Skip to main content

Latest additions to frenchteacher

I've been working on some new A-level resources over the last few days.

I've added three new conversation booklets based on the A-level (Year 2) sub-themes.This was actually in response to a teacher who asked for an equivalent to the AS (Year 1) booklets I produced last year. So the new booklets for AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas/WJEC consist of the existing vocab lists on the site plus general questions relating to the sub-themes. There are no stimulus cards, but the questions should help students prepare for material likely to come up.

I have also produced a new set of exercises for video listening based on a very good documentary on YouTube about the French resistance. This topic is a feature of the Edexcel and Eduqas/WJEC specifications and the video focuses on the rise of the armed communist resistance. This exercises in unusual for the site because the source video is 20 minutes long. (In fact the whole video lasts 50 minutes, but I have only covered the first 20.) I normally stick to videos of between two and four minutes.

In this case I have broken down the worksheet into seven sections, each one covering short sections of the film. It's pretty challenging stuff, but the narration is generally clear (apart from the archive radio recordings) and the exercises are within the scope of second year A-level students. Exercise types include translation into French, questions in French and English and vocabulary lists to complete. Plenty of careful listening and re-listening will be needed. Just what the darlings need!

You'll also find two new video listening tasks on the topic of how criminals are treated in France. One video clip looks at prison overcrowding, while the other is a report on electronic tags.

Finally, a week ago I posted a text and various exercises on the subject of demonstrations (AQA sub-theme). This is quite a chunky unit of work!

So I'm back in the swing as your new term starts in England and Wales. If any subscribers have suggestions for new resources do let me know. I might even say yes!

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