MFL Show and Tell Plus

Saturday 24th September was the 4th MFLSAT+, an informal modern languages unconference were anyone who wanted could stand at the front of the auditorium (or appear at the various Genius bars) at Cramlington Learning Village and share ideas, resources, enthusiasm and passion with linguists from all over the UK.

Thanks go to Chris Harte (and Fabienne) for organising the whole event, the sponsors (without whom..) and everyone from the experienced practitioners to the trainee teachers who came and spoke and, more importantly, listened.

As usual, I saw some old friends I've met before (including one very old friend, Lynn), some old friends I've ever met in person and met new ones, and was in awe of all the presenters.

I learned lots about new (to me) resources and stole some ideas which I have already started to put into practice.

But enough about me.

I wrote pages and pages of notes (some of which I can just about read!) but lots of people who were there have already blogged about MFLSAT Plus and there was even a flashmeet so you can watch it all, if you have a few hours to spare.

So rather than bore you with my own fuddled recollections (or steal their thunder) I shall just give you the links to Clare Seccombe's blog and Amanda Salt's blog, not because I'm lazy, but because they are amazing, have better memories and I couldn't have put it better if I'd tried.

I am really looking forward to the next one.

European day of languages 2011.

It's that time of the year again. Monday 26th September 2011 is European Day of Languages. Not a day to celebrate European languages, but a day in which ALL languages are celebrated.

To help you all celebrate here is a list of pages chock full of ideas:

This is the link to the wiki I created in 2009. Please join and add your ideas or just borrow the ideas already there.

Here is the CILT European Day of Languages page.

EDoL resources on TES website.

Some EDoL videos on youtube.

That should keep you busy.

Enjoy.

La Coupe du Monde de Rugby à XV

Here are some links to rugby world cup related sites, pages and authentic resources in French:

• The Official site - everything you could possibly need or want to know (also available in Spanish).
• Supporter les bleus! - iphone app - keep up to date with the French team.
• BBC Ma France rugby activities and links - has some really good rugby terminology games.
• Site of the French rugby federation - lots of match information.
• A scoopit page dedicated to the tournament curated by Guillaume Marin, a French ICT teacher and rugby fan. Follow him on twitter here.
• La tribu du XV a site by Société Générale - contains information and videos of the 15 children (parrains) they have chosen to help support the French team during the competition. SG has made tv commercials throughout the summer using the children to show their support for Les Bleus.
• A nice flipchart from promethean planet.
• A worksheet from TES Resources.
• Dedicated rugby pages from French newspaper Le Monde

Since writing this post I have discovered more links and resources:

• This link on TES is to a brilliant worksheet from Lauren Crawley
• The rest of the links come from linternaute.com a French online magazine.
• Le haka, un rituel à faire frémir les adversaires.
• Les règles du rugby.
• Les emblèmes des équipes de rugby.
• Pourquoi le ballon de rugby est-il ovale ?
• Les 12 stades de la Coupe du Monde de rugby en Nouvelle-Zélande.

Learning Mandarin is NOT the solution!

Recently published A level and GCSE results have shown that the number of students studying languages has fallen by a significant amount. The government, is trying to resolve the problem (it thinks) by introducing Ebacc, forcing reluctant students to study a language.

Relevance has always been an issue in the language learning debate and many students either don't see the relevance, don't want to put in the effort or simply prefer other subjects. Given the choice, many year 8 and 9 students I have encountered would drop languages in favour of more PE, ICT, Technology, Drama, etc. and I probably would have done, too.

This is not because they don't like languages, but because they would prefer to do something else. Analogy: I love drinking coffee but give me the choice between cup of coffee and a cold beer on a hot summer's day and the beer would win every time.

So, what is the solution?

Make language learning "fun"?

Make it more relevant?

Force students to study MFL?

I don't know.

But I do know that teaching Mandarin in our schools is definitely NOT the solution.

Subliminal language learning - The results of the experiment.

You may remember, although there is no reason why you should, this post from last year where I set out to prove that I could learn a language from scratch without doing any work at all.

The language in question was Icelandic. The way I was going to learn it was through a "subliminal CD" which cost me $3.99 including shipping and taxis (sic) and was "developed by Medical doctors and PhDs in psychology", but sadly not in icelandic.

The plan was to listen to the CD regularly in the car and on my mp3 player. I gave myself exactly one year to do it and I, and the occasional unwitting passenger, have been "subliminally learning Icelandic" religiously for exactly 12 months.

The idea behind this was that if I ever met an Icelander I would be able to converse with them fluently in their own language and they would be really surprised, but not as surprised as I would be.

You will both be pleased to know that the experiment has now come to an end.

Some people said it could not be done.

They were right.

It was a huge failure.

I can categorically testify that it is impossible to to learn a language subliminally or, as we say in Icelandic:

það er ekki komið í staðinn fyrir vinnu*.

*there's no substitute for hard work.

Digital Dialects - language games for European Day of Languages

Another shameless plug. This time it's for the Digital Dialects website. The site has interactive language games in 60 different languages from Afrikaans to Zazaki.

To play the games you will need Flash Player. The games are very good for practising basic vocabulary and mainly consist of matching vocabulary games. For some languages there are activities for more advanced students, too.

There are no audio files for most games, so they can be used primarily to improve reading skills rather than as a main teaching tool.

It is very user friendly and, unlike some similar sites, tells the user when they have made a mistake and shows them where they went wrong.

Languages, such as Greek, Hindi, Mongolian, Japanese, etc which use different writing systems have activities mainly in their own alphabets.

This site would be ideal for learning and practising common phrases in different languages for the European Day of Languages on 26th September.

For more ideas on activities for European Day of Languages you can look at (or even join) the EDL Ideas wiki.

Contrepèterie or Word play in French.

The English language lends itself to manipulation of words and phrases to create amusement. Word play and double-entendre have been the driving force behind the nudge-wink style of comedy favoured by many successful British comedians over the years.

Take, for example, Kenny Everett's character Cupid Stunt. An excellent example of a spoonerism if ever there was one. (Originally, the character was to be called Mary Hinge but the BBC wouldn't allow it!)

I was listening to a radio programme about the use of spoonerisms and it suddenly struck me that they must exist in other languages, too. A quick wikipedia search told me that spoonerisms are used internationally in many different languages.

In French, this is called contrepèterie and is extremely popular. The French are immensely proud of this and, in fact, the satirical newspaper le canard enchaîné has a column solely devoted to contrepèterie.

As in English, contrepèterie usually is a quite innocent phrase but contains more than a hint of indecency if letters or syllables were manipulated and enough thought was given to it.

François Rabelais used contrepèteries in 1532 in Pantagruel "la femme folle à la messe"

Just south of Paris, in Bourg-La-Reine there is a bookshop called le verger des muses.

The are many famous contrepèteries.

Here are some of them for you to think about:

• Les filles aiment le tennis en pension.
• J'aime vachement votre frangin.
• Elle prend la chose en riant.
• L'auberge du chat qui rit.

So, the next time you speak with a French person, listen very carefully.

He may, or may not, be a shining wit.