Foreign Language Fun

Last school year, I introduced my high school level II French students to Yabla.  Yabla is an amazing online video resource for language learners.  I found it useful for introducing my students to authentic media from across the French-speaking world:  documentaries, interviews, cooking shows, and even music videos.  Each student had his own account which could be accessed at home or at school.  I would assign a couple of videos each month that students would watch.  Then they would earn a predetermined number of points in a fill-in-the-blank sort of game.  They could play as many times as they needed until they reached the goal, and then I could easily access their score on my account.  Easy-breezy!  

On the last day of school, I asked for some anonymous feedback on our first Yabla experience.  The most common criticism was that Yabla is hard.  True, level II students did find it challenging.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that!  

Here’s a sampling of what else my students had to say:

• I think Yabla helped my French.  It taught me words and expanded my vocabulary.
• It was a good learning experience and helped me get used to native French speakers and singers.  I liked it overall.
• I thought Yabla was a good way to hear real French speaking.  I liked it a lot.
• This was a fun way to help with listening to French.
• The songs were good listening practice.  The artist repeats the chorus multiple times which allows students to learn how to pronounce the words.  The documentaries where people talked was very difficult because the people were talking fast and the subtitles were also.
• I thought Yabla was stupid at first.  But once I got better at it I realized its importance.  I helped me understand French a lot better and taught me new words.
• I think the high school should start adding Yabla to ALL the foreign language classes to help us learn better and more independently.
• Yabla was a good way to learn French because you listen and really try to hear what they say. 

 Click here to try the French Yabla for free and here to try the Spanish for free.  Feel free to leave comments or questions about using Yable in high school language classes.