This project is designed for French as Second Language class. This is the traditional foreign language learned in Canadian schools and French has a very large presence in my high school. Furthermore, I have taught FSL in the past and am quite comfortable working in this realm. I tried to focus on Web 2.O tools that were specifically designed for foreign language acquisition as much as possible but have included some tools that lend themselves to learning of sorts.
Content Area: French as a Second Language
Title: Expanding Vocabulary Through Current Events
Grade Level or Target Group: High School FSL class
Big Idea(s): Use current events to expand vocabulary
Essential Questions:
How can watching/listening to French news sites expand student vocabulary in French? How can students demonstrate the acquisition of new vocabulary? How can learners share their increased vocabulary with others?
Objective: Students will improve their vocabulary by watching/listening to authentic news broadcasts from France.
Summative Assessment: Creation of quiz or game of 10 new vocabulary words.
Lesson Opening (The Hook): Listen to the news from BFMTV. This is a site designed for second language learners. Discuss with students the advantages listening to foreign news broadcasts? Also, what are the challenges?
Explanation:
1. To begin, students will be directed Le Journal en Français Facile (the news in easy french). This is a site provided by Radio France Internationale that provides news broadcasts directed to second language learners along with written transcripts. Students can then choose to listen to a broadcast of their choosing (the most recent is preferred) and to follow along with the written transcript.
2. Students will then choose 10 words that they are unfamiliar with and use Reverso Dictionary (or a similar French/English Dictionary site)to find the definitions for these new terms
3. Students will create flashcards of these new vocabulary lists using Quizlet. They can then challenge others in their class to complete their quizlet or each student’s quizlet can be used by the teacher to expand vocabulary even further. Although not specifically designed for second language learning, quizlet lends itself very well for this task.
Lesson Closing:
They can then challenge others in their class to complete their quizlet or each student’s quizlet can be used by the teacher to expand vocabulary even further. Although not specifically designed for second language learning, quizlet lends itself very well for this task.
Extension: Have students create their own quiz/game using Quia and the list of 10 words they have created. This is a french language quiz making site where students will have to create an account and follow these directions to create a their game. This could also be done using a site like Kahoot. Over the next few classes, the class can try these games out to maintain the vocabulary they have learned and to see what vocabulary words their classmates focussed on. Students will be required to submit a link to their quiz as a formative assessment.
Materials: Materials needed for this lesson:
Access to computer lab or internet created devices.
Headphones (optional)
Projection system