Map enthusiast Eric Fischer has shared a wonderful language-mapping image via his Flickr stream. It is a map of Twitter use by language. There is some overlap in color key, so you have to deduce whether Twitter users are using French or Malay, but nonetheless this is a pretty cool visualization of language. If...Read more »
Sometimes the objectives of a course require the viewing of a full-length film in class. For example, in a writing class I have used La Fille sur le pont (1999) and Vipère au poing (2004) as the basis for an assignment on writing a critical review. But in the language classroom, where it’s more...Read more »
One difficult aspect of teaching grammar is the disjointed impression given by a series of grammar lessons: when going over the difference between the gerond and the infinitive, for example, we tend to give students a long series of sample sentences showing when one form is used rather than the other. When talking about...Read more »
Have you noticed that something as quotidien as handwriting can vary dramatically between those schooled in France and in the U.S., even though we use the same characters? It seems so trivial, but a font can immediately remind you of a particular cultural milieu. If you want to nurture your inner graphic designer, lend...Read more »
Most students will recognize the melody of “Comme d’habitude” because it is that of “My Way,” but few will know that the song made famous by Sinatra is actually a remake of the French song by Claude François. The original song shares no lyrical content with the English version: it’s a song about one...Read more »
You can use any French song to create some sort of grammar, vocabulary, or culture lesson. The song “Octobre” by Francis Cabrel lends itself particularly well to a review of the futur simple. About half of the lines of the text contain a verb in the future, and many of them are irregular. The...Read more »
