French the natural way : Notre-Dame de Paris

Coucou les French learners,

I was going to write about something completely different but yesterday’s event has changed everything.

As a Parisian, I am shocked and sad. To look on the bright side, Notre-Dame is not completely destroyed and no one is dead. Les pompiers de Paris,

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apprendslefrançais91 autonomouslearner202 boostyourfrench72 culturefrancaise80 ebook21 fle269 francaislangueetrangere56 frenchculture295 frenchhistory88 frenchinput18 frenchliterature58 frenchpoetry39 gargantua1 gustavedoré1 histoiredefrance137 histoiredusamedi3 hugo4 language acquisition229 languagelearner5 littérature120 nerval2 notre dame2 notredame1 ourlady1 paris69 parisian11 poem71 poésie40 rabelais2 selffrench14 selflearner9 sla123 storylistener103 storylistening142 théophilegautier1 TPRS71 victorhugo5 youtube channel52 youtubeuse33

French the natural way: octobre (and more about grammar)

Coucou les French learners,

C’est déjà le mois d’octobre ! It is already October! Le temps passe vite ! time goes fast!

I am not ready. Une chanson sur l’automne

by popular French singer Francis Cabrel (I just found out he was born in Agen!) entitled Octobre which is simply beautiful:

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acquirefrench76 active listener94 Agen11 apprendslefrançais91 automne7 brittany5 cabrel1 chanson31 chansonfrancaise31 comments3 dicton3 Education20 enbretagne17 enfrance35 fall17 fle269 francaislangueetrangere56 France221 franciscabrel1 frenchacquisition135 frenchculture295 frenchexpressions46 frenchonline68 frenchsong14 frenchstorytime26 frenchvocabulaire113 grammairefrançaise39 grammar66 histoiredusamedi3 humour15 loup4 moisdoctobre1 notice1 noticing1 octobre3 online french22 proverbe3 richinput154 season#412 self french205 self learner41 sla123 TCI74 weekly input15 wolf13

French the natural way: youpi, c’est le printemps !

Coucou les French learners,

There is une vague de chaleur, a heatwave going on here, in Europe and we are enjoying the beautiful weather!

Le printemps, spring is really blossoming. It is beautiful out here! Actually, Spring and the blossoming nature is a bit like language acquisition.

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april1 avril1 beautemps1 birch1 blossom3 brandonbrown2 compelling39 comprehensible100 comprehension250 curedebouleau1 curedeprintemps1 dicton3 enbretagne17 fleur7 francaislangueetrangere56 french immersion23 french poem8 french reader2 french resource2 french resources6 frenchnovel14 frenchreading11 frenchsaying2 frenchvocabulaire113 gardening2 high interest7 immersion93 interesting23 jardin2 learnfrenchthenaturalway59 lefrançaisavecaliceayel50 lefrançaisnaturellement92 nerval2 personal13 pluiedemots1 poem71 poetry49 pureci43 reading252 readinginfrench4 richinput154 self french205 sla123 spring12 storylistening142 TCI74 testimonial20 TPRS71 weekly videos55 youtubeuse33

Reflection on Comprehensible Input

I haven’t updated my blog for a while now, and as I am taking a break due to my fourth baby coming at the end of September, I wanted to reflect on my last school year. I was teaching Spanish from grade 6 to 12 and I decided to turn to comprehensible input and TPRS since I was never fully satisfied with the traditional way to teach languages.

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6th graders2 acquisition65 comments3 comprehensible100 Education20 encourage2 fluency107 fluent57 grade 108 grade 74 grade 85 grade 98 IGCSE12 input47 inspire13 languages13 listening52 Martina Bex11 middle school3 motivate151 motivation201 personalized16 reading252 review26 song29 Spanish33 story46 story asking15 storytelling39 TPRS71

Describing your home town and local area in Spanish

Another IGCSE topic is about describing where you live. First I had my grade 9 students watch this excellent video about a girl describing where she lives near Madrid (you can watch it with or without subtitles):

I then asked my students to produce a short movie like the one above about their local area.

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criteria1 describe37 description96 Education20 film41 home14 home town2 homework3 IGCSE12 local area2 Madrid1 oral12 peer assessment2 publish2 publishing1 skills26 Spanish33 speaking73 speaking skills8 technology8 topic24 town12 video350

Creating a new TV program in Spanish

With my current grade 8, we culminated our unit about television with a creative project: to create a new TV program and present it to possible producers!

Before working on the project, we looked at different kind of TV programs in Spain and in South America which lead to different activities and which also provided with a lot of comprehensible input.

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accuracy4 autentic1 engage150 fluency107 game show1 hispanic4 input47 language45 listening52 motivation201 poster2 presentation140 program1 project11 reading252 ressources40 series71 skills26 Spanish33 speaking73 tv5 unit3 Uruguay1 wiki5