MYLO: A New Way to Learn Languages?

I am linking with the Teaching Trio for their Technology Thursday linky to share a FREE website to learn French, Spanish, German or Chinese.

 

 

This site is called MYLO and, although it is based on the British curriculum (the site was developed for UK's Department of Education), it is suitable for any young language learner. Tasks & activities are levelled from 1 being the easiest to 8 being the most challenging. The characters are cute geometric shapes:

 

The site has 2 main sections: I need the basics, which introduces vocabulary and provides plenty of practice, and I'd like a challenge, which gives children a fun project to work through such as designing a Football Kit or putting together a look for Paris Fashion Week :)

 

How it can be improved: I think it is a shame that the site does not provide any authentic materials apart from the audios. Although the graphics are cute, the characters could have been placed into more authentic looking settings... This said, I really like the I'd like a challenge section, which puts the language children have learnt into context.

Remember to check out other bloggers' posts by clicking on the button below:

 

Plickers

Last week, I found out about a really cool App called Plickers through Luv My Kinders and it is amazing! You first need to register on their website, and print and laminate a set of cards. There are various packs to choose from and the cards look like this:



You then create your classes, allocate a card number for each child, type your multiple choice or true-false questions and you're away!

Each side of the shape on a card is labelled A, B, C or D. As you ask your question, pupils hold the shape so that the letter they have selected is at the top of the shape. You then scan the room with your iPad and it will instantly pick up the pupils' answers! How cool is this?!

You can see straight away how many children got the correct answer and the names of the pupils will show up in green or red accordingly.

What could be improved: at the moment, you cannot view an individual child's data, making it quite hard to evaluate a child's progress. However, this is a feature they are likely to add very soon due to the number of teachers asking for it! If you too think this would be a great feature, please vote on their forum here.

iFakeText

iFakeText is a great website which enables you & your pupils to create fake iPhone text conversations such as this one:

You can use this site to create a dialogue to introduce a certain topic, or get the pupils to create their own fake text messages. They can screenshot their text conversations and upload them onto Padlet or a similar platform for you to assess their work.

What could be improved: the accents will not show up properly when using the download option, so pupils will need to screenshot their conversations instead :(



Make Dice App & a *FREEBIE*!

Dear readers,

Today, I want to talk about an App which I LOVE: Make Dice. Make Dice is a great App to use in the language classroom for vocabulary or grammar practice. The free version enables you to create dice with words, whilst the full version ($2.99) will also allow you to create dice with pictures, which is great for reviewing topic-based vocabulary. I love using the App with verbs and tenses, but the choices are endless!

I love that you can customise the dice so that they perfectly match what you want to teach your pupils. Another advantage is that you can differentiate by making your dice more or less complex depending on your pupils' ability, something you cannot do by purchasing ready-made packs of language dice. It is also a cheaper alternative!

What could be improved: the App is ULTRA sensitive and even the tiniest movement of a child writing on the table will make the dice 'roll', making it quite frustrating at times! Therefore, you ideally want to use this App as a 1:1 activity.

Now for the FREEBIE!

Click on the image below to download ;)

This is a worksheet I created for pupils to practise irregular verbs in all 3 tenses using the App. The pupils were given 3 dice with:

• Subject pronouns
• Irregular Verbs
• Past, present & future (repeated so that you have 6 sides!)

However, I am sharing the editable ppt file so you can adapt it how you like!

Décrire un animal with lino

Hello!

I found this cute lino entitled Décrire un animal. Pupils can use these descriptions as models for their own lino on pets or try to correct the mistakes!

Enjoy!

Film titles and Wikipedia

Hello everyone!

J'aime 'Amis' (I love 'Friends'), J'adore 'Congelé' (I love 'Frozen')...

Translating titles is quite a challenging task for pupils, particularly when some titles are translated, some aren't, and some are completely changed to suit the language!!!

But I have the solution! Wikipedia for once can be a reliable source and gives the correct film titles in France (or anywhere!).

Pupils simply go on Wikipedia, enter the name of the film in English (for example: Frozen), then 'français' from the left sidebar and TA DA!

Have fun searching for different film titles with your pupils! You can also give them a list of French film titles and ask them to guess which films they are!

Ma France - French Video Course for Post Beginners

Hello everyone,

First of all:

Happy New Year!

I've just come across an online 24-unit video course designed by the BBC and called Ma France. Each unit includes 3 videos on a chosen topic such as directions, hotel requests, eating out, football, etc. In each unit, the first video (A) concentrates on introducing topic-related vocabulary and grammar, the second video (B) focuses on a cultural aspect and in the third video (C), the interviewees are given a challenge! All videos are shot in France, with native speakers.

Pupils can watch the videos with or without subtitles and subtitles are available in French and/or in English. If you have a fast connection, I recommend that you choose the interactive flash version.

Now this is what it looks like:

              

For each unit, teachers can also download suggested activities which give additional guidance on how best to use the videos in the classroom.

Hope you find this resource useful!

Audio Lingua

Hi everyone!

I've just bumped into a website and am really excited to share it with you! It is called Audio Lingua and it has over 3000 short mp3 files in 10 different languages, of which 455 are in French!

The files are on a variety of topics (recipes, hobbies, opinion on books, films or TV, etc.). They are authentic materials recorded by native speakers only. These files can be listened to online or they can be downloaded. You can also contribute and upload your own recordings on the website. All you then need to do is create your own teaching materials to go alongside these audio recordings.
 

Have a great weekend!

Passeport pour la Francophonie

Hello!

I've just found this very exciting interactive website called Passeport pour la Francophonie which you can use at the start of the year, on the international day of 'Francophonie' or at any other time of the year!

Once you've clicked on a country (France, Egypt, Gabon, Madagascar or Polynesia), you are taken to a series of activities related to the country chosen, from vocabulary lists (with sound to practise pronunciation) to stories, videos and challenges, with supporting materials and guidance on how to use them. A great way of raising cultural awareness wilst having fun!



Hope you and your pupils enjoy this!

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog!

Today I want to talk to you about my little addiction to My Little Paris. Apart from the fact that the illustrations are simply beautiful, the site has some very good 'insolite' stories and articles which I regularly pin and share with my pupils. I also LOVE My Little Radio, which is a list of playlists (English and French tracks) for every situation... To listen to with or without pupils around! You'll need to sign up to DEEZER to listen to the tracks.

Have a nice day!