So Much to Learn...So Little Time

A Nifty Widget for Learners of French

I've just been mucking around in Yahoo widgets (thanks to Mashable) and came across this Yahoo! widget which enables the user to access 52 Francophone web-streamed radio stations from around the French speaking world.

The list of stations includes all the Radio France serious ones, plus stations such as Fun Radio and NRJ which would appeal more to our students. On a personal level I am pleased to see that Radio Nova is in there. I listened to this all day every day when I lived in France and I blame it for my interest in African music, brilliantly eclectic (or it was back then) and very weird. You also get the benefit of programme info on a lot of the stations.

As a language teacher I'm constantly on at students to get as much experience as possible at listening to a foreign language...even if they don't understand everything. Its a simple matter of getting the ear atuned to the rhythm of the language. By installing this widget students have an enormous, easily accessible choice of French listening material. Listening for pleasure, no task attached, just listen and see what you can understand.


Technorati Tags: yahoowidgets, radiofrance, radionova, funradio, nrj, listening, learning, language, french

Audiko - ringtones

This could be a fun little application for a modern language classroom

Audiko

audiko is a simple service which helps you to make a ringtone of your favorite song!

Create kids speakings (eg verb drills, or vocabulary etc) and then transform them into ringtones. I won't go as far as saying all students would find this idea a cool addition to their mobile but it could definitely have its uses.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!


Obviously with a service such as this there are copyright issues and students should not be encouraged to use commercially available material to upload.

Upload an audio file, and it will take you to a wave form (see below) all you have to do is slide along the wave form and find the bit of the foem you want. Easy.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!


Click on create ringtone and it does what it says on the button. Here's one I prepared earlier using Yanick's 5x table rap. Once your ringtone has been created you can;

• download it to a computer
• download it to an iPhone
• copy a wap link into your mobile to download it directly
• or as I've done here embed it on your blog.

I'm not sure if there's a limit on the length of clip, but 30 secs is enough time to conjugate the verb "avoir" in the present tense.

The great thing about it is THERE IS NO SIGN UP SO NO IDENTITY PROBLEMS.

Technorati Tags: audiko

Easi-Speak - easy learn

TTS - Easi-Speak via kwout

How about this for a potentially superb resource for language lessons.
A bright, colourful mp3 recording device, battery powered and compatible with a pc. The uses of this in an mfl classroom are endless:

• have as many students doing speaking exercises as you have microphones
• in group work have a microphone on each island so that everyone can do the work
• strategically place the microphones all around the room when recording drills etc.

And loads more that I haven't thought of in the time its taken me to post this.

At the beginning I said it is a potentially superb resource...I wonder about the quality of recording. Most mp3 players are capable of recording voice but the actual recording quality is doubtful. I would be very interested in testing out this resource committing to buying one.

Technorati Tags: easi-speak, resources, languages

Why Learning a Language is Important in Primary Years...and should continue into Secondary

I like Google Alerts. It always throws up some interesting stuff.

This one came from my "Languages" alert and is a Forbes article based on an interview with Noam Chomsky, noted linguist.
In the article he speculates that the learning of a language has a critical period for development, and that for languages this could be from birth to around puberty.

If you have learned a language by that time, you will be able to learn more languages later, but probably in a different way, and maybe by connecting it to the languages that you do know.

I'm sure most language teachers would agree with this and indeed anecdotal evidence nearly always concurs. How difficult do adults find it to acquire a second language?

From birth children seem to absorb language (mother tongue) with no need for formal lessons and the idea of language lessons has always been to try to include as much target language as possible to attempt in some way to replicate this. However as kids get older it becomes more difficult for them to absorb any new language.

This is why it is important that kids get the chance to learn a 2nd language in primary school, whilst they are still at their most receptive. It is also important that at this stage they get a chance to really enjoy a second language. In my experience most kids really do enjoy language study in the primary stages.

However, as a secondary teacher I fear that all too often we seem to slog this fun out of language study. Why? Is it because we start to get into the nitty gritty of language, i.e. grammar and it becomes boring? Is it because we often have to deal with a class in S1 where kids arrive at totally different stages in their language learning; some at zero because they have changed language and some for whom a lot of the S1 topics have already been covered in primary? Unfortunately as a common denominator we often start at the basics again.

What can we do to resolve this problem? To my mind TRANSITION becomes all important. Somehow secondary teachers need to be able to latch onto the enthusiasm of the primary school whilst still pushing the boundaries of linguistic knowledge? But how?

Could this be where emerging tech should get involved, by enhancing the creative skills of these kids? Rather than starting with a text book why not use kids prior knowledge and introduce them to the delights of podcasting to introduce themselves. Or use web resources such as glogster, scrapblog start to compile e-folios. Lets try to build on the creativity kids often get to express in primary to ensure that they remain motivated to study a language throughout secondary. AND let us encourage those who may not be naturally gifted linguists to be as creative as possible with the language that they know. Lets allow CREATIVITY and COMMUNICATION to be the by-words rather than 100% accuracy.

Photos:
"Talking at Google: Languages on the Internet" by Stephanie Booth
"transition" by SGT Butler (deployed)

Technorati Tags: primary, secondary, languagelearning, creativity, communication

Culture Club for Primary School

Although they probably don't want my pity I feel desperately sorry for primary teachers in my homeland (England).
Not only do they have to fit in literacy, numeracy, physical activity etc but now the government (bloody meddling, fiddling, dithering hare-brained (sorry hares) politicians at it again) has decided in its ultimate wisdom that primary age pupils must get 5 hours a week of high culture.

Pupils to get more access to the arts | Schools special reports | EducationGuardian.co.uk via kwout

On behalf of my colleagues down south:

Dear Mr Balls,

Where do you propose to fit in regular theatre visits etc into an already cluttered timetable. Is travel to a theatre / art gallery included in this time. What happens when results in national assessments start to drop because kids no longer have time to cover the syllabus (even though they shouldn't need to sit these assessments.)

People think teachers are always moaning about their lot..no bloody wonder. Let us get on with the job we trained for and keep your unknowing noses out of it. How are you qualified to tell teachers how things should be?

I am sure this will not be the last post on this subject in the edublogoshere, having already seen Doug's and Doug's thoughts.

Technorati Tags: teaching, learning,

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Web 2.0 Apps and their Use in the MFL Classroom...mashups

Following on from a couple of previous posts regarding web applications and non-web applications I have used in the class, I set out on a little bit of personal research to have a look at some of the new web apps and see how they could be used in an MFL classroom (filters permitting) or to aid language learning. Regular readers will have seen the recent posts about specific language learning resources. These post and others to follow deal with applications which don't necessarily have a language learning purpose but can be adapted for this purpose.

In this post I want to deal with what I've termed mashups, for want of a better word. They permit the user to manipulate text, images, audio and even video.

Glogster:

Glogster's tag line is "poster yourself". And it is simply that. You create a poster including pictures, text, video etc. I think this would be superb for language learners. Students could create e-posters about themselves, celebrities, their town etc. They can show off their writing in a foreign language, or they could record themselves speaking the language on their phone/mp3 player and upload it. They could even make a wee video and upload it. In one piece of work students could present both their Speaking and Writing skills whilst at the same time showing of their creative skills.
Obviously, knowing the kind of networks we all work with in schools it may not be possible to use in school, and if possible it would probably need some preparation beforehand. Students would possibly have to load pictures/audio/video onto a pen drive  at home. I think though that it is at home that this would be great for learners to sink their teeth into. Once their glog is created they can then either embed it in a class blog or email the link to their teacher.
Here's one I did earlier.

Le Glog de Monsieur S.

Scrapblog:

Scrapblog is similar to Glogster in many ways, in that you can add photos and videos etc. It differs in one obvious way, and the clue is in its name, scrap...blog. It's the e-version of a scrapbook. That is you can create multiple pages, add a sountrack to the project and even add Ken Burns Effect to your pages.

I think this application would be a great way for students to write about and create a pictorial representation of a holiday experience, say a school trip to France etc. In my example I thought about the topic of school and how I could represent that. Obviously mine is a quick version just to have a look through (which is why the embedded video has nothing to do with our school) but there are definite
possibilities. This is more of a long term project though.

Update: Scrapblog can also be used to tell a story. Why not adapt a fairy tale in a foreign language and jazz it up with photos?

Mixbook:

This app is essentially photo based, but text can be added. Again this is great for writing and showing an account of a trip and such like. What I do like about it is the fact that you can collaborate with friends. So a group of students could work on a project of some kind away from school, and not have to be together. Even better, if a student (or class) has a penpal a mixbook of images and writing comparing and contrasting each others' lives etc. A way for both (sets of) students to practise their language skills whilst ensuring they understand each other.

  View this book full size or get a printed copy at Mixbook

Technorati Tags: mfl, languagelearning, web2.0, learning, teaching

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Funky Five Times Table

Yanick's homework this week has been to learn his five times table. I was terrible at remembering these things, but he seems to have more of a flair for maths than I ever did. However after our attempt at his first podcast we thought we'd take it a step further and jazz it up some more.

As a bit of background Yan is my stepson who only came to live with us 2 years ago from Cameroon. Whilst there he had just learned to speak his native language of Bulu, and then started in Kindergarten to learn a bit of French. Since arriving here English as taken over as his main language. Obviously he's not quite at the same level as his mates but the progress he has made is phenomenal (cue applause). But he's got some serious courage to stand in front of a microphone and do this. I wrote the lyrics so any complaints about the cheesiness of them are totally valid.

The idea is to create something that will help in learning his tables, whilst having a laugh...and possibly to help others. Having already created a previous 2x podcast and the Making Papyrus movie I'm thinking of creating a wee blog, but first I want to talk to him about the idea.

Oh my family is expanding again; we have finally got a visa for Yanick's older brother. He's 11 and should be arriving in the week to start at school. Apparently he's a pretty decent footballer...next Samuel Eto'o.

Anyway, here's Yan's Funky Five Times Table.

Please let him know what you think!

Technorati Tags: maths, math, mathematics, multiplicationtables

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Two More Resources and Online Safety

This film looks at 2 other web learning resources, Palabea and iTalki.
As learning resources for pupils I am not convinced as to their relevance they are more geared to using language learning as social network. Not that I'm against that per se, just they do not appear to be 100% set up to learn a language.
The majority of this film gives advice about using these sites and the amount of information required to be able to use them.


Click to Play

A brief look at 2 more language learning resources and also a word about your safety when using these resources .

MangoLanguages

This is the first in a mini series of films looking at some of the free web-based language learning resources now available.





Click to Play

This is a superb language learning resource. Well presented and well thought out. The audio uses native speakers and there is something for everyone.
Use it while its still free.

Technorati Tags: adamsutcliffe, languages, learning, resources, french, german, spanish, mangolanguages

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Live Mocha Language Learning

Live mocha is a superb, free language learning resource, which as well as giving learners reading, listening and writing exercises there is also the option to interact with speakers of the kanguage you have chosen to learn.

Click to Play

The second in a mini series of web-based language learning resources looking at Livemocha.