L'ORALE

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

LES STRATÉGIES DE COMMUNICATION

How many times a day do you hear 'Comment dit-on ___?'

We often expect our students to naturally be able to develop strategies for communicating in a second language. The one we do teach is how to say 'How do you say...', but we rarely teach beyond that! Here are some helpful resources to help promote French language speaking!

1) Show non-verbal communication! 

This video is helpful to show students that even when we recognize the sounds, that most of our communication comes from our gestures, facial expressions, interactions, tone of voice, etc. *Beware the 2 swear words in the last 40 seconds. What English sounds like to Non-English speakers 

2) Co-create strategies and talk about them!

Make a list of strategies that students can use! Practice them! If you want them to find and use new words from anchor charts, challenge them to with a speaking activity in partners! If you want them to speak authentic ideas about a new topic, let them use a dictionary and look up 3 words ahead of time! If you want students to use gestures, play charades! Etc...

Talk about them often and explicitly! A simple question, 'Quelle stratégie était la plus utile?' will help students name what they are doing!

3) Practice saying complex ideas!

You know your students. You know what they can say, and you know what they can't yet say.  I write down common expressions that students could not express in French, print them our into sets of 'cards' that students use to communicate with, with a partner. One version is that we choose 3 words, other than names, that we say aloud, and the rest are with gestures and expressions, etc. Loads of fun!

4) Practice makes better!

Offer a variety of activities to help students practice!  See some fun activities in my recent presentation at the OMLTA Fall Conference Parlons! Low-risk, High-Fluency Strategies !

This is a collection of internet resources for both teachers and students in the French Speaking Strand.