In my last blog post I discussed how difficult it is to learn a language out of context and that I wanted to explore ways to learn French in context. I decided to start with searching youtube for shows and movies that I know translated into French. I found shows such as Friends, The Magic School Bus, and others. I began to watch these and boy was it a rude awakening. I don't believe that I understood more than two words, one of them being "oui," meaning yes. I decided that these were way to difficult to begin with and began a search for something new. However, watching these shows was an incredibly insightful role reversal. I speak to my kindergarteners in Spanish all day, everyday and while some of them do understand the majority of what I say, many are really only catching some words and phrases. In these shows the characters speak very quickly, which wouldn't be a problem if I spoke the language, but it would need to be slowed down a great deal for me to be able to actually understand what the characters are saying. This reinforces the idea that language teachers need to be very careful with how fast they are speaking. Just because we have said something many times does not mean that the students understand it.
It was also very interesting for me not to understand something. I speak both the languages that are most commonly spoken in San Diego and rarely have instances where I don't understand what is being said. Watching something I don't understand for even two minutes is extremely frustrating as I am trying to just get a couple words from it. This just means that I need to really focus on the basics and then apply that to learning in context to build the language proficiency and fluency.
After this whole process, I then found that popular Disney songs have been translated into French and have the French and the English subtitles so it is somewhat easier to understand what is being said. Since translations to songs are not always exact, these subtitles are the French translations with the English equivalents. I very much enjoyed watching these videos and learning key words. I already have the background knowledge when it comes to what the songs are about so when hearing them in French I am able to focus on the language, rather than what is being said. I think that this is a very effective way to teach language. My students are often much more engaged when I read a story aloud that they have already read/heard at home in their native language. They know the gist of the story so they get to focus on language instead of figuring out exactly what it going on in the story. This is exactly how I feel about these song. I know them, so I can instead focus on the language.
It was also very interesting for me not to understand something. I speak both the languages that are most commonly spoken in San Diego and rarely have instances where I don't understand what is being said. Watching something I don't understand for even two minutes is extremely frustrating as I am trying to just get a couple words from it. This just means that I need to really focus on the basics and then apply that to learning in context to build the language proficiency and fluency.
After this whole process, I then found that popular Disney songs have been translated into French and have the French and the English subtitles so it is somewhat easier to understand what is being said. Since translations to songs are not always exact, these subtitles are the French translations with the English equivalents. I very much enjoyed watching these videos and learning key words. I already have the background knowledge when it comes to what the songs are about so when hearing them in French I am able to focus on the language, rather than what is being said. I think that this is a very effective way to teach language. My students are often much more engaged when I read a story aloud that they have already read/heard at home in their native language. They know the gist of the story so they get to focus on language instead of figuring out exactly what it going on in the story. This is exactly how I feel about these song. I know them, so I can instead focus on the language.