You say mince and I say mince!

The need for the overt teaching

of Phonics in French.

By Suzi Bewell

SSAT Lead Practitioner for Languages

October 2009

“An army destined to defeat fights in the hope of winning but without any planning”

The Wise

Warrior

Battleground

Enemy

Strategy

The Battle Ground: Know the enemy and know yourself

Year 11 - Speaking Exams:

• Unmotivated and disengaged • Unable to process and manipulate the

language• Severe absence of skills and ambition to

become independent learners

The Enemy What the pupils said:

• “I can’t spell much French”;• “It’s hard to remember where the accents go and

how to spell the words – like silent letters and how to pronounce it differently to how you write it”;

• “It sounds different to how it’s spelled and it’s said really quickly”;

• “It’s hard to pronounce…I never know how to pronounce it!”;

• “I forget pronunciation and struggle”.

The key to success in war – the need for an effective strategy

The old strategy… “In the early stages of learning, the written form of the

language can strongly interfere with pronunciation…learners need ample opportunities to listen and respond before the written forms are involved.”

Now consider the following…

SP: lapIN – Habite – leS maTHS – famILLE - QUarT

WR: Jem – Je mapple – Onglatear – poison rouge

Words from the Warriors

• “I don't really teach phonics. I mean, I think I teach students how to pronounce the French language but I don't think I ‘actively’ teach it”

• “How many times do students learn something by heart and it sounds dreadful?”

• “I usually just teach it as things crop up.”

• “I feel it would be more useful to come with a knowledge of certain sounds rather than knowing about the weather or pets “

The key to success in war – the need for an effective strategy

…and the new…

“Children do not arrive at primary magically knowing how to read English, they are taught; why do we  imagine they will learn to read another language if we do not teach the children the “code” first?”

Source: Jo Rhys-Jones and Lynn Erler, Oxford University(Talkabout Primary MFL blog)

“To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme

excellence”

Using le manuel phonique, Jolly Phonique:

• teach 36 principal sounds;

• stress sound-spelling links;

• tease out structures and rules;

• deal with cognates and “tricky words”

“You cannot change your enemy, so change your responses ”

• Pupil-led teaching and learning

• Active learning

• Creative teaching

THE POWER OF STUDENT VOICE

• Ask them what they like• *Ask them what they don’t like / find

hard• Ask them what they would like to learn• Ask them how they would like to learn• ACT ON THIS INFORMATION AND

MAKE POSITIVE CHANGES

DCSF : Letters and SoundsEnglish Phonics - Mirror Play

Human spellings

• Few sets of French alphabet plus all variations of vowels • Alternative - washing line and pegs• Effective starter / plenary

Available from : http://www.yellow-door.net/

An overview of the Strategy

• Be overt in teaching of sounds• Link sound to spelling• Pre-empt poor pronunciation • Help pupils to better understand the 2FL they

are working with so that they can improve and crack the “code”

• Challenge pupils’ thinking• Be brave and encourage creativity• Frame with relevant language and technology

Silent letters in French

Rosbif Radio Pronunciation “Frog casts”

Spot the “howlers”!!!veu(x) – sui(s) – pa(s) – souri(s) – alor(s)

tien(s) – mai(s) – voilà – escargo(t) le(s) - noisette(s) – e(t) - veu(t)

Do you share my pain???

The top 20 most commonly used words in French

1. de

2. la

3. le

4. e(t)*

5. le(s)*

6. de(s)*

7. en

8. un

9. du

10. une

11. que

12. e(st)*

13. pour

14. qui

15. dan(s)*

16. a

17. par

18. plu(s)*

19. pa(s)*

20. au

*Plus another 34 in the top 100 which contain

silent final consonants

Q. How do you goabout teaching

exceptions?

Q. What about liasons?

Phonic Bingo (Y7 - silent letters)

Top Tip!Game 1 – Teacher as bingo callerNext games – winner gets to call

souris gris minuit trois

Ils deux

ans vingt chat soeurs

Le jeu des 7 familles

http://tinyurl.com/jeu7familles

Sounds Alike Wall Display Posters

Sounds Alike!

è – ê – ë - ai – ei

frère être

Noël fraiseabeille

Sounds Alike!

s – ss – x – ç – ti

danseprofession

soixantefrançais

attention

Sounds Alike!

o – au – eau – aux – ô

orangepausebeau

chevaux hôtel

Idea inspired by www.smartkids.co.uk

http://www.wordle.net/

PasséComposé

Song

Tricky words and sounds

famille

je m’habille

vieille

bouteille

feuille

oreille

maillot de bains

Attention! Tricky Words!MILLE VILLES TRANQUILLES

-ill in the following words is pronounced “EEL”

mille – million – milliard – millierville – village – Deauville

tranquille – tranquilliser - tranquillité

FINAL CONSONANTSGenerally silent – with exception of CRFL

Be very CaReFuL!

Beware! Cognates “Make a deliberate effort from the start to

focus on look-a-likes. You must get across to pupils that if it looks like English, it will not sound like English.” (Heather Rendall, CiLT)

Ecoutez et devinezA votre avis, est-ce que je préfère…

les raviolis ou les pizzas?les tomates ou les carottes?les oranges ou les melons?

les biscuits au chocolat ou les gâteaux au chocolat?les céréales ou le bacon?

Source: Martine Pillette “ Zappy lesson starters for KS3 French”

Ancient memory techniques: Pegging / Roman Rooms

• Massively powerful

• Remains in memory long term

• Stories - through time, Man’s favourite learning media

• Visualisation

• Meditation (clear mind / relax / close eyes)

An example of PEGGING How many can you remember?

• Foot? une chenille• Knee? une fille• Hip? un gorille• Bottom? chatouiller (vb)• Waist? la crème Chantilly• Shoulder? une coquille• Nose? une famille• Head? Camille

mince or mince?

• Mexican Wave listening exercise • Stand up – Sit down to a story

When you hear the –in sound, give me a wave!

Vincent – vingt-cinq – Inde – intelligent

lapin – pingouin – mince – dinde

vin – patin – train – fin

“Jolly Songs”Similar sounds in English

J’ai un copain, il s’appelle RolandRoland, il est comment?Roland est intelligent Roland est intelligent

J’ai une copine, elle s’appelle SarahSarah , elle est comment?Sarah est trèss sympaOh, Sarah est très sympa

Josh - mocheJoe - beauLee - petit

Mme. Hamnett

Mme. Bewell

Source: Chanterelles - MGP

Strategy Summary

• Obstacle -> solution focussed thinking• Relevant , pupil-centred approach• Framing the language• Active learning• Encourage discovery and creativity

• Opportunities to collaborate • Reason to communicate• New technolgies

• Recordable, talking postcards – record up to 10 secs, plastic wallet to insert word / sound / picture

• Easi-speak microphone - £30 with inbuilt USB Both available from http://www.tts-group.co.uk/

Video casting Pupil friendly hand held

video recorders Flip Ultra - RRP £80 ; 1hr record time

Pod casting & Frog casting!• iRiver MP3 player with built in voice recorder (up to 100

hours, saves as MP3)• Branded digital voice recorders (with built in USB – RRP

£30 - £80)• iPhone – inbuilt voice recorder, audioboo and *iPadio

apps

http://audioboo.fm/

http://www.ipadio.com

/

Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

NB Alongside Audacity you MUST also install Lame encoderhttp://lame.sourceforge.net/download.php

Blogging / Pod casting Platformswww.typepad.co.uk www.wordpress.com

www.posterous.com www.blogger.com

video conferencing with our partner school in Cambrai

Rosbif Radio

“REGARDE-MOI PAPA” Version 2

Much improved, not quite perfect, but we’re getting there slowly…

The Enemy What the pupils said:

• “I can’t spell much French”;• “It’s hard to remember where the accents go and

how to spell the words – like silent letters and how to pronounce it differently to how you write it”;

• “It sounds different to how it’s spelled and it’s said really quickly”;

• “It’s hard to pronounce…I never know how to pronounce it!”;

• “I forget pronunciation and struggle”

A battle won!The war is not quite over …

Year 8 Pupil Voice Summer Term 2009

• 65% of the class enjoyed / found the work on pronunciation helpful

• “(I’d like to…) read more stories aloud”

• “Everybody should do a pod cast”

• “I wish I’d got chance to do the pod cast”,

• “Can we do more speaking work!”

Further online resources:UK web resources:www.rachelhawkes.typepad.com/linguacomhttp://primarymfl.ning.comwww.phonologique.wikispaces.com Dr Lynn Erler, Oxford Universityhttp://johnbald.typepad.comhttp://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=3013522&s_cid=16http://www.lcfclubs.com/babelzoneNEW/# Babelzone website www.standards.dfes.gov.uk ref 00281-2007BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Priciples andPractice of High Quality Phonicshttp://www.senteacher.org/Worksheet/15/Phonics.xhtml Phonics fans to printYouTube :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UQxN5HW1PU Boursin Adverthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEXf9xxjJTc ParisbyPod – Months sound tutorialhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy18ErHnYM8&feature=rec-rev-rn – Numbers bywww.Parisbypod.com http://www.imagiers.net/ and http://www.imagiers.net/phonetique (includes close up facial visuals and syllables)http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/fm/fmm.php?pwd=985fd8-6381TeachMeetSLF09 2:39:51 - 5 min clip on moblogging – Joe DaleHuman spellings – tabards available from www.yellowdoor.net French web resources:http://www.planete-alphas.net/www.leolea.org

Further Reading:

• “Le manuel phonique”, Janet Molzan et Sue Lloyd;• “Methode de lecture syllabique”, C. Delile, J. Delile;• “The Art of War for Teachers”, Simon Green;• “Link Word French”, Michael M Gruneberg;• “Patterns and procedures: focus on phonics and grammar”, Heather Rendall;• “Execises in French Phonics”, F Nachtmann;• “L’oreille fine” and “ Zappy lesson starters for KS3 French”, both Martine Pillette;• “Rhythm and rhyme”, Cynthia Martin.

suzibewell@yahoo.co.uk

www.allsaintslanguagesblog.typepad.co.uk

* www.doonceandshare.wikispaces.co

m

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Let battle commence! Dealing with phonetically challenged pupils in French

Wednesday 4th November 2009

9.15am – 3.45pmHotel du Vin

89 The Mount, York YO24 1AX(central location, close to York railway station)

Cost of training and follow-up learning visit Spring term 2010 : just £80 Lunch & refreshments included

 Book now as places are limited

 www.schoolsnetwork.org.uk/lpseminars event ID SVN1009712

To find out more please contact Suzi Bewell : 07980901998 or

E-mail: suzibewell@yahoo.co.uk