My colleague Joe Biswell, of Benthall Primary School, has written a most useful song that teaches être in a most enjoyable and interactive way, and can then be adapted for other French verbs. I now use it with every French class I teach, and children really enjoy it. Its adaptation to other verbs, including reflexive verbs, makes it a real breakthrough in one of the dullest but most important parts of learning French. An article about the song appeared in today's TES, but, alas, without the music. The tune is very simple indeed, and you can download it by clicking this link
Here is the rest of the article, as we submitted it. There is a ps - you can sing a verb, with actions, to any song in three-four time.
John Bald and Joseph Biswell on an approach that combines music and brain research to provide a way into French.
Joseph Biswell is a professional pianist, who teaches music and French at Benthall Primary School, Hackney. As the Learning Trust’s primary languages consultant, I asked Joe to see if he could write some new songs. Three months later, he sent me this one, which he thought could be a way into French verbs.
I was doubtful. It reminded me of the verb exercises that had put a lot of people off French. But Joe had written the song, so I had to try it. The first class was Year 5 at Harrington Hill School. We agreed that it was rude to point with your finger, so we pointed with the whole hand as we sung – Je suis (point to yourself), Tu es (point to a partner), Il est (point to a boy) Elle est (point to a girl). As we moved to the plurals, we started pointing with two hands. Nous sommes – sweeping, inclusive gesture with both arms. Vous êtes – point with both hands at two or more people – Ils sont – point to two boys – Elles sont – point to two girls.
The song’s slow pace gave plenty of time for the actions, and the children and class teachers took to them immediately, pointing and smiling. I tried it with three more classes and got the same response. Joe had suggested it might work with more verbs, but before this, we started using the song with just the pronouns. (Je - point to self) etc. Before we knew it, we had introduced the full range of French pronouns. Hands up if you’re il. Hands up if you’re elle soon told us who did and didn’t understand, and helped the slower learners to catch on. After a couple of weeks, there were hardly any mistakes. More importantly, children didn’t seem to tire of the song.
Separating the pronouns and giving them plenty of practice over a couple of weeks let us add other verbs without leaving the children confused. The first was faire, to go with the song Les Petites Marionnettes, from the DVD Mon Âne (TLP). Children sang each line after me at first – nous faisons had to be pronounced carefully – but got the hang of it over the next couple of weeks. Several noticed the similarity between sont and font, and, if anyone forgot something, going through the song soon brought it back.
Finally, Year 5 tried the song with several more verbs in one session – ai, aime, joue, mange, habite, and m’appelle, where we sang the full gamut of the reflexive verb. I wrote simple sentences with each verb on the board (I used Word, with a strong blue font) and the children could all read and understand them. Kate Wheeler, the class teacher, suggested we add questions to prompt each sentence and that the children could practice asking and answering with a partner. I did, with the questions in red, and in the full French version in each case. Suddenly, the idea of teaching spoken and written French together, to promote full understanding, was a practical possibility.
Afterthought. Music helps us to learn. Put almost anything to a jingle and it keeps going round in your head, getting stronger all the time. With each repetition, minute electrical currents flow between the brain cells in which the words and music are stored, reinforcing and speeding up connections. Brain science is beginning to tell us how this works, but the potential for language learning is not yet fully understood. We know it helps, but how far? And how can we get the words in the jingle out of the loop, and use them to communicate? Joe’s song has given us a start. Now we need some serious research.