alice’s posterous

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When Suzi Bewell talked to me about phonics, I didn't know what she was on about! She explained to me what it was and did a explanatory presentation on strategies for teaching French phonics (also Suzi Bewell set up a blog for her school which is amazing! http://www.allsaintslanguagesblog.typepad.co.uk/):>

I thought it was a brilliant idea to improve students' pronunciation. Most of the time, we teachers assume that our students know how to pronounce words in the target language, but in fact they don't. They are very confused when we correct them and then their motivation to learn another language starts to decrease! That is why I am thinking of planning strategies to teach my students Spanish phonics next year, although I do think Spanish is very easy to pronounce (compared to French!). For most of the words, you just pronounce them as you read them apart from some letters like "jota" for example. Rachel Hawkes did a lot of work on how to teach Spanish phonics and her blog is full of excellent ideas. I found one of her Powerpoints on ideas to teach phonics (just see above).

What are you thoughts? Have you tried teaching phonics to improve your students' pronunciation?

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I found this inspiring video on strategies on how to encourage students to speak in a foreign language on teachers.tv.

The teachers at Wildern school put in place "Group Talk": students are in groups of 4 and discuss different topics. They have cue cards and a list of key words and expressions to help them talk. When watching the video, I really liked the approach and the fact that students were engaged in their discussions although it was in another language. When I teach, I do find it hard at times to make my students talk. They will talk in English ;) but they find it hard to have a sustained conversation in another language. I also liked the fact that the students build up their conversations following gradual steps. For example, first they will have to say if yes or no they like sports, then they'll have to give a reason why, then comment on future plans...You can see an example of a "Group Talk" progression chart on http://www.teachers.tv/video/32765 at the bottom of the page, in the section "support materials".

In the video, they are also great ideas to engage boys with active learning like cycling around to get the tenses or the ballet dance to learn the time.

These are all ideas I am ready to try out next year and I find this very exciting indeed!

What about you? What new strategies are you considering using next year?

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There are already great contributions with videos, poems, articles and websites, as well as ideas to implement reading strategies in the classroom. I have added my little contribution today with resources related to the 20th century's writer, Jean Giono and his book L'homme qui plantait des arbres (The man who planted trees).

I do believe reading books in a another language and understanding the literature of another country helps you to better learn a language and understand the culture behind the language.

So if you:

• need help with your plans for literature/reading in the classroom, click on the Discussion tab and start a thread with your question and/or comment.
• have a link to a video, song, poem, article, website, etc. for a reading, click on the century for which you have something to share and get started today!

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