French television commercials and news programs can be used effectively in the language classroom to explore the representation of groups and cultural patterns. (MSE)

Classroom French language learning exercises using travel brochures and guides are outlined and illustrated. The variety of materials available is discussed, and specific basic procedures and supplemental activities are described. Exercises focus on development of vocabulary relating to movement, expressions of comparison and evaluation, and…

Choice of texts for use in French language instruction is discussed. It is argued that the text's format (e.g., advertising, figurative poetry, journal article, play, prose, etc.) is instrumental in bringing attention to the language in it, and this has implications for the best uses of different text types. (MSE)

The first section of this annotated bibliography cites works concerning the formal study of civilization from the viewpoints of historians, sociologists, anthropologists and semiologists. The second section cites teaching manuals and instructional materials, books and articles useful in the teaching of French culture. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

This section contains four articles on using French dictionaries: exercises with the Gougenheim dictionary, for example, to increase vocabulary; games and activities to gain facility in using the alphabet; four vocabulary-building games; and a comparison of dictionaries of different centuries using the word "femme" as example. (AMH)

Ideas for using entire comic strips or parts of cartoons to teach coherence, cultural information, vocabulary, semantics, grammar, syntax, discourse, and other elements of language in the French language classroom are presented and illustrated. (MSE)

Reports on an experiment involving university level foreign students and using construction kits to test their ability to write technical instructions. Students worked in small groups at different kits, with the objective of producing verbalizations of assembly diagrams accurately enough to enable others to repeat the construction process without…

Describes a method used at Yale University that uses film study to expose the student of French to culturally authentic language. (AM)

A method and activities for approaching textual analysis with language students and making it something other than an academic exercise is discussed and illustrated. The technique uses reading by a variety of methods, oral and quiet, for producing insight into the text. (MSE)

A discussion of the use of video as instructional material in the second-language classroom looks at the relationship between the visual and the verbal and offers a number of exercises using each, together and separately. (MSE)

A variety of exercises based on manipulation of a single text are described. The activities involve replacing words or phrases in the text with synonyms or opposites, transposing gender, changing tenses, filling in blanks, and answering multiple-choice questions about linguistic forms. Three brief sample texts are offered. (MSE)

Four suggestions for classroom language-learning activities include a series of dot-to-dot phonetics games, small group collage making and presentation, use of magazine covers to stimulate class discussion and introduction of vocabulary, and student-written sketches based on misunderstandings. (MSE)

Class activity ideas presented include: the use of world records to teach superlatives; a unit on a new French city; storywriting; and creation of crossword puzzles to teach vocabulary and test comprehension. (MSE)

A class project of a third-year French class in Sweden that used Renoir's painting, "The Luncheon of the Boating Party," as inspiration for work in vocabulary development, grammar, conversation, and social and cultural appreciation is described and examples of dialogs and exercises are appended. (MSE)

Discusses changing trends in education--college programs, teaching methods and training, adult education, student interests, teacher role. (DD)