Download Rapport de Maël - ANGLAIS IN FRANCE

Wednesday When Mael arrived, he was very tired, and rather shy, so we really just
tried to help him settle in happily on the first day. We talked about
what he liked doing, eating, what sort of music he liked, which films
etc and what he didn’t like (Circus, Justin Bieber, olives and fizzy
drinks!). We also talked a little about his life in Mayotte and his family.
Mael explained that he felt he needed help to improve his
pronunciation and vocabulary, that he found writing relatively easy but
it was harder for him to read English.
We walked around our village to show Mael where we lived, but it
rained and we all had to run home, utterly soaked!
We played Cluedo, each of us describing our various journeys around
the board / house, using directions and different words to describe
our movements - walking along / down / up / through, strolling,
running, skipping, hopping, crossing the corridors, sliding into rooms,
escaping through the secret passageways etc.
We talked a little about the difference between the present simple and
present ING – and that the latter is used when one is in the process of
doing something (en train de faire qqch) because I noticed that Mael
had a tendency to use the present simple when the present ING would
be more appropriate.
We talked briefly about how to form basic questions – reversing the
order of words,
Eg, It is -> Is it? I can -> Can I?
We also talked about comparatives briefly -> eg, easy -> easier ->
easiest.
In the evening we went to hear a band playing English and American
songs and we played backgammon on our return home.
Mael was delightful, and is clearly a very bright young man, but he is
very shy and this, understandably, presents an obstacle for him with
English. He was also very tired, so we spoke quite a lot of French with
him in general conversation to try and help him settle in.
Thursday
We looked at the 2 present tenses in more detail – talking about when
to use them:
Present Simple
Present ING
Things which are generally true
Things which happen regularly
With Always, Never, Often, Sometimes, Usually
Things which are happening NOW!
Particular not general situations
For things in the near future.
We talked about difficult spellings for -ING words :
eg die -> dying, hope -> hoping, but hop -> hopping
and Mael did some questions to practice choosing which present tense
to use.
We revised the different ‘WH’ and ‘How . . ‘ question words / phrases
with Mael choosing which words to use in a set of questions, eg,
what / for and what / like, how long, much, many etc.
We went to the Tourist Office to find out if there were any activities
which Mael might like to do . . without great success but we did find
some activities, eg a garden outing and an art exhibition to visit later
in the week.
Mael read a short newspaper article to me so that I could see what
particular problems he had with pronunciation :
-
Forming the ‘th’ sound (place your tongue between your
front teeth, Mael!),
When to use a ‘h’ sound and when not to (normally when
there is a written ‘h’, and not when the word starts with a
vowel!)
Various vowel sounds, like look / loop, up / use /
through etc.
‘Ough’ with all its different and very difficult
pronunciations
We went through about 10 different confusing sounds, eg
‘i’\ ‘ee’\’e’,
‘ai’ / ‘ee’
‘at’ / ‘ad’
‘u’ / ‘a’,
‘a’ / ’ar’
‘ar’ / ‘u’,
look / loop and
‘or’ / ‘o’
and Mael read a tongue twister aloud for each, several times to make
sure he really grasped the different sounds. We then made up some
more tongue twisters of our own.
We found Mael a Michael Morpurgo book of short stories to read
whilst he was with us and he read some pages on his own, underlining
the words he didn’t understand - which we then talked through and
explained how they might be used in different ways:
Glistening, Vow, Relentlessly, Poring over, to Furrow one’s brow,
Friday
We talked about word stress – how different types of words, nouns,
adjectives and verbs have different stresses, also depending on how
many syllables the word has, and any particular word endings. We
talked about how important this stress is in order to sound truly
English . . we talked about the difference stresses in the words
‘photograph’ / photocopy, but photographer, photographic, and
photography.
We talked about how the same word, used differently (as a noun or as
a verb), often has a different word stress : Import / Export / Present /
Object / Contract
. . and how the stress in compound words depends on what type of
word it is.
Please see the sheet Mael has on this in more detail.
Mael prepared a written presentation on Mayotte, which was very
interesting. I corrected it with him and then he read it aloud to
practice his pronunciation. There was considerable improvement with
‘th’ and ‘h’ but still some confusion with vowel sounds, particularly
‘ow’.
We had English friends for lunch and we all ate the quiche Mael had
cooked the day before – which was delicious!! Mael seemed to be
increasingly at ease, and chatted away very impressively with us and
our friends over lunch. He then very kindly helped us to mend the
swimming pool and seemed to enjoy being part of a team, and
achieving something practical.
Mael and I read through a text given to Terminale students last year
(‘Another Day in Paradise’ by Phil Collins) and we talked about how
one might prepare a commentary on it. I then showed him the
commentary and explained how one could try to find deeper meanings
behind apparently simple lyrics in order to achieve a good mark. We
talked about the vocabulary , eg the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, ‘to take
place’, ‘no fixed abode’, ‘wretched conditions’, ‘dire straits’ and
‘whistle’. Mael then read it aloud and I noticed that he sometimes
mispronounces the ‘ed’ at the end of past participles.
In the evening, we played ‘Articulate’ which involves teams of two
players, one having to explain a word until the other guesses it
correctly. Mael was extremely good at expressing himself and enjoyed
the competitive edge, but I noted again that he had some difficulty
with vowel sounds and the present tenses which I corrected and he
understood his mistakes (en train de faire -> present ING!)
Saturday
It wasn’t raining for the first time!
We went to see the Tour de France start at St Gaudens which was quite
interesting, although we had to hang around for several hours. After
the caravan had been, we had a picnic whilst waiting for the cyclist
themselves. We played an oral version of Pictionary – with one person
describing various words, and the others guessing. It was interesting
to see how increasingly articulate and confident Mael was becoming
and how much he enjoys games.
I showed Mael a photograph of Lyndon Johnson being sworn in as
president after JFK’s assassination in 1963 and we talked through
what we could see, in the background, in the foreground etc. We
talked about the vocabulary one would need to write a commentary
(‘vow’, ‘swear in’, to take place’, ‘widow’, ‘blood stains’, ‘to be in
shock’ etc), repeating the different word stresses for ‘photography’
related words, the background events leading up to the photograph
and why it was necessary to record the event.
We agreed a structure for the commentary and Mael then wrote it
himself. We went over it together, and noted that he regularly omits
the ‘s’ at the end of present tense (he / she / it) verbs, but he could
see this mistake recurring each time and was able to correct himself.
Again I noted that he had problems with vowel sounds, particularly
‘ow’, and also the dreaded ‘ough’ pattern but his ‘th’ and ‘h’ sounds
are improving well.
We read a poem about a French student struggling to master the
numerous different ‘OUGH’ sounds one finds in the English language –
and went over the 8 possibilities, and those for ‘AUGH’ and EIGH’ too.
Mael then tried very hard with a series of pronunciation questions
using a combination of these – but they really are very tricky indeed.
He has the explanatory sheet and questions in order to practice these
from time to time at home!
As a little light relief, Mael and Izzi wrote a huge list of words with the
‘OW’ sound, separating those using ‘ow’ and those using ‘ou’ to try to
find a spelling pattern. They also wrote a list of words using the
letters ‘ow’ but which aren’t pronounced as one expects. This
involved much dictionary searching and they both really enjoyed it,
coming up with words like ‘doubt’ with its silent ’b’, jowls, snout,
towel, compound, but not grown, know, or sow (with their ’o’ sound).
Mael seemed to really enjoy exploring our dictionary (Larousse
Chambers English / French reference version) and we talked about
how it was fun to look up one particular word and then see the many
different ways it could be used, and the similarities in use / the
common roots between French and English. For a student as bright
and curious as Mael, something similar would be a very worthwhile
investment! It makes one new word go a very long way!
After all that brain work, we played badminton – at first very gently,
but it soon emerged that Mael is also secretly a champion player!! It
was great to see him so relaxed, messing around and laughing.
Sunday
Mael and I read an extract from a book called ‘Class Reunion’ by Rona
Jaffe. which was used as the subject of a commentary by local
Terminale students last year. We talked about how we could structure
a commentary on this text, which was about an American living in
France on the day that JFK was shot, and her reaction to the event and the vocabulary one would use.
Mael then wrote the commentary and we went through it together. We
revised the following points and noted that Mael was starting to
remember:
-
Pour faire/ dire etc -> To / in order to do / say etc NOT
For to do / say!
The order of words when expressing that something
belongs to someone, eg ‘Kennedy’s body’, rather than
‘the body of Kennedy’.
That for he / she / it in the present tense, the verb needs
an ‘s’ at the end.
Also some use of the conditional tenses and the
difference in use between ‘just’ and ‘only’
Izzi and Mael played cards together and chatted in English before
lunch. We had another English family coming for tea, and so Mael and
Izzi cooked some marshmallow cornflake cakes which were very pink
and chewy, but very tasty! They even washed up and dried up without
being asked afterwards, which was fabulous!
We played various rather silly games with our friends, and it was clear
that Mael was increasingly relaxed and happy, and therefore talking
more freely than before.
We talked about the different use of the words ‘Ago’, ‘Since’ and
‘For’ (as per sheet) and the difference between the correct verb tenses
to use with the word ‘since’ in French and English. Mael ran through a
series of questions, choosing the correct word to use, to ensure he
had grasped the differences clearly.
We talked about how to get adjectives in the right order:
Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material, Purpose
Mael chose the correct orders from several choices for 8 short
descriptions. He was very good at this – seeming to have a natural
feel for it.
We went over 24 homonyms, clarifying the separate meanings and
Mael created sentences using each of the 2 or more meanings in the
same sentence, for example : ‘I sent 30 cents by post to obtain this
scent’ and ‘Of course Americans are coarse!’
We talked through the 3 different possible sounds for ‘ed’ (being ‘d’,
‘t’ and ‘did’) at the end of past participles and I explained the rules to
Mael. He then put some present tense sentences in the past, and read
them aloud, including some irregular verbs I had slipped in.
Mael had also read some more of his book, so we went through the
vocabulary he didn’t understand:
Monday
The sun was shining when we woke up! So we got to work as quickly
as we could in order to be able to go out to the swimming pool with
friends.
Mael and I read through a Beatles’ song (which again had been the
subject of a Terminale commentary this year) called ‘She’s leaving
home’. Mael read it aloud, focusing on the ‘th’ and ‘h’ sounds, and it
was good to see improvement both there, and with his vowel sounds.
We talked about the relationship between the girl and her parents as
depicted in the song lyrics and how parent / child relationships have
changed since the 1960s. We read through a page of vocabulary
directly relevant to this text. We also went through two pages of
useful phrases for writing commentaries generally and I asked Mael to
try to incorporate some of these in his written work.
Mael then wrote an excellent commentary on the text.
It was
extremely well structured and raised some interesting points. He had
incorporated several of the phrases we’d discussed (The scene ‘takes
place’, ‘to my mind’, ‘to come of age’, ‘to have got’, ‘to have a
feeling’, ‘I’m convinced’ and ‘In conclusion’).
When we went through the commentary together, Mael had again
forgotten the ‘s’ in he/she/it verbs, but he was able to spot it each
time when I asked what had been missed out. We agreed that it would
be a good idea for him to check through his written work before
handing it in at Lycee as the dreaded ’s’ was letting his work down,
and he was far too good to lose marks for something so simple!
There was much improvement in his choice between present ING and
present simple.
We talked about the passive / active (to ‘encompass’ / ‘surround’ and
to be ‘encompassed by’ / ‘surrounded by’), that ‘each’ and ‘every’
were followed by singular nouns, rather than plural ones, the plural of
‘self’ / ‘wife’ -> ‘selves’ / ‘wives’, the use of the suffix ‘hood’ (eg
‘childhood’, ‘motherhood’).
We talked about expressions such as ‘I can’t be bothered’, ‘to go
back’, ‘self-awareness’, ‘to have fun together’, ‘to let someone have
fun’, and the difference between ‘to separate’ and ‘to divide’.
After lunch, we went to the swimming pool with some English friends
and had a great time. We spent a very happy evening at their house,
having dinner together and playing badminton. It was lovely to see
Mael so relaxed, chatting away, the friendly teasing going both ways.
Tuesday
Mael read aloud 15 short extracts from the English tabloid
newspapers, which included various silly (yet possibly true?!) stories.
We focused on correcting his vowel sounds, as the ‘ed’, ‘th’ and ‘h’
sounds are progressing really well.
New vocabulary included: ‘renditions’, ‘bobsleigh’ / draught (including
revising the pronunciation of ‘augh’ and ‘eigh’), ‘wardrobe’,
‘oblivious’, ‘hazard’, ‘deli’, ‘spoils’, ‘loiterer’,
to ‘hog’, ‘spikes’,
‘ironing’, ‘watchtower’, ‘penalty’, repetition of ‘dye’, to ‘peep’,
‘common sense’, ‘naked’, to ‘woo’ and to ’drown’.
We then revised the 10 basic vowel pronunciations and their possible
spellings – ‘a’ / ‘A’, ‘e’ / ‘E’, ‘i’ / ‘I’, ‘o’ / ‘O’ and ‘u’ / ‘U’, finding as
many examples as we could of word pairs - where the vowel sound is
transformed by the final ‘e’, eg:
-
hat -> hate,
pet -> Pete,
bit -> bite,
hop -> hope and
tub -> tube.
We found either French or very well known English words to try to
remind Mael of the most similar vowel sounds in French (‘chat’, une
tasse de ‘the’, ‘tete’, ‘vie’, ‘Izzi’, ‘aie’, ‘grottes’, ‘velo’, ‘euh’ and ‘you’).
We considered some of the different ways in which these 10 basic
sounds can be spelt in English - and found words Mael already knew
as examples.
We identified some of the more complex vowel sounds, such as the 2
different ‘oo’ sounds (look OR loop), ‘ow’, ‘oi’, ‘or’ and ‘ur / er / ir’
and found words to remind Mael how to pronounce these.
We then went out shopping for Izzi’s birthday presents and to the top
up Mael’s mobile phone credit. Mael is becoming increasingly at
home here, and is a pleasure to have.
After supper we watched ‘7 Lives’ together in English (with sub-titles)
and it was clear both during, and from our discussion afterwards, that
Male understood it all, and found it a moving film.
Wednesday The sun was shining today!! It was Izzi’s birthday too, so we decided
that as we’d worked very hard all week, we would have a lazier day
today.
Mael did an English crossword from The Telegraph newspaper – as an
exercise to expand his vocabulary and also to recognize the verb tense
in the clue and reflect it in his proposed answers (particularly ‘ed’ and
‘s’ endings). He used the dictionary to find possible solutions and we
talked about the word roots, whether there were similar words in
french and other English uses of the words we found. When it was
finished, I asked Mael to read the first two solutions aloud :
‘Shellac’ (varnish) and ‘Combs’ (search thoroughly),
which Mael realized made the sound of ‘Sherlock Holmes’, the
detective in the Conan Doyle books. This was a good exercise for
Mael – it challenged him and I think he was a little daunted by it at the
beginning, but the emerging letters and interim successes encouraged
him to continue, with help.
Afterwards, we went to Aspet and wandered around the various art
exhibitions. We had a drink at the local café and talked to friends in
English, French and even German, but not Dutch!
We returned home to finish mending the swimming pool, and Mael
was a great help, despite it being rather chilly in the water. Izzi’s
friends arrived with birthday cake and the youngsters hung out
together by the pool and played badminton. We made home-made
pizzas for supper and spent the evening talking, watching ‘Saving
Private Ryan’ and playing backgammon.
We have really enjoyed Mael’s stay and his company. He has been very
polite and helpful throughout. It took me a few days to realize just
how shy he is, and how very tired he was too. I will miss his gentle
nature, his spark and interesting conversation.