Cover lesson · MFL · Year 7 · Beginner
LNF: Literacy → Listening → Developing vocabulary
Name: Class: Date:
What this practises: listening to build vocabulary. Pupils hear new French words in short messages, pick out the key words for day, activity and opinion, practise saying them, then use them in a voicemail of their own. This is Year 7 groundwork for GCSE French Unit 3: Listening (Areas of content, page 17), where pupils hear messages and pick out key points and opinions, and answer in English or Welsh. You do not need to speak French: every French sentence on the reader cards has an English sound-alike spelling. Pupils taught through Welsh may write their notes in Welsh.
Print: this sheet, one per pupil, and the stimulus sheet “Weekend voicemails from Villebrune: reader cards” single-sided, one copy per pair. Hand out the reader cards at the start of Step 2, not before. In each pair, Pupil A takes page 1 (Reader card A) and Pupil B takes page 2 (Reader card B). Pupils need a different coloured pen for Step 3 if they have one. No dictionaries, no computers.
Run: 5 min Step 1, guess the words · 12 min Step 2, the voicemails (6 min Pupil A reads messages 1 to 3 while Pupil B listens and writes, then 6 min they swap) · 5 min Step 3, turn the cards over and check · 10 min Step 4, build a vocabulary list · 5 min Step 5, pronunciation practice · 10 min Step 6, write your own voicemail · 5 min Step 7, leave your voicemail for your partner. Total 52 minutes. Call out “Swap” after the first 6 minutes of Step 2. During Step 2, check that listeners cannot see the reader card.
Collect: this sheet. The notes grid (Step 2) and the partner box (Step 7) show what each pupil understood by listening.
Quick checks: Step 2 days and activities are: 1 Saturday morning, football; 2 Sunday afternoon, cinema; 3 Saturday afternoon, cycling; 4 Friday evening, watching rugby on TV; 5 Sunday morning, tidying the bedroom; 6 Saturday evening, a concert. Opinions: 1 loves, 2 likes, 3 likes, 4 does not like, 5 hates, 6 loves. In Step 1, campagne and génial are the two words that trick you (false friends). In Step 6, each voicemail should have 3 sentences and include parce que. The class teacher has a worked example with every answer.
Your class has pen pals at a school in Villebrune, a small town in France. Six of them have left you voicemail messages about their weekend. Your partner will play the voicemails by reading them aloud from a card, and you will write down, in English, what each pen pal is doing, when, and what they think of it. Then you will turn the words you heard into your own French word list, practise saying them, and record a voicemail of your own for your partner.
Key words:
All these words are in the voicemails. Guess what each one means in English. Tick the last column if it is a cognate. Two of them are false friends: see if you can spot them.
| French | My guess in English | Cognate? ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| le cinéma | ||
| un concert | ||
| la musique | ||
| un match de rugby | ||
| la télé | ||
| relaxant | ||
| amusant | ||
| la campagne | ||
| génial | ||
| samedi, dimanche, vendredi |
Pupil A reads messages 1 to 3 from Reader card A. Pupil B listens and fills in rows 1 to 3. Then swap: Pupil B reads messages 4 to 6 from Reader card B, and Pupil A fills in rows 4 to 6. The listener must not look at the reader card. Each message is read twice. Write in English, and keep it short: key words are enough.
| No. | Name | Day and time of day | Activity | Opinion (loves, likes, does not like, hates) | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 3 | |||||
| 4 | |||||
| 5 | |||||
| 6 |
Which word or words helped you most to know whether the speaker liked the activity?
Now swap reader cards so that you can both read all 6 messages. Check your notes against the French. Correct or add anything you missed in a different colour. Look back at Step 1 too: were your guesses right? Which were the two false friends?
Use the reader cards and the “Words that help” box. Write French words and phrases from the voicemails in the right row, with the English. Aim for at least 20 words or phrases in total.
| Group | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| Days and times of day | ||
| Activities (start with je) | ||
| Opinions | ||
| Reasons (start with c’est) | ||
| People |
Circle every cognate in your list.
Take turns. Say each phrase to your partner, using the “Say it like this” column on the reader cards. Your partner ticks the box if you got the sound in bold right.
| Phrase | Listen for | ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| je joue au football | zh in je and joue (as in “measure”) | |
| dimanche après-midi | the on through the nose in dee-monsh | |
| avec mes amis | the silent s at the end of amis | |
| je fais du vélo | the tight-lipped ew in du | |
| parce que c’est génial | pars-kuh said as 2 quick parts | |
| vendredi soir | the throaty French r |
Write a 3-sentence voicemail in French for your partner about your weekend. Use words from your vocabulary list. Under each sentence, write how to say it, using the sound-alike spellings from the reader cards.
Sentence 1: Salut, c’est ________ !
Sentence 2: [day and time of day], je ________ [avec ________ ].
Sentence 3: J’adore / J’aime / Je n’aime pas / Je déteste ________ parce que c’est ________ .
My voicemail in French, with how to say it underneath:
Take turns. Say your voicemail to your partner twice, without showing them your sheet. Your partner writes what they heard, in English, in the box on their own sheet.
| My partner’s name | Day and time of day | Activity | Opinion and reason |
|---|---|---|---|