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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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