Apps & Online Resources
1jour actu! for extra reading online- this is a website for young native speakers . It has tabs at the top to pick different areas of interest - sports, science, culture, the world, France... One section is "à la une" - in the headlines. At the bottom of the home page are sections for the 30 articles most read or commented upon in the last month. It's a great way to get some news and read a range of materials. http://1jour1actu.com/
YOUTUBE:
There are lots of things on Youtube you can use for fun or to learn more French. Here are some I know & use - I've linked them to an initial video, but they usually have multiple episodes:
Téléfrançais (the video with the talking pineapple)
Parlez-moi (Old TV series for learning French)
Chez Mimi - Mimi is the concierge in an apartment building with some very odd residents.
EXTRA! Sophie and Sasha share an apartment in Paris. Sasha's old pen pal from the
States comes to visit and his French is NOT very good - multiple episodes.
Imagier.net - Beginning vocabulary on youtube, you can subscribe for iPods
Frenchpod101 - daily phrases with video, free to subscribe. website & youtube, another version for iPod to download that you can then use offline
For anyone who has some kind of a iPod Touch or smart phone, you can go online & search for apps to help with learning French - they change all the time, new ones get added.Many of the free online flashcards or vocabulary building apps are geared towards learning or reviewing beginning vocabulary. For more advanced classes, you'd mostly need to subscribe or pay for the complete versions of the apps, but they don't usually cost much.
Mon imagier - free app on iTunes, works on iPod touch - vocabulary flashcards with sounds and good pictures, French & English clearly pronounced, plus a memory game - vehicles, fruits, vegetables, pets, wild animals, etc. Cute.
Mind Snacks French - games using French vocabulary. Fairly basic vocabulary
Babbel.com- multiple language learning app
Whenever possible, I look for sites with embedded sound so students can HEAR the words, not just try to memorize what they look like..
Quizlet.com - a free website of mostly flashcards with embedded sound. Students can select general vocab topics or grammar or search for specific chapters from our Bien Dit textbook.
BYKI.com - the same flashcards we use in class, plus many more. The sets connected to our text have pictures and sound. All cards give you choices for French & English, French only, English only...etc. You can use them online or download them to a computer, no charge. The path: Go to Byki.com, click on LIST CENTRAL at the top of the screen. Use the search bar on the top right of the screen. To match our texts, type in Bien Dit level 1 ch 7 (for instance - change level & chapter). You can also get sets of cards by vocabulary topic or grammar
Bien Dit is our textbook series. The publisher provides an online version of all our textbooks and workbooks at http://my.hrw.com. The online version has embedded sound, so there is a lot students can use the online book for. The site also lets students access our old textbook series, Allez, Viens! because I have continued to use a couple of chapters in it. French 2 uses AV level 2, chapter 4 for the wonderful vocabulary and information about Martinique. French 3 uses AV level 3, chapter 5 on work. All students have been assigned usernames & passwords which they put in their agendas.
However, to make sure everyone who wants to use it can get
online, you can use our generic access:
username: gstudent112 password: j4v9
Mango Languages - an online language learning site: http://libraries.mangolanguages.com/k12/lansingburgh-sd
Anyone can use the site with our generic access:
username: french.knights password: lansingburgh
Mango has an incredible number of other languages you can learn, ranging from Finnish to Urdu. It also has a good setup for those who are learning English as their second language. You can download the app (for free) to an iPod or an iPhone and work with it where there is wireless access.
3. Ma France - A free, interactive French learning program from the BBC. Click on START MA FRANCE. Once you have listened to the short tour of the program, the map of topics will come up. Click on the topic of interest. This is an INCREDIBLE site for the upper levels ! ! ! ! It is excellent for level 2, & 3.
(You can also work with Italian, German, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, and Chinese by backing up to the main site)
4. conjuguemos.com - Click on FRENCH, then look for our book (Bien Dit I, II...), work on verbs, themed vocabulary, or grammar. I especially like the hangman & matching games. Also has flashcards.
6. http://www.regentsreviewlive.net/ regents review for French III