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Loose vowels

I'm re-posting this from Wednesday. Seems Blogger had some problems this week and deleted some posts. Hmm.

I did a lesson the other day on pronunciation with my Y7 class. We worked on vowel sounds and compared them with English vowels. I talked about "pure" vowels and diphthongs. We also looked at nasal vowels. I always use the phrase un bon vin blanc to practise these. But I also tried something different: I read part of a passage in the text book, just pronouncing the vowels in the words. Quite fun to do. The students liked it also. I then read a section and asked them to work out where I had stopped in the text. This got them listenign hard, reading carefully and focused them on ther key sounds. I then got them to try the same in pairs. I finished with a short tonguetwister: un chasseur sachant chasser sans son chien. Good lesson all-round with lots of listening and joining in (even though I say it myself!).

En passant, Teachers TV is about to rise from the ashes under the new guise: Schoolsworld. There will be over 3500 videos to watch. Not sure if there will be a subscription, but someone will have to pay for hosting and maintenance. Maybe advertising will do. Teachers TV was one of the better initiatives of the last government. I guess that not many watched the TV channel, but the web site was excellent for training and personal development.
Glad to see Lafrancebis in a re-vamped form. Christophe Bergue has added reading comprehensions on historical topics to the interactive listening material. Worth a look. I have found it useful with upper intermediate and advanced groups.

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