Buvons de l'eau!: A French language Podcast on Water

This page authored by Laura Franklin, Northern Virginia Community College, based on a podcast on the Neopodia website.
Author Profile
This material was originally developed through Merlot
as part of its collaboration with the SERC Pedagogic Service.

Initial Publication Date: August 27, 2010

Summary

In this listening comprehension exercise, students of intermediate level French language listen to a podcast interview with a nutritionist on the topic of the importance of drinking water. Instead of a traditional lecture experience, the students can listen to the video podcast in portions and listen strategically for answers to an instructor-produced questionnaire. The activity trains the students' ears for listening in French.

Share your modifications and improvements to this activity through the Community Contribution Tool »

Learning Goals

  1. Students will learn how to train their ears to comprehend interviews on topics with which they may be familiar in their native language.
  2. Students will develop their vocabulary on the topics of nutrition, health and water consumption.
  3. Students will observe interrogative structures in the interview and in the questionnaire.
  4. Students will make comparisons between French and their own culture's water consumption.

Context for Use

This exercise can be done in a lab setting or as a homework assignment. The final product will be a completed questionnaire which could be submitted to the professor electronically or handed in during class hours. It would be simple to adapt the listening exercise to any size class. The main goal is to have students practice their individual skills and the introduction of the neopodia site gives them quick access to a myriad of listening texts in a wide variety of fields.

Description and Teaching Materials

The Questionnaire for this assignment is attached. Student handout for Buvons de l'Eau (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 13kB Aug27 10)

Teaching Notes and Tips

  1. This activity is intended as a listening comprehension homework exercise and should not occupy much classroom time.
  2. Students should be encouraged to use the free site Neopodia to make their own playlists of French podcasts. Listening comprehension is a significant issue at the intermediate level and this website provides a wealth of topics that are easy to understand. It also allows students to go back to re-listen and has written support on the site.
  3. Students can also leave comments about the podcasts as they would on social media websites.
  4. This exercise is also a very effective vocabulary builder and a springboard to more robust conversations.

Assessment

The questionnaire can be graded as a homework assignment. Once the students turn it in, professors could provide an answer key if they choose.

References and Resources