listening tasks on the A-level page.
Y12-13 (Advanced)
6. Three new A-level resources:
(1) Video listening: what is the role of the president in France? Source: 1jour1question/Milan Presse/Youtube. Transcription task with an opportunity for oral summary. You could just do a straightforward summary in 90 words as per A-level.
(2) Text and questions in English about the rise of Emmanuel Macron.
(3) 30 minute instant listening (lecture format) on the Front national.
Y12-13 (Advanced)
7. Instant 30 minute listening on the topic of living alone (under sub-theme contemporary family structures). To be read or recorded by the teacher. True/false/not mentioned and gap-fill. Designed for the second year of A-level.
Y12-13 (Advanced) (free sample)
8. A-level lecture format listening about the musician Stromae. 
Y12-13 (Advanced)
9. Text and exercises about the musician Stromae. Vocab to complete, questions, gap-fill, translation two ways (sounds like Masterchef!), paraphrase and various oral activities. A nice written homework task included. Good cultural input for A-level spec. 
Y12-13 (Advanced)
10. Paired re-ordering dictation. Each partner has 5 sets of jumbled words to read out. The other partner has to re-order them to make a correct sentence. Grammar focus: present tense.
Y8 (Very low intermediate/Y8-9)


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

Zaz - Si jamais j'oublie

My wife and I often listen to Radio Paradise, a listener-supported, ad-free radio station from California. They've been playing this song by Zaz recently. I like it and maybe your students would too. I shouldn't really  reproduce the lyrics here for copyright reasons, but I am going to translate them (with the help of another video). You could copy and paste this translation and set it for classwork (not homework, I suggest, since students could just go and find the lyrics online). The song was released in 2015 and gotr to number 11 in the French charts - only number 11! Here we go: Remind me of the day and the year Remind me of the weather And if I've forgotten, you can shake me And if I want to take myself away Lock me up and throw away the key With pricks of memory Tell me what my name is If I ever forget the nights I spent, the guitars, the cries Remind me who I am, why I am alive If I ever forget, if I ever take to my heels If one day I run away Remind me who I am, wha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Longman's Audio-Visual French

I'm sitting here with my copies of Cours Illustré de Français Book 1 and Longman's Audio-Visual French Stage A1 . I have previously mentioned the former, published in 1966, with its use of pictures to exemplify grammar and vocabulary. In his preface Mark Gilbert says: "The pictures are not... a mere decoration but provide further foundation for the language work at this early stage." He talks of "fluency" and "flexibility": "In oral work it is advisable to persist with the practice of a particular pattern until the pupils can use it fluently and flexibly. Flexibility means, for example, the ability to switch from one person of the verb to another..." Ah! Now, the Longman offering, written by S. Moore and A.L. Antrobus, published in 1973, just seven years later, has a great deal in common with Gilbert's course. We now have three colours (green, black and white) rather than mere black and white. The layout is arguably more attrac...
26 comments
Read more