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Just for Fun |
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February 2010
- by Sharon Scinicariello |
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Everyone loves
commercials. How many of us spend more
time talking about the Super Bowl
commercials than about the game itself?
For language teachers and learners,
commercials are especially useful
because they are short, use authentic
language, and the ‘plot’ is generally
very easy to follow. The CulturePub
site at
http://www.culturepub.fr is a
wonderful source of commercials from
around the world. You can browse from
the home page or search by theme, brand,
business, country, or decade. Yes,
there are even ‘historic’ commercials on
the site. Every Monday, there is a new
magazine d’actualité, a short
video of commentaries on specific
commercials. One note of caution:
there are commercials and themes on this
site that may not be appropriate for all
ages.
Do you have an
iPhone or iPod Touch? If so, you may
also be interested in the TéléPub
application. This free app lets you
view all the commercials aired on French
television during the last seven days.
You can browse or search by channel or
by theme (alimentation, boissons,
informatique, etc.). An explanation
of the app is available in both text and
video at the site of france
televisions publicité [http://www.ftv-publicite.fr/spip.php?rubrique458].
For students interested in new
technologies, this video provides a
wealth of vocabulary about the iPhone
and the App Store.
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January 2010 - by Gay Rawson
Website of the month / Just for Fun
Evernote:
http://www.evernote.com/about/learn_more/
Evernote is a site
designed to help you organize and
control information such as texts, audio
files, photos, handwritten notes,
images, and more. This site is similar
to OneNote from Microsoft but is stored
online, not on a personal device, and is
free for the basic (and limited)
version. It’s very cool and infinitely
useful ! You can load and save anything
to a site you create (very easy to do,
took less than 5 minutes). Evernote
will allow you to search your “notes” by
the tags you add AND it recognizes the
text in the photos / documents and will
let you search by that too! Dr. Orlando
Kelm, professor at UT-Austin, has a site
he shares in Evernote:
http://www.evernote.com/pub/orkelm/CultureTextPictures
. He is not a French teacher but has
photos he has stored here from his many
travel destinations. The site itself
explains some uses: scan business cards,
receipts, plane tickets, maps, to-do
lists, photos, notes from meetings,
websites, favorite recipes, etc.
Anything you want to remember and be
able to find, you can type, scan, or
load into Evernote and have it available
from any computer. The information is
private by default but you can share
portions with the public as you choose.
Remember, the program will “read” the
text in your messages, photos, tickets,
business cards, etc. and let you search
for it without you having to type a
thing.
I made a sample
public page to demonstrate how one might
use this resource with photos. Here’s
my site:
http://www.evernote.com/pub/rawson/francephotos.
If you click on that link, three photos
will appear. I created a notebook
called “France photos” and then added
each photo as a note. I wrote in a
“tag” for each photo and you see those
listed on the left. But, here’s the
cool feature. Go to the search box in
the top right window and type in “Perou”.
The site will display the photo of me in
Paris. The word “Perou” is a word in
the background of the photo! It’s not a
tag, not content that I entered:
Evernote can search all words in a
photo!
The possible
classroom applications for this site are
great. One may have to consider the
premium version, which costs $5 a month,
to make maximum usage of it. However, I
would love to load more photos here from
my travels and from my students. We
could then have them stored in one place
to use in class (which many sites can
do) but also to have students search and
find things for homework (feature unique
to Evernote as I understand it). I
could scan menus, TGV tickets, metro
passes, and more to show them authentic
documents that the computer can “read”.
Dr. Kelm also does cross-cultural
comparison work with his photos: ask
students to send you photos in the US
displaying a certain cultural situation
(mealtime, how close people stand to one
another, greetings, etc.) and then find
a photo of the same situation abroad and
analyze / compare. Our “digital native”
or “Millennial” students prefer photos
to texts and would love an assignment
requiring them to take photos, load
them, and tag them. This medium really
speaks to many different learning styles
and lends itself well for classroom
applications, in addition to helping the
teacher organize his / her realia. Try
it today! It truly is easy to get
started and they even have a video
showing you more:
http://www.evernote.com/about/video/
. Enjoy!
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December
2009:
http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/tivi5/jeux.php
This
site, which is part of the TV5 site,
contains games geared towards young
children. However, since many of these
games do use some language & directions
are usually given in French, they could
be used with older children as a fun
diversion from more serious class work.
During our language lab block, I
occasionally allow students to go to
this site once they have finished their
assignment, during the last 5-10 min. of
class. |
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November
2009:
Pour ceux
qui s'intéressent à la voile: http://www.hisse-et-oh.com/ |
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October 2009:
http://prezi.com/
Need a new spin on the old PowerPoint
presentation? Check out this neat
site which gives your presentations an
interesting twist! Instead of
going from slide to slide, you zoom in
and out to different locations on
one slide.
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March 2009:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fr.html
the World
Fact Book! Here is a comprehensive site
to get facts about France and other
countries. |
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February
2009:
www.mangerbouger.fr
Here is a
great site full of authentic material
for students if you’re studying health
or fitness!
www.mangerbouger.fr has been
updated. This link
http://www.mangerbouger.fr/menu-secondaire/communication/
takes you to the audio/visual section
where you can show actual commercials
aired by the Ministère de la Santé.
There are also radio commercials for
purely aural practice! This is a great
tool for interpretive assessments, and
can be a springboard for the other modes
of interpersonal and presentational
assessments. |
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January
2009:
Language Games
Take a
minute to look at the cool language
games found on this site. The perk is
that they are not the usual predictable
games and the animation is very nice and
appealing not only to lower division
students but also to university tech
expert students. There is a wide
variety of games so I recommend looking
at the games first to try them out
before actually doing them with your
students. The verb games will show you
the wrong answers and then offer a
review. The site is mainly for
beginners but there are links to
advanced activities and geography.
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December 2008:
Freerice.com
If you have a Smart Board or other
interactive whiteboard in your
classroom,
freerice.com is a great site to fill
those last 5 minutes of class.
Students practice their knowledge of
French vocabulary while donating rice to
the United Nations World Food Program.
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November 2008:
Interested in French Rap? Check out the
recent interview with
Abd al Malik. |
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October 2008: Check out the French
lyrics website:
http://www.greatsong.net/ .
http://www.greatsong.net , is a
wonderful website, very helpful to learn
French language, contains more than 2
million songs, Lyrics of 500.000 French
songs both old and contemporary, 50.000
translations (English / French) and it
is one of the most popular and visited
websites in this area of interest. |
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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.
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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/ |
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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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).
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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! |
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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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