French the natural way: the next new thing

Coucou les French learners,

I am back this week with some great news!

Despite the fact it is extremely cold over here, il fait un froid de canard, a duck’s cold (don’t ask why we say that in French ?! C’est très bizarre !).

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apprendslefrançais91 chosesdelavie2 ci145 cinema35 communicate9 comprehensible100 creative13 culturefrancaise80 ecolebuissonniere1 effortlessly5 familylife12 film41 filmreview15 flow9 flowing2 french film5 frenchculture295 frenchlearners48 goodfilm1 hear1 imagination7 interests1 italian4 languages13 learnersay4 lefrançaisnaturellement92 listentostories41 madeupstories1 newseries4 nexthing1 personal13 portuguese3 pureci43 real life video2 real stories2 romanian2 sla123 stories40 storylistening142 tale117 TPRS71 understand67 weekly input15 weekly videos55 youtube channel52 youtuber6 youtubeuse33

Story listening is powerful!

To me, developing listening skills are vital in life, yet not practiced enough. As teachers, we are told to let students learn by doing (which is valuable too in some cases) and that classrooms should be students led. As a consequence the skill of listening is being put aside,

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acquire50 acquisition65 brain61 Canada24 ci145 comprehend52 comprehensible100 comprehension250 content6 culture246 demo5 Education20 engage150 Facebook4 film41 focus36 free13 French41 ghost12 group4 intent3 language45 learn10 learner217 legend78 liberate1 liberating1 listen283 listening52 message4 mind3 powerful6 practice33 skill4 skills26 story46 story listening19 technique3 TPRS71 unconscious3 unconsciously3 understand67 understanding22 useful7 valuable1 video350 vocabulary256

Textivate to make puzzles and activities out of any text

I have just come across Bryan Kandel’s website and he has highlighted a few useful web tools to use in the classroom. One of them is Textivate which is Taskmagic web-based little brother. Ten years ago, when I started teaching Taskmagic was the one software we used in the classroom and language teachers just loved it!

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activity13 Education20 exercise4 game21 practice33 projector1 reading252 script201 smartboard1 story46 taskmagic2 text4 textivate1 understanding22 web5 web 2.08 whiteboard2 writing55

Mentormob: the perfect tool for independent learning.

José Picardo who is Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Nottingham High School in England is the curator of Box of Tricks which I follow since I started using the Web 2.0, a few years ago. It is always a mine of discoveries for the best tools to use in the classroom.

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box of tricks1 Education20 flip2 independent4 jose picardo1 knowledge4 language45 learning15 mentormob1 online38 playlist4 quiz18 share17 Spanish33 teaching42 video350 web 2.08

How to help students use Google Translate efficiently?

 

Recently, I stumbled upon a great blog to follow if you are considering flipping the Spanish classroom. I started to read the latest post about Google Translate and I could not help but start to cringe!

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activity13 dictionary3 google translate1 guide5 help10 learn10 teach3 translate7 translation4 web5 web 2.08

Playing to learn a language?

I recently went through Maria Andersen presentation Playing to learn?:

My eldest son, Louis who is now seven years old and is in first grade is absolutely eager to learn about anything and I know that his classmates are as eager too.

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classroom9 Education20 flip2 flipped1 flipping1 game21 learn10 play27 playing3

A photo calendar

To start the new year in a fun way, I have launched a photo calendar online. Not only it is fun to post a photo each day, it is also an easy way to inform my family and relatives (who love in other countries) about what is going on in my life.

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