AATF Telematics and New Technologies Commission

Just for Fun

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Just for Fun

April 2008: Post Secret France follows in the tradition of the popular book and American website. Have your students analyze these personal statements made by French speakers. Warning: This is probably something that would be better for older students or teachers should preview the site before they share it. 

March 2008: Take your students to this website to explore the Youth language in France. It could be very informative and interesting if you plan on showing a movie, an advertisement, a TV show, read a book or listen to a song for instance, which employs colloquial language a lot.

The website is well designed and user-friendly. In the ‘dictionnaire de la zone, you can search by word/ expression or even quotations. The website also gives you access to a dictionary of ‘verlan’. There is also a forum where users can interact, which is particularly interesting as it represents a great source of authentic French language.

http://www.dictionnairedelazone.fr/

February 2008: http://fr.youtube.com/

You Tube, Global Warming, and Creative Writing

One of my favorite videos accessible on You Tube is Yannick Noah’s Aux arbres citoyens !  Designed as an animated story, seemingly appealing to a young audience, this video addresses the serious topic of global warming.  The song has a catchy tune and the video a smart look, but beyond the entertainment factor, this You Tube video can become a fun learning tool when you mute the sound and invite your students to create the script that depicts the scenes.  Proposed as an activity in a language lab setting, it invites the students to discover their creative writing skills in French and gives them an opportunity to write collaboratively.

December 2007 http://www.learn-french-language-software.com/games/index.htm and specifically

http://www.transparent.com/languagepages/french/games.htm

For the students: language games that are not your usual mots-croisés.  Particularly interesting are the “Unscramble” and the “Plug-in” language games.  These appear to be free, I’ve personally tried them on several occasions.  The sentences or paragraphs change every time you log in or end a game.  Games are also timed so they may be useful for students practicing for the AP exam.  Although for the “International café” game you may have to download or buy software, it also seems interesting and something students would enjoy.  Technical note: sometimes you might have to click “home” and then “games from the left panel to access the game page.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ik2r-myr/english/choixat.htm

For the teacher: how confident are you on your French skills?  A good and quite difficult French test to keep you up to date on your French knowledge!

November 2007
Comment tricher à l’examen de français AP
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ap+french&search=Search

If you are an AP French Language teacher, you will appreciate the students’ humorous attempt not only to create their own video project for class, but to break down “the essentials” for preparing for the AP French Language exam.

October 2007
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/cool/
Keep up with the latest slang with this great web site!  Another resource of the BBC Languages site, this page is the “essential guide to young French people’s slang”.  You can listen to expressions and words, which are organized by topic (family, politics, friends …) and also by level of formality (familier, vulgaire, verlan).

 

September 2007
www.france24.com - French CNN- has current events in article format, and video.  This is probably better for more advanced students

www.meteofrance.com - Great website for practicing weather! It has the current weather conditions, as well as forecasts. This is a great and fun way to practice the weather. Have your students do a weather forecast with this site as their background!

 

May 2007 - http://meilleursprenoms.com – Let your students look up their French names to find the origin, meaning, jour de fête, and popularity statistics. Also gives most popular names by region and year, names the stars give their children and other fun facts. Tons of fun!

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April 2007 - Les perles du bac 

“Comme Bonaparte, Jules César pouvait dicter plusieurs letters à la fois, c’était un dictateur.”

See if your students can find the humor in these errors made on the baccalauréat.  While the authenticity of these statements can’t be verified, they are quite funny.

http://mermoz.yvesd.net/perlesbac.php

http://urv.aurelien.free.fr/humour/perles/perles_du_bac.php

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March 2007 - Creating Fun and Educational Activities with Quia.com

http://www.quia.com

This subscription site is a wonderful resource for teachers that allows students to reinforce grammar in a fun and innovative way.

Quia allows teachers to make a class site with its own URL (web address) that students can access from any Internet-connected computer.

Teachers can create their own activities using Flash or other programs; however it is easier to add activities that have been created by other teachers to your class site. The activities are in the form of fun games like Battleship or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and tests specific grammar points. Teachers can search for activities by grammar point, or text book.

There is also a feature that allows teachers to create online quizzes for their classes!

The site allows teachers a 30 day free trial. After that, the subscription fee is $49 per year, and there are discounts for groups of teachers, if a department would like to subscribe.

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February 2007 - Une Carte Postale

Send a postcard to your students or to a friend: http://photos.linternaute.com/pays/297/france/

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January 2007 - Caricature Generator http://www.magixl.com/caric./poir.html  Scroll down and click on Homme or Femme.

This site is actually good for teaching vocabulary as well as being a lot of fun.  Choose descriptive expressions for hair, eyes, nose and other facial features and watch the image change. It’s flexible enough that students can even create caricatures of themselves!

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December 2006 

Long collection of French Tongue Twisters http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/fr.htm#T1

Blog (stopped in 2005) by an American living in Paris. Looks at various cultural aspects. ttp://michaelsviewpoint.blogspot.com/2005/06/little-reading-over-dinner.html

Being from Belgium, I could not pass the opportunity to bring up chocolate. Learn about the history, the making of and enjoy the recipes http://www.choco-club.com/

Review your French by playing the typical French game of Jeu de l’Oie. Different levels, topics. Possibility to submit your ideas to the webmaster who will create a version for you. http://jeudeloie.free.fr/mde.htm

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November 2006 - http://www.rfimusique.com/musiquefr

Visit this site to hear the radio in France, check out podcasts, news and other world media.

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October 2006 -
Interested in accounts about Americans living in France? You might enjoy these two blogs:

La Coquette: http://lacoquette.blogs.com/ (blog of a 26 year old American living in Paris)

Chroniques d'une fraise: http://perso.fraise.net/ (blog of an American, originally from Oregon, living in Nice)

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September 2006 - Here are some French/Francophone related blogs to check out:

French Word a Day [...bringing you a daily thrice-weekly slice of French life]: http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/

Dispatches from France [written by Vivi, who lived on the east coast of the US, recently married a French man and moved to France]: http://dispatchesfromfrance.blogspot.com/

Superfrenchie [Frenchies’ adventures in French-bashing America]: http://superfrenchie.com/

InsidetheUSA [Blog sur "mes" Etats-Unis, vécus au quotidien] : http://www.insidetheusa.net/

Please share your favorite French related blog with us!

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Page last updated 04/02/2008 08:49 AM

Copyright 2006 TNT Commission. All Rights Reserved.