Coucou les French learners,

I have been away from the newsletter these past weeks but you probably know this French saying:

No news, good news

In fact, I have many exciting news to share with you!

Amazing results

At the beginning of the month of July, I received the IB results. My Spanish class got amazing results despite the fact they had no teacher for over a month last November. At that time, I started “teaching” them. they were in need of a massive dose of rich input in order to pass the examination in May. I had little time and so I told them many stories, many tales and fables. They also read books. One student read an easier version of Don Quijote and he was so proud.

The results came in and overall my students got 5.78 when the world average is 5.01. The best grade is a 7 and a 5 is actually equivalent to a B grade. I was over the moon! However the best outcome was one student who didn’t like to read even in her mother tongue. She sent me picture of a Spanish book she had bought to read over the summer!

The goal of Story Listening is to lead the path to independent acquisition.

Dr Beniko Mason who created the method mentioned recently: “CI= Comprehensible input. The question is whether CI alone is sufficient or do we need to add other skill-based activities, which is called the Eclectic Approach (EA). The Eclectic Approach has been used for the last 40 years when they disagreed with “INPUT ALONE IS SUFFICIENT.” CI must be deep in meaning and rich and abundant for those who come to class once a week and when the classroom is the only place where they get L2.”

When I teach French online, I want to give my learners as much rich and abundant comprehensible input as possible because I believe #inputaloneissufficient

Story Listening combined with guided reading will help YOU to become autonomous and lifelong language learners.

The Agen workshop

Two weeks ago, I attended The Agen Workshop which is such a thrilling experience for language teachers from all over the world who believe in the power of comprehensible input. I go to present a plenary session about Story Listening and my amazing results with my Spanish class.

It was nerve wracking because it was the first time I was presenting in front of so many people but Hélène Colinet who is also a French teacher in Mallorca and whom I met in Agen last year, helped me tremendously to structure the presentation in such a way that people understood what Story Listening is about and why it is efficient to acquire another language.

Pictures by Georges Drion, film producer, director and cameraman who came out of retirement to immortalize the conference.

Coming soon

As for now, I am shooting the new season on Youtube with videos filled with rich and abundant comprehensible input. Season #4 will come out in September, stay tuned!

I also created a page on Facebook to keep you updated and to share funny pictures, poems, short texts… More compelling French input!

I started to record a series of podcasts with my mum so that you can listen to French everywhere.

Tomorrow, I am back to school and I am getting up so early! Do you remember last year’s season #2 video about la rentrée? It is la rentrée for Jean-Charles. He has to go back to school but he does not want to get up (a bit like me)!

Happy French acquisition!

P.S. Got friends, family, colleagues or clients who want to become fluent in French? Share this with them, they’ll thank you for it 🙂