French the natural way : trust the process

Coucou les French learners,

I am back from a wonderful weekend in Erlangen, Germany where I got to listen to my idols, Stephen Krashen and Beniko Mason.

They are my heroes in the field of Second Language Acquisition! I got to spend the entire weekend listening to them at the Story Listening workshop,

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acquisition65 acquisition process41 apprendslefrançais91 benikomason4 ci145 cicommunity102 compelling input31 contedusenegal2 coucou9 Education20 enjoyable39 fle269 francaisfacile37 francaislangueetrangere56 francophone81 francophonie82 french acquisition12 frenchexpressions46 keepitup11 learnfrenchthenaturalway59 lefrançaisavecaliceayel50 lefrançaisnaturellement92 listen283 maychallenge12 networking2 process22 pureci43 relax48 rich content105 richinput154 self french205 senegal5 sla123 slerlangen182 Stephen Krashen11 storiesfirst11 storylistener103 storylistening142 tale117 TCI74 trusttheprocess78 workshop6 youcandoit70

French the natural way: the only cure is more input!

Coucou les French learners,

Last night, I was tutoring a 12 years old French student and she had to learn a list of vocabulary about all the different rooms in a school: la cantine, le gymnase, la salle des profs, le laboratoire… Instead of having the learner memorize each word and repeat them after me,

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acquire french11 acquisition process41 apprendslefrançais91 belles histoires1 challenge22 challenge de la semaine1 children magazine2 children story15 ci145 ciworks1 compelling input31 comprehensible100 comprehension250 daily french3 daily french input12 easy french51 Education20 enjoyable39 fle269 french acquisition12 french children books8 french for free4 french immersion23 french teacher4 frenchstorytime26 language acquisition229 learnfrench20 lefrançaisnaturellement92 listen283 messages3 natural approach59 online tutor3 online tutoring6 podcast127 read40 self french205 setting2 setyourself3 sla123 spanishplans1 Stephen Krashen11 stories40 TCI74 teachfrench12 Tuesday french stories3 understand67 watch52 weekly french33 weekly videos55 youtube67 youtube channel52

French the natural way: how to access input?

Coucou les French learners,

I have just finished reading this fascinating article by Steve Kaufmann on how learning a new language is a subconscious process. Basically, the author explains how he learned Romanian by first reading a lot about Romania in Romanian! He says: “

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acquisition process41 Cannes2 Cannes festival3 challenge22 ci145 cinema35 compelling39 comprehensible100 cultural10 culture246 engage150 engaging10 enjoyable39 film41 film festival3 films2 french actor2 french film5 french joke1 french online15 ilini2 listening52 may challenge7 natural165 natural approach59 natural way9 online tutoring6 opening ceremony1 pleasurable activity5 processing input2 reading252 story46 subconscious5 subtitles5 teenager story1 TPRS71 weekly videos55 youtube67 youtube channel52

French the natural way: Read!

“The path of pleasure is the only path. The path of pain does not work in language acquisition.” Stephen Krashen.

How is the May Challenge going?

One of my learners loves to read and she wants to read interesting books in French.

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achieve18 achievement29 acquirefrench76 adventures24 autonomous reader42 bedtime stories2 challenge22 children book18 children magazine2 children story15 ci145 compelling input31 comprehensible100 comprehension250 drawings3 easy300 easy reader35 Education20 free voluntary reading32 french books2 may challenge7 natural approach59 natural way9 novel51 pleasurable2 pleasurable activity5 pleasure124 polo3 read40 reading252 self confidence54 self confident37 self selected book12 series71 story reading3 TPRS71 weekly french33 weekly videos55

La flognarde aux pommes or The French apple flan

This is a long overdue recipe which is a popular dessert in France and at home! It is kind of easy to prepare and requires few ingredients, well… The French basics for a dessert which are flour, sugar, eggs, butter and milk and a bit of alcohol but optional!

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apple8 butter10 cake12 children28 cook32 Cooking41 delicious1 dessert9 dough4 eggs4 family164 flan2 flavour1 flour5 food154 foodie8 fruit12 indulge1 ingredients16 kids3 milk5 moist2 pancake5 recipe36 rum1 savour1 sugar4 sweet17 taste1

The Spanish alphabet

This is a simple activity to do with Spanish beginners when you are teaching the alphabet: students create their own alphabet page by looking for words which start with each letter of the Spanish alphabet. This is the first year in my teaching career that I do this activity and I have found out that my grade 6 students (11-12 years old) had a lot of fun doing this.

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activity13 alphabet1 beginner318 browse1 browsing1 culture246 dictionary3 find6 finding2 foreign language35 fun413 grade 68 language45 letter2 letters2 looking for1 reading252 research17 simple15 skills26 Spanish33 writing55