Oral+production+4B

In a group of eight students, I record them saying little sentences. On Thursday the 11 of March, the topic was the weather. It was the second lesson so they were a bit familiar with the sentences. I showed them some flashcards representing the weather and they had to say the sentence. However because being recorded stress them, if they did not remember the sentence they could ask for another one. The children present were Alex, Tijin, Morgan, Emma, Emily, Ciris, Jasmine and Sammy. ( that is also their "ordre de passage") media type="file" key="4B weather flashcards.MP3" width="240" height="20"

Then because wa had a few time left, I hung on the wall some pictures of "météo france" They had to say three sentences but they could choose which one by pointing at the symbols on the maps. I asked for some volonteers. The first one to come was Sammy, which is intersting because on the comprehension tests he made at first no mistakes but at the second one he had 7 mistakes out of 9. However this day he beg me to come in what we call " the french private lesson". He was able to say the sentences knowing what he meant.

media type="file" key="Sammy presenting the weather.MP3" width="240" height="20"

Then Morgan had a go:media type="file" key="Morgan presenting the weather.MP3" width="240" height="20"

Then Emily who is a very good student, she participates a lot and she knows all the answer. During the comprehension tests she made 1 and 2 mistakes. media type="file" key="Emilie presenting the weather.MP3" width="240" height="20"

Then it was Tijin turn: media type="file" key="Tijin presenting the weather.MP3" width="240" height="20" followed by Ciries:media type="file" key="Ciries presenting the weather.MP3" width="240" height="20"

And finally Jasmine:media type="file" key="Jasmine presenting the weather.MP3" width="240" height="20"

What is obvious is that they all chose the same sentences: Il pleut, il neige et il fait beau. Il pleut and il neige are also the one that most of the children got right in the tests. They all avoided il fait froid and il fait chaud, even if I explained them that the little numbers mean the degres. It surprise me that il fait beau was always said because during the comprehension tests it came out wrong most of the time. They were confused between il fait beau and il y a du soleil. They seemed to have forgotten: il y a du vent and il y a du brouillard.

Finally because they could decide what they were saying, they were a lot less stressed. Furthermore they took crayon to point the weather so they really enjoyed it. The fact that they thought it was a game made their french much better.

When we got back in their classroom, I went on with the weather presentation, I went on "météo france" web site and I used the true prevision. Most of the children had a go but only three of them wanted to be recorded. I did not push the other one because I only got them to speak in French and I do not want to stress them. I remembered how I used to hate speaking in English in front of the other children.media type="file" key="Louis presenting the weather.MP3" width="240" height="20" media type="file" key="Russel presenting teh weather.MP3" width="240" height="20"

media type="file" key="Rebecca presenting teh weather.MP3" width="240" height="20" media type="file" key="Leo presenting teh weather.MP3" width="240" height="20"

Here again, il pleut and il neige came out four times. However Louis and Russel tried to say : il y a du soleil, il fait chaud and il fait froid. What makes me confused is that the children who volunteers to speak are not the one having the best results in the comprehension tests. Maybe it confirms what one of my teachers told me one day: if you are confident when speaking in front of the other it means that your written skills are not so good. I cannot say that he is right but those who got good results are shy and they avoid to speak French.

Thursday 18th of March, I had a group of 6 students, I showed them flaschards and they had to say what they could see in French. However if they did not know the answer they could say it in English media type="file" key="4B saying weather flashcards;.MP3" width="240" height="20"

To be honest I was disapointed, we have been learning those sentences for 4 weeks and as you can hear they seem to have memorized nothing. For Andreas, I was not surprise,he never did his comprehension tests, he kept repeating that he did not like french. I do not know what to do with him. However, concerning the other, I was not expecting that. They all, execpt Andreas, got il pleut but for most of them that all they remembered. Molly and Steevie did better. Jo was not concentreted, he is normally an excellent pupil. I think allowing them to say it in English was a mistake, the exercice became to easy for them. I will do it again. The fact that they are recorded have an impact on their knowledge, it makes the work look like a game and the only that they are worried about is to listen to themselves. And when they do listen to themselves, they laugh. Well, there is definitly a lot of work to be done with their oral production.

Thursday 25th of March Telling the time

Last Thursday, I tried to teach them the time but it did not want well. I was sceptic about what they have learnt. I though they did not learn anything. However I was nicely surprised because the 6 children of my little group remenbered at least how to say o'clock. Beside, I looked again at the curriculum and in year 4, they should only be able to say o'clock.

The children I had, had had good results at the comprehension test except Callie who made nine mistakes out of ten. I showed them a time on a false clock and they simple had to say it in french. They were all good, letting me think that they may have some facilities in producing their output. Whereas, dealing with some input is more difficult for some of them. media type="file" key="Callie telling the time.MP3" width="240" height="20" Callie for instance, was unable to understand the input she was given. She made nine mistakes out of ten. When I was saying the time, she could not write it properly on the clock. But here, she did well. Her pronunciation might not be excellent but she said what I was excepting her to. Then it was Jo T turn, He was supposed to say 2H but that sound more like twelve which illustrated one of the most recurring mistakes. A lot of children are confused between 2 et 12. Their confusion appears also in their output. Comprehension mistakes and oral mistakes are very similar.

media type="file" key="jo telling the time.MP3" width="240" height="20"

Daniel really surprised me, he is a very shy pupil, he never puts his hand up, never participates but in a smaller group he is much more confident. In fact, he was the one who rememebered all the answers. His comprehension test results are good, on the first one he made no mistakes, on the second one he made one and on the last one,he made 3 mistakes. I was so delighted that I asked him to tell me 4 times. That is why I love working with small group because children reveal themselves. Emily who is the best French student of this class revealed herself in the group. And because I showed her how happy I was, she now takes part in the lessons.

media type="file" key="Daniel telling the time.MP3" width="240" height="20"

Abbey is a good student and I have no comment to make media type="file" key="Abbey telling the time.MP3"

Claudia has a lot of difficulties saying the word Heure, she made it sound like "un". I think it was because she was not really concentrated, you can hear her laugh while she was being recorded. media type="file" key="Claudia telling the time.MP3"

Finally comes Leo, he only made one mistake at the comprehension test, he really tries his best in everything he is doing. When he speaks French one can see him being really focus.media type="file" key="Leo telling the time.MP3"

They all had facilities telling the best. However what I taugh them was il est... but none them seemed to get that part.