Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

In case you haven't come across the sing-a-long videos from Alain Le Lait's YouTube channel, I 'd like to recommend them for use with beginners and near-beginners. He sings simple catchy songs which help pupils practise and remember various aspects of the French language, for example greetings, the weather, numbers, emotions, colours, daily routine, fruit and many more. You can find them simply by searching Alain Le Lait on YouTube. Here is a worksheet I put together for frenchteacher based on the video about the passé composé . You could use this in Y8 or even Y9 for some purposeful fun. Help yourself. Just copy and paste. By the way, who is Alain? I found this: "Alain is a French native who grew up near Paris, France. He moved to the United States in the 1970s and now lives in Colorado. Since 1990 his CDs have been praised by parents and teachers alike and many of his songs are used in schools throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 2005, Alain was chosen by McDougall ...

I began uploading resources to frenchteacher.net back in 2002, having wanted to share some free resources and taught myself some html from a little book. In 2012 when I retired from the classroom I decided I wanted to continue writing resources, firstly because I enjoy it, secondly to help teachers and thirdly to make some money. (I think I have that order right, though I cannot be certain.) The nature of the resources I produce is based on a view I hold about the nature of classroom second language learning, one which has evolved over the years and is based on some key moments and milestones of my career. 1. Closely observing my own teachers at secondary school. They were well versed in the oral-situational approach, most associated with the UK and in particular London University. Former teacher Alan Hornsey was a significant influence in this movement, which, as you may know, was a development of earlier direct methods from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The emp...

Here are the resources I have added to the site over the last month. As always if you have any requests for specific types of resources just let me know by commenting, messaging on Twitter or by emailing me via my website. I can always say no! Intermediate level (GCSE) A seven page mini-unit of work on school for Higher Tier GCSE. Various comprehension and translation exercises (adapted from a unit from The Language Teacher Toolkit TES shop). Lots of built-in recycling. based on the "narrow reading" concept (several texts reusing similar language). An answer key is provided. We have several similar units on TES. A numbers lesson plan for intermediates (good Y9 to Y11). Based on the game show The Price is Right ( Le Juste prix in France). All you need to add are about 10-12 slides of items for sale, e.g. from amazon.fr (without displaying their price). Aims: revising numbers and listening to them to develop quick recognition. This lesson would take around 40 minu...

Below is an example of an advanced level video listening task I recently uploaded to frenchteacher. Help yourself. the YouTube link is provided. I've used a new method for embedding a Word document into Blogger. If anyone knows a better or best way, do let me know!

Ilini.com I blogged some time ago about the new video listening site called Ilini which was then free and in Beta form. It is aimed mainly at advanced learners of French studying the A-level exam or equivalent, e.g. Scottish Higher. Some teachers will find certain videos suitable for high-attaining intermediate (GCSE) classes Now the site is established and has different levels of subscription and much more content let me return to it once more. What's in it? Essentially a set of regularly refreshed short video clips from the world of French news, entertainment, culture and ideas. These are accompanied by a range of student and teacher resources including transcripts, online quizzes, pdf exercises, vocab lists and vocab flashcards. Each video has been chosen to be short and frequently matched to A-level French sub-themes. For example, topics you can see from the current home page include voluntary work, music, "Can a child go to jail?", optimism in Voltaire'...

For about 15 years I have kept on my site a list of subscription and paid-for web sites for French teachers. With so many free resources out there (I would immediately pick out Lightbulblanguages, Quizlet and the free stuff on TES as three examples) anything you have to pay for needs to be good. (Careful, though, as the quality of TES hosted resources varies hugely.) The list I have compiled over the years only contains what I would consider worthwhile resources, many of them interactive. I get to meet quite a few teachers at training sessions and meetings, so I thought I would share the resources which receive the most favourable comments and which I would value myself the most. Don't forget, these are just resources you have to pay for. This is Language This is not a cheap resource but I have heard nothing but positive reviews of it. The key selling point is their archive of authentic video interviews. They send out people to conduct video interviews with young French peopl...

Most of the text books you may work with are built around a grammatical progression and topics. Units often feature lists of vocabulary (known in the research literature as themed lexical sets) which many of you will get pupils to try to set to memory or, at the very least, refer to. Other teachers like to use these themed lists as a basis for digital activities using tools such as Memrise and Quizlet. Many of us choose to sing the alphabet, days of the week, months of the year. We frequently use PowerPoint flashcards to teach clothes, animals, rooms, places around town all together. Is using or presenting vocab lists arranged in this fashion the best approach? In some ways it seems a natural thing to do - put groups of words together such as household items, school subjects, character adjectives and so on. Indeed some past research has positively recommended the practice, based on the belief that this is how words are somehow arranged in the brain. Just think of when you play the game...

I guess most of you out there have at some point got your students to study verb tables, chant or sing verb paradigms, or played games to practise endings - Battleships and the interactive site Conjugemos spring to mind. Many of us have also found ourselves at some point bemoaning students' lack of skill with verb inflections and wondered what we can do improve the situation. Most of you probably assume that memorising verb tables will lead to improvements in spoken and written accuracy and fluency. Is this actually the case? The case for  Common sense might suggest that if you practise the small bits of a second language you should be able to build them up like lego into larger bits. By practising the micro skills, the component parts, you become better at the main game - think of the musician practising scales or the footballer doing shooting practice. These activities lead to improved performance. This is the basis of skill acquisition theory and it has its proponents in a...