I has been well documented that many CMC programs, such as IM and key pals, go a long way in improving two of the four skills in FL learning. Indeed, many studies have shown that a student's reading and writing skills have improved dramatically thanks to such programs. However, I would like to know what sort of programs in the future could deal with speaking and listening. This must, in my opinion, be a top priority among researchers. I like the idea of having some students chat with other native speakers in the target language. But I also believe that other programs devoted to speaking should be created. The skill that has really be neglected is listening...This is, in my opinion, the most difficult skill to treat via CMC. I wonder what kinds of programs could be created for listening?

Social Software

I believe that, overall, social software is a positive addition to FL learning and to society as a whole. It allows people to communicate in ways that would have been thought impossible even ten years ago. From a purely linguistic point of view, social software permits students to perform collaborative tasks using the target language. These activities teach such values as working to together, as well as the negotiation of meaning. However, one must make sure that these programs are pedagogically sound...They must be educationally relevent in order to be effective.
Moreover, I believe that there is an underlying issue with social software...the "social" indicates we are interacting with other people. We must be wary of what others can see and do with info. we post on these media. Such programs like Facebooks, MySpace, etc. are wonderful for interacting with those we care about...They are, however, ideal for those with not so noble intentions. In other words, never post anything you wouldn't tell a total stranger in the street.

Celle-ci est sans aucun doute ma chanson préférée de Daniel Balavoine. Là, il s'agit d'une chanson dans laquelle Balavoine transmet son dégoût pour la souffrance humaine et son éspoir qu'il viendra une meilleure société. C'est une oeuvre très profonde qui va vous faire réfléchir, qui que vous soyez. Écoutez et Réfléchissez!

CMC Activity:
-Project Design: For my CMC based actitvity, I have decided to design a program aimed mainly at French IV students. These students are in the advanced level and are for the most part quite serious about taking French. Therefore, I firmly believe that my students, given their statute in this advanced class, are beyond learning grammar and language for the sake of learning grammar and language. In other words, this group is ready to carry out a project that deals with modern French society and civilization. Thus, I have decided to implement a CMC activity/project that will permit them, not only to use the language in a more content-oriented context, but also to be exposed to various CMC media in order to further facilitate their knowledge of the language. Specifically, the students in the class will first choose a partner to work with. Each group will then be in charge of a certain ‘aspect’ of society from a list that I will provide them. In effect, each group will be able to pick from the following topics: The French system of education, French politics, something from history (i.e. the Revolution), the family, science, art, or religion in France. Students will choose a topic that interests them, such as education, and begin their research project.
Evidently, the ultimate goal of the project is to promote and develop cultural awareness among the students. This project wull also cultivate and facilitate the communcation, culture and comparisions of FL learning. On the whole, the students will gain a better cultural awareness about French society by collaborating on this media. Students will also be able to report on, compare and comment on French society to American society by the end of this project. First off, obviously a group is going to gain cultural awareness on its own research topic. But each group with furthermore gain a cultural awareness of the other groups topics as well, since they are going to make comments about each other’s postings. Moreover, I believe that this project promotes communicative competence in addition to cultural awareness. Indeed, students are forced to use the language in order to communicate thoughts with their partners and with the group as a whole on a variety of complicated topics. This type of collaboration goes far in cultivating negotiation of meaning among the students…They will have to manipulate the language in a way they have never before in order to convey the central messages of their research. Furthermore, the comments themselves give the opportunity to express approval/disapproval and make suggestions, which are essential skills in a language.Finally, students will gain the ability to compare aspect of French society to their own here in America. In short, even thought the main benefit of the project is the sharing of cultural information, negotiation of meaning constitutes a necessary component in order to achieve that goal.
-The project itself consists essentially of several phases. First off, our French class will create a class wiki. A wiki is the CMC medium that is indeed the most ideal for this project, as it allows for collaboration among multiple users who are serious about a certain topic. Once the class wiki is created, the students can then begin their project. Each group will do research on a topic and then post their findings to the wiki in French. They would not be, however, devoid of direction from me. I will expect them not only to report on the presence of their topic in France, but also to compare and contrast its presence in the US. Thus, a group doing politics could explain the similarities and differences between their system of government and ours. Moreover, each group would be required to comment in French on the other group’s postings. Finally, I would expect this project to go on for a period of about one to two weeks, depending on the motivations and abilities of the class. I would consider this as a one-time project and not an on-going one. Even though there is only one true due date, students are expected to make postings and/or comments two or three times a week.
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-Finally, the students will be evaluated according to two criteria: The quality of the research and the quality of their French. At the end of the project, the date everything is due, each group will turn in a hard copy of what they have written on the wiki. Also, I will take into accounts comments made by students in calculating the final grade. Furthermore, students will also be required to give an oral presentation on their topic in French. They basically need to be informative and share what they have learned about their aspect of French civilization with the rest of the class. The others will then have the opportunity to ask questions. I firmly believe that the oral presentation of this project is extremely important and necessary, as it encourages oral expression. Thus, my grading rubric would be as follows:
-Quality of research: /20pts
-Wiki Posting: /25pts
-Comments on other wiki postings: /10pts
-Oral Presentation: 15pts

Total Pts Possible: 70

The posting and presentation grades measure the quality of the language (grammar, spelling and syntax) and the thoughtfulness of the comments.

-After all the presentations are given (this could take one to two days), we will discuss in class what we have learned. I will encourage students to compare French society to our own: How are we different? How are we the same? Do you have a preference for one society or another? Why? Ideally, the students will discuss with each other their thoughts, with me acting as an arbiter. French will be, of course, the language of discussion.

Here's a helpful link:

French Civilization

Ministère des Affaires Étrangères

This is a video of French pop star Daniel Balavoine. This particular song, L'Aziza, came out in the 1980's as an anti-racist commentary. Tragically, Balavoine died in a plane crash in 1998.

Voici un lien au site officiel de L'Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie

La Francophonie est un organisme international qui comprend l'ensemble des pays francophones au monde. Une nation quelconque peut y appartenir soit comme pays membre, soit comme pays observateur. Afin de constituer un des pays membres, il faut que la langue officielle de la nation soit le francais.

Social Software Tool- Clipmarks 2.0

An interesting social software tool I found on the web is called "Clopmarks 2.0" I had actually never heard of this particular program, but apparently it is becoming more in more poplular among interner users. Basically, "Clipmarks 2.0" is a mix of a blog and a social software network like del.ic.ious. And, above all, it's quite simple. To create one, you simply click on the orange clip button at the top of the browser. Then, you "clip" the parts of a page (text or image) and save it to clipmarks.com. Your clip itself could consist of an image, a text (i.e. a newspaper article from the web) or even a video. You can also post your clip to your blog or e-mail it to your friends even. You also have the ability to decide whether you want your clip to be private or able to be seen by others.
In a foreign language class, this site would be ideal for researching and clipping articles from various newspapers in the target language. For example, a group of students doing a report on the upcoming presidential election in France could clip various articles on the subject. It would furthermore permit them to notice the different nuances of perspective coming from a variety of news sources. Moreover, the newly added video feature would allow students to clip news broadcasts from different channels (TV-5, France-2). This would go far in enhancing listening comprehension along with reading skills.


For more information, you can consult the site http://www.clipmarks.com