Category Archives: Resources

Resources for language learning and for producing language learning resources

Gnomeville Episode 1 is done!

My Comic Books, Resources, , , , , , , ,

Having given myself a hard deadline of Friday so it would be ready for launching at a concert of French music, it is done!

The “I Can’t Believe I’m Reading French” Comic Book Series, Episode 1: Gnomeville: Dragon!

Gnomeville comic book cover containing head of dragon with smoke billowing out of its mouth and the title "DRAGON!" in large red letters

  • 28-page booklet plus audio CD containing 3 stories in comic book format, a crossword, a song and a language summary.
  • Assumes no prior knowledge of French but a native or near-native English speaking background.
  • Introduces 12 of the twenty most commonly occurring words in French newspapers, one new word per page of the Gnomeville story.
  • Uses the words that are common to French and English to ensure that all words in the stories are familiar, such as “dragon”, “gnome”, “arrive”.
  • The Fido story provides further reading practice, ensuring each target word has been read at least 5 times.
  • The crossword allows you to actively use the language to increase retention
  • The songs provide further practice, including pronunciation
  • The narration provides pronunciation information and listening practice
  • The Taxi story is a nice easy story to read after the other stories.
  • The audio CD contains the stories read by a native speaker, plus two songs related to the stories.
  • $20 plus postage from Melbourne Australia
  • Currently only available from me directly, but stay tuned for updates.

Top French Movies

Resources, ,

One of the ways that I pick up foreign language listening skills is watching movies and TV series in the language.  For Italian I took it one step further in that I made bingo sheets of common expressions to encourage listening instead of just reading subtitles.

I will probably do the same for French at some point.  Here is a list from 2011 that I found, of the top 10 French films.

  1. Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis
  2. La Grande vadrouille
  3. Astérix et Obélix : Mission Cléopâtre
  4. Les Visiteurs
  5. Le Petit monde de Don Camillo
  6. Corniaud
  7. Taxi 2
  8. 3 hommes et un couffin
  9. Les Bronzés 3 amis pour la vie

Oops, one missing from the top 10.  Maybe I misunderstood the last paragraph of the article.

Pronunciation songs

Personal, Resources, , , , , , ,

While preparing my choir for a concert of French music I have been inspired to write some rounds and short songs in French to help choristers to produce the correct vowel sounds, and to have a bit of an idea about how to pronounce French.  I’ve written one round for each vowel so far, and am now writing songs for various consonants.  Today I finished a song for the letter G.  I’ll probably publish these as a booklet for choirs and classes.