Training the ear and the memory.

1. listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding

2. speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures

3. read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing

4. appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language

You will have seen the colour dictation in the training session on Speaking. The full dictation is provided here. It was suggested that children might link cubes of multilink, but if that is not available coloured counters work as well, or even coloured pencils.

When you open the PowerPoint, click on the number on the left of the screen to listen to the numbers. Repeat as many times as the children need, then advance to the next screen which lets the children see whether they are right. Advance to the next screen to play the next sequence of numbers and so on till the end.

Other suggestions for exploiting the colour dictation.

1. Link the sound of the sound, spelling and meaning words (songs and rhymes). Ask pupils to identify key phonemes they hear. E.g. /eu/ou/au. They could tick each time they hear one or do a five-bar gate tally system. This is simply drawing a line every time you hear the target phoneme. The fifth line is drawn diagonally across the first four, and then a new tally is begun.

2. Ask pupils to create their own dictations on their tables, ensuring, where possible, that each child is able to make up a sequence and say it to the others. This allows you to check that they can read aloud with accurate pronunciation.

3. Express opinions. Ask pupils to say which colours they like. If you are modelling the language, point to a colour, and say, “Mmm, j’aime le bleu” (Mmm, I like blue), using an appropriate gesture and perhaps sticking a heart-shaped sticker on blue objects in the room. You might accompany this with an expression of distaste whilst you say, “Je n’aime pas le rouge” ( don’t like red), then “Je n’aime pas le jaune” (I don’t like yellow). Then ask individual children “Quelle couleur aimes-tu ?” (What colour do you like?”, repeating, “J’aime le rouge” as you do so. Eventually the children will pick up on your model and give you colours they like. They will enjoy the possibility of sticking hearts on objects themselves. Saying what you don’t like is only for passive contrast at the moment, but will have primed the children for when you wish to teach “Je n’aime pas” (I don’t like). A further development is to teach the children the phrase “Ma couleur préférée est… rouge” My favourite colour is…red).

Moving on with dictation: exploiting a story line

When children reach Key Stage 3, the will experience dictation of texts which they will have to write down. This may be more challenging in French than Spanish or German, because the French writing system , like the English, is very complex. It’s made more difficult by the presence of silent letters at the end of words, which mean that the listeners have to interpret grammatical clues to decide on the correct spelling of words. In Key Stage 2 children learning French will become accustomed to the phenomenon of silent letters. This will be discussed further in the Progression and Transition modules. For now, though, it is possible to use dictation as a way of helping children to recall and write correctly language they have practised over time, but the purpose is not to practise grammatical structure, rather it is to:

1. speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures

2. develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases

3. appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language

You may remember seeing the story Quelle heure est-il M. Loup in the speaking module. (PowerPoint Quelle heure est-il M. Loup 1).The story is modelled on the playground game, “What time is it Mr Wolf?” Like many of the stories and narratives we explore in Key Stage2, it is repetitive

and makes few changes in the vocabulary . Encourage the children to join in with the dialogue, and when they have practised, invite children to be the wolf. When the children know the story really well, you may wish to let them practise it in the hall, exactly as if they were playing the game “What time is it Mr Wolf?”

We should stress that you are not teaching the children to tell the time in French. That may cause particular challenges for many children, who may still be unsure of the process in their mother tongue. That said, the second version (Quelle heure est-il M. Loup 2) uses minute intervals with a digital clock, which should increase the tension.

If you have sets of images of the clocks and different clothes, you can return to the dictation theme by speaking (dictating) a sequence of sentences and asking the children to select the correct images to accompany them.

This example uses the language of the story but changes the sequences:

Il est neuf heures et je mets mes chaussures. (It’s nine o’clock and I am putting on my shoes) [not the sequence in the original]. Ask children to make up their own combinations.

Eventually some children may remember the common phrases and be able to write them by heart, so that you can move from a dictation of pictures to a dictation of known words. We would stress, though, that this stage may not be appropriate for children who need to move at a slower pace.

A popular reading book that uses this theme is “Je m’habille et je te croque” (I’m getting dressed and then I’ll eat you up” by Bénédicte Guéttier, available also in Spanish and German. This resource will be referred to again in the writing module, but if it is available in school, some children will be able to pick up the book and read it with the double pleasure that comes with understanding a book in a foreign language.