French

12 posts

Paris Today, a course by Pr. Valeria Gramigna, Università di Bari Aldo Moro (Italy)

I had the chance of meeting Professor Valera Gramigna at the North East Modern Language Association 2021 annual meeting while we participated at the panel “Écrire la ville”. During the debate that took place after the presentations, Professor Gramigna evoked a course in which her students deconstructed the image of […]

French Greetings & Goodbyes

Which activities should I do on the first day of class? After several years of teaching, I still ask myself this question. As the first day sets the structure and tone for the whole semester, I am always on the lookout for new ideas. This year I created a YouTube video […]

Building Community through Vocabulary Acquisition: Proust’s Questionnaire

The French writer Marcel Proust (1871-1922), best known for his novel In Searh of Lost Time, discovered an English game called “Confessions” as a teenager. His answers written as “Marcel Proust by himself” where discovered after his death. The set of questions and answers Proust wrote gave birth to what […]

Developing Formal Composition Skills: Song Lyrics and Registers of Language

  Some song lyrics like those of Oui ou non by the Belgian singer Angèle can be used with intermediate or early advanced students to address the three French registers of language (soutenu or formal, courant (or usual) and familier). As they progress to become fluent, students often like to […]

Using Subtitles to Improve Pronunciation

To keep the spirits up and maintain engagement during this week, I created this non-graded activity just to work at home on pronunciation. I designed it for beginner students, but it could easily be adapted to more advanced levels. This activity allowed me to combine two of my favorite tools: […]

Teaching French through Comics: Pénélope Bagieu’s ‘Rebel Ladies’

Pénélope Bagieu is a French illustrator whose graphic novels have received widespread recognition. Her blog BD Les Culottées, which was compiled into a book in 2016 and 2017, features a series of women with an unusual or inspiring story. The comics are short, interesting, and biographically accurate These comics offer […]