MOOC (massive open online course) providers such as Coursera, Udacity and edX have been in the news and featured on blogs recently. The free exchange of knowledge and ideas is an exciting concept for those of us who love learning for the sake of learning. However, Udacity and edX don’t seem to have very many courses [...]
Full Story »Comparative and Multilingual Books for Learning Languages Together
I’ve just updated the list of multilingual sites for learning several languages together, but if you’re interested in books (some in electronic format) rather than websites, these are the resources I have: 1. A Comparative Practical Grammar of French, Spanish and Italian by O. W. Heatwole (1949) You can buy it from sellers on Amazon for [...]
Full Story »Topic vs. Frequency in Vocabulary Learning
Teachers and learners of languages, I am looking for your input in the topic vs. frequency debate. Almost all textbooks and coursebooks introduce vocabulary in chapter topics or themes such as food, clothing, transportation, etc. These related words are often used to fill in the slots of functional phrases, which a lot of current books [...]
Full Story »Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching
Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching by Keith Folse (2004, University of Michigan Press) is a great introduction to the gap between practice and research in vocabulary learning and teaching. I highly recommend the book, but if you’d like a shorter summary, Folse’s article “Myths about Teaching and Learning Second Language Vocabulary: [...]
Full Story »Books on French Linguistics and Sociolinguistics (in English)
For any students interested in French linguistics or sociolinguistics, here are the books that I recommend for an introduction as well as a more in-depth explanation. You don’t necessarily need to have a background in linguistics to be able to understand everything, especially for the first three books. Exploring the French Language by R. Anthony [...]
Full Story »Free Corpora of Spoken French
I am always looking for corpora of spoken French for my research so I was quite surprised to come across several freely available resources on the internet in the past week. Most of these corpora contain audio and/or video with transcripts of authentic and spontaneous spoken French – perfect for self-study or use in a [...]
Full Story »Authentic French with Commercials and Films
Friday was my 30th birthday and as my birthday gift to all of you, I give you even more authentic French listening resources and exercises! Luckily we have a great language lab at my university so I have been able to create some listening exercises for my students to try out, and of course I [...]
Full Story »Examples of Authentic French: The Case of Ils
As a follow up to my post on Subject Pronouns in Textbooks: Written vs. Spoken French and how French textbooks do not include the spoken meanings of the pronouns, I came across a few examples of the use of ils in the indefinite sense while preparing transcripts to use in class. Textbooks still teach that on [...]
Full Story »More Beginning French Songs
More French songs for beginners! I like quirky (ok, weird) repetitive songs that make the vocabulary stick. L’alphabet Comment tu t’appelles ? Les prénoms Ça va (there is no actual video for this song but I love the Muppets!)
Full Story »Mind the Word extension for Chrome: Learn languages as you browse the web
If you use Google Chrome as your web browser, Mind the Word is a useful extension to help you learn vocabulary in another language while you browse the web. From the description: “In every webpage visited, it randomly translates a few words into the language that you would like to learn. By exposing you to [...]
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