Monday 25 July 2011

Language World 2011: Cross-Curricular Contexts for Learning and Authentic Resources, Martine Pillette

This workshop aimed to demonstrate how cross-curricular contexts and authentic resources can be used throughout the year to motivate and give students a more meaningful linguistic experience in the classroom.

The resources can be used as a visual/ aural stimulus: the activities simplify the language and support students’ understanding. Using “raw” materials also helps students to develop their capability and confidence in listening and reading.

The range of styles of activities was quite wide and included:

Film trailer like the “Bonobos” trailers from allo cine, a fantastic site with lots of trailers and articles about films in French and other languages. 



Transcripts

Start with the resource, play the trailer again and students try to match print to sound.

Students read and when you stop, students say the next word

Students put their hand up when you read something different from the text

Listening must not be presented as a test

Aux arbres citoyens video (dailymotion)


Card activity –re-order the sentences to follow the order of what happens in the video clip

Support grid with key structures to mix and match

Find the corresponding French word in the lyrics

Use authentic resources to present real issues: e.g. Quinoa - basic food from Colombia now turned into a luxury item –prices go up, impact on poor people in Colombia.

Look at cognates, themes, titles

Regarde, ecoute, lève la main si c’est different

Does it mention these facts?

Discard the odd one out and sequence the paraphrased sentences in the correct order

Gap fill in English about a text in the Target Language

Some of these activities can be used with Y7 students as transition resources in order to re-visit some of the language taught in primary in a different and more linguistically challenging context.

Crossword with sound and gapped phrases as a clue

Listening activity to self-check

This is a fantastic starting point for anybody aiming to use authentic resources regularly in the classroom and I intend to use this post as a reminder of some of the generic activities that can be developed.

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