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    Joined: Nov 2012
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    aquinas Offline OP
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    Starting a thread to share useful curriculum and after-school resources for foreign languages. With everybody cooped up in the pandemic, languages are a terrific way to satisfy a bit of cultural wanderlust and develop a new skill.

    What foreign language resources - other than the standard apps (Duolingo, Babelfish) - have your families enjoyed? Feel free to dig into core curricula, book series for pleasure reading, media, etc. Where possible, can you please list your child's age/grade when they used these materials?

    FRENCH

    Level: Rated as grade 5-12, but could easily be used for gifted kiddos from grade 1, IMO. Age 9.

    I'm sharing a link to a loose FSL curriculum developed by a FSL teacher out of Missouri that I can't rave about enough:
    https://mmersfrenchresources.com/

    My DS9 has been taking French at school, but I wasn't thrilled with the depth or progression of the lessons. After doing some digging and trialing a few methods, these resources came out on top as a clear favourite for our family. This teacher runs a blog and provides insightful commentary on how she phases immersion in different aspects of language learning. She also has a bright son with ADHD, and so he is her test subject for all these activities, which may be helpful for 2e families. I've found it to be an excellent balance for my DS- not too much repetition, lots of capacity to reach ahead and extend.

    Context: I speak French fluently, so this is from the perspective of a parent with prior knowledge of the language. I suspect families who don't speak French might want to pair these with other audio resources to learn pronunciation, etc.

    Other French language resources

    I also love these resources to supplement our French curriculum

    1/ Laura Lawless' blog - Excellent grammar topic coverage, with explanations in English
    https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/

    2/ Reverso spelling and grammar checker - A tool that allows you to cut and paste written French, and which provides useful explanations of errors. I'd suggest using this with older students who are practicing more complex topics, like direct and indirect object complements.
    https://www.reverso.net/spell-checker/french-spelling-grammar/

    3/ A guide to sentence diagramming - This is, admittedly, an English tool. However, when students arrive at more advanced or nuanced grammar topics in French, it's helpful to have an analog to refer to in English.
    http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams2/one_pager1.htm

    4/ Linguee reverse dictionary - My favourite online English/French and French/English dictionary (also good in Spanish!)
    https://www.linguee.com/

    5/ Radio Canada's media library - Terrific short video and radio segments in French on accessible topics for FSL learners. Targets a late elementary/middle school interest level, IMO.
    https://ici.radio-canada.ca/jeunesse/scolaire

    6/ Lovely French language magazines from Bayard

    Youpi (Bayard) - targeted at 5-8 year olds, general interest topics, accessible for older FSL students who need familiar topics to build confidence

    Débrouillards (Bayard) - for 9-14 year olds, science and comedy

    Curium (Bayard)- for 14-17 year olds, natural and social sciences

    https://www.bayardjeunesse.ca/colle..._medium=display&utm_campaign=sans_rabais


    What is to give light must endure burning.
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    DD gets the texts and workbooks and uses tutors from preply. That is how she did AP Chinese last year and doing AP Spanish this year. Her school only goes to Spanish 3, and she wants to take the AP exam.

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    aquinas Offline OP
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    Wren, does preply have standard texts for your DD's classes?


    What is to give light must endure burning.
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    No, she gets her own textbooks and then uses a tutor to help her through it. That is how she did AP Chinese last year and doing AP Spanish this year. Her school doesn't do AP Spanish. Some tutors are better than others. We went through 4 Spanish tutors, decided on 2, then dropped one. Most teach beginner and you have to find someone who can actually take you through the level you want.

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    aquinas Offline OP
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    Are you comfortable sharing which Spanish texts she used? I'm thinking of testing the waters in Spanish with my DS but have no idea what the kids are using these days...


    What is to give light must endure burning.
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    She did up to Spanish 3 in school. Now I just bought some stuff on amazon, like Barrons AP. She is using study.com.

    For AP Chinese, I bought 2 sets of textbooks and workbooks that were suggested to me from a book store in NYC, because she had always done chinese as self study. Her school didn't offer it.


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