French the Natural Way

It is amazing how time is flying and I have realized that it has been way over a month that I have written a new post! As it happened, I have been busy teaching students online face to face. It is a truly exciting time for me because I am experiencing teaching in another way than in a set classroom and because I help learners acquire different languages (French, Spanish, English) ! I am very happy and grateful indeed! And today, I want to share something I have been trying for a few weeks now and which is working brilliantly with my beginners!

Well, first I must explain how and why I am using this method! Since I have become a big fan of exposing learners to comprehensible, compelling input, I am always on the look for teachers modelling this way. One day, when I was kind of procrastinating (yes, it does happen!), I stumbled upon this inspiring TPR or Total Physical Response demo by Sabrina Janczak:

Wow!!! How awesome the audience is responding and Sabrina makes it sound so easy to understand, yet so funny! Sabrina, you are my TPRS heroe!!!This made me jump in my seat and I so wanted to try it with my French beginners!

According to Wikipedia, Total Physical Response “is a language teaching method developed by James Asher based on the coordination of language and physical movement. In TPR, instructors give commands to students in the target language, and students respond with whole-body actions.” What is fascinating is that “Asher developed TPR as a result of his experiences observing young children learning their first language. He noticed that interactions between parents and children often took the form of speech from the parent followed by a physical response from the child. Asher made three hypotheses based on his observations: first, that language is learned primarily by listening; second, that language learning must engage the right hemisphere of the brain; and third, that learning language should not involve any stress.”

Beginning with TPR means the learner can learn more words faster. The initial objective is for the learner to acquire 50 to 100 words so that he can then create stories with the help of the teacher. Needless to say that those 100 first words are high frequency words that are used in everyday conversations.

On the first session, I started with “lève-toi / baisse-toi / assieds-toi“. The learner first watched me (via the webcam) doing the action, then s/he performed the action with me and then on his/her own. After the learner was familiar with the commands, I could add “vite /doucement” to make the learning process much more lively and fun as it is demonstrated in the video above. When learners were confident enough with the vocabulary, I told them to listen carefully to two then three commands in a row. It was more challenging but an excellent way to practice and memorize the actions.

Some of my learners are adults and they were surprised at first when I told them to move around because they expected to be taught the traditional way (where the students have to produce language before they are ready!). They now enjoy the bit of exercise and they are having fun (which is the key to learn something!). I have been doing this for the first couple of weeks and then when I felt learners had sufficient vocabulary, I used short scenarios to reinforce the vocabulary. For example: “Robert marche vite. Il s’arrête. Il s’assied sur un banc.”

I just love this starting tool in the acquisition process to then be able to move on to proper stories! And by the way, I created a set of flashcards on Quizlet so that my learners can keep on practicing the commands in their own time. Do also have a look at my French folder on Quizlet which contains 9 different sets of flashcards!

What about you? Are you a TPR fan? Would you want to try it out?

I must confess that since teaching students via Skype or Google hangout, I am having a lot of fun! I have also noticed the many benefits of online instruction.

First of all, the learner is in the comfort of his home which helps lowering the affective filter. I have to admit that the first session can be a bit stressful because of the technology challenges. Issues can arise such as will the webcam work? why can’t I hear you although my earphones are new?… It is also the first time I make contact and the learner can be nervous and show anxiety. However, once the technical problems are sorted and the learner feels relaxed talking to me, the safe and affirming environment will make the learner “blossom and grow in his or her language development“. “This setting facilitates risk-taking behavior in regards to practicing and learning a second language.”

The lessons, I prefer to call them sessions, are flexible which means that if the learner feels tired and unfocused one day, we can agree to shorten the session and do a longer one another day or the next week. Needless to say it is perfect for language acquisition since the learner’s brain needs to listen and comprehend a lot of “new” input which requires concentration.

The sessions are also intensive. I offer my students to meet at least twice a week for 30 minutes maximum. I meet them often for a short time which means that the sessions are productive and never boring. I will spend the beginning of the session for 5 to 10 minutes asking the learner personalized questions. If it is the start of the week, we will talk about the weekend, otherwise we can talk about hobbies or about some interesting news. I also share articles to read or videos to watch via Edmodo and I will then check comprehension and discuss the resource with the learner. It will take 5 to 10 minutes and then it will be time to close the session by retelling what we have talked about during the session, so that the learner gets more repetition of high frequency words and more comprehensible input. I will also ask the learner to read a particular post or watch a special video before next session so that we can discuss it next.

Finally the sessions are personalized. I dedicate a lot of the sessions time to find out the learners’ interests through personalized questions. I can then look for resources which are of interest to the learner. That way the learner is hooked and looks forward to meeting me online to talk about what he or she likes.

All in all, I believe that they are great advantages to online language acquisition.

What about you? Have you experienced online teaching? What are your thoughts?

Be sure to check out my Language Facilitator Page about how to become fluent in another language.

Lately I have been trying to eat less carbohydrates not only because I do feel better and less exhausted but also because I have noticed that my older boys eat a lot of carbohydrates at lunchtime. They eat at school and whenever I ask them what they had for dinner, they usually respond they had rice or pasta or potatoes or even all of them on the same plate! Sometimes they don’t have the meat or fish which is being served because they say they don’t like it! So dinner time is a chance to get all the vegetables and proteins they didn’t get at lunch!

Needless to say I am having to be creative and to find ways of replacing the popular dishes I usually prepare without carbohydrates. One thing I have been successful at is to prepare pasta alla carbonara without the pasta. Once I tried with shredded white cabbage and it worked well!

https://goo.gl/photos/q9g8JUQFRciQEL9Z8

https://goo.gl/photos/5Robe8uPSJoMQdf26

Then my sister-in-law visited us from China and she brought back a spiralizer! I spiralized zucchinis in no time and we had zucchinis alla carbonara which was super good!

https://goo.gl/photos/8qze4yMWKecpk2NFA

Although it can be repelling at first to have to peel, cut, shred and/ or spiralize the vegetables, it doesn’t take that long and it is then easier and faster to cook them than pasta because there is no need to boil them. You just add them to the pan and they cook in five minutes!

My version for the carbonara sauce is the following:

1. Cook the lardons in a pan until crispy and brown. You don’t need to add extra oil because the lardons release enough fats already.
2. Add some cream (single or double), around 200 g (depending on how creamy you want your sauce to be!). Personally, I use crème fraîche bien sûr! Let it cook for one minute or two.
3. Meanwhile in a bowl, mix 2 eggs with 100 g cream, a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
4. Once you have added the pasta or the vegetables to the lardons and cream mixture, add the eggs, cream and lemon mixture et voila!

https://goo.gl/photos/8szKk4UpHKgKEjCx8

By the way, this site is great to get inspired with vegetables: http://inspiralized.com/recipes/
So far I have a small spiralizer which can only spiralize zucchinis but I am now thinking of buying the real thing!

What about you? What is your favourite low carb dish?

My French students are now learning the passé composé in class and I am looking for ways to help them acquire this new tense without doing the traditional grammar approach.

The first text which came to my mind was Le déjeuner du matin which is actually a poem widely taught in French classes because the language is quite simple and repetitive. This poem also uses high frequency verbs and structures such as “il a mis”. The verb “mettre” is used in many different situations in French, from “j’ai mis des bottes” to “il a mis du lait dans le café“. It is also an irregular verb in the perfect tense so learners should hear many repetitions of it in order to acquire it. For my French students to understand this poem, I first thought of introducing the following target structures:

• Il/ elle a mis – He/ she (has) put
• Il/ elle a préparé le repas – He / she (has) prepared the meal
• Sans regarder -without looking

With personalized questions and a story script inspired by Martina Bex’ Spanish story “Una comida especial“, I invented a fun story about a boy who wants to impress a girl by cooking her favorite meal. Unfortunately, things go wrong because the boy wasn’t looking when he was preparing the meal and put weird stuff into the food!
You can view and download the story script with a drawing exercise, alongside with guidelines on how to teach the story here.

Once my French students have acquired the target structures, I can introduce them to the poem. I have found a great short film on YouTube which I can use as a MovieTalk by pausing the video and reading each verse, making sure my students understand fully what is going on:

Learners can then read and mime each verse. They get tons of repetitions of “il a mis” and other high frequency verbs in the passé composé such as “il a bu” or “il est parti”. It is also an opportunity to discuss the typical French breakfast (which is not much!) and habits like smoking.

I do believe it is important to include cultural activities into language acquisition because a language is more than just words and sentences, it is also another way of thinking, another culture. That is why I am always looking for ways to incorporate literature, films or special cultural events in my lessons.

What about you? Do you also include culture in your teaching? How?

If you want to have access to the story, reading activities, a listening and comprehension activity on the poem, a reading with comprehension questions about the life of Jacques Prévert (the author of the poem) along with detailed guidelines and ideas on to plan your lessons, you can purchase the full package on my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

As you already know, Sunday is a special day in our family. Therefore I usually try to bake a cake. If I am running out of time, I will go for a crumble but otherwise I will bake a cake. This morning I was going to go for “flognarde” which is a special French cake with apples (which I will post about soon) but I had some butternut squash puree left in my freezer so I decided to go for this lovely butternut squash, apple and walnut cake. Although my men are not big fans of any types of pumpkin, this recipe was perfect to hide the butternut squash but at the same time to keep its flavor. I also loved the moist and soft texture of the cake.

How did I puree the butternut squash? by simply halving it, wrapping it in aluminium foil and putting it on a large baking tray in the oven for an hour or so at 180 degrees. I then scooped the flesh and pureed it.

For the cake , the little chef in the house helped me out!

1. Whisk together 4 eggs and approximately 100 g caster sugar (depending on how sweet you like your cakes, you could ad 50 g more).
2. Add 100 g flour, a tablespoon of baking powder and whisk the mixture gently until it becomes smooth.
3. Add 100 ml milk and 100 ml melted butter. Whisk until it is incorporated into the mixture.
4. Add 200 g butternut squash puree and mix.
5. Add 2 or 3 apples (depending on how fond of apples you are) peeled and cut into chunks and 100 g walnuts.
   Add cinnamon powder according to your taste.
6. Pour the mixture in a mold and put in the preheated oven at 180 degrees for half an hour or so until the cake is firm.

Enjoy!

https://goo.gl/photos/F39Lqo6Jb9c8mWwY7