14 June every year is Flag Day in the United States. It commemorates the date in 1777 when the United States approved the design for its first national flag, a version of the familiar red, white and blue “Stars and Stripes” that survives today. On June 14, 1777, future President John Adams discussed the flag … Continue reading “Raise the Flag”
Among many other special qualities, Queen Elizabeth II has two birthdays every year: the real one on 21 April (she was 95) and her official one on the second Saturday in June. That is marked by one of the great moments of British pageantry: the Trooping the Colour ceremony. Since 1748, the monarch’s official birthday … Continue reading “Trooping the Colour”
Ireland has a rich literary heritage and is fond of honouring it. On 16 June every year, it is author James Joyce who is remembered, as Joyce fans all over Ireland and the world celebrate Bloomsday in honour of his novel Ulysses. Ulysses, published in 1922, consists of 18 episodes mirroring Homer’s Odyssey and takes … Continue reading “James Joyce and Bloomsday”
As part of the Semaine des langues 2021, schools in the Académie de Nice took part in a collaborative writing project, Histoires communes in English, German, Italian and Spanish. Stories written collectively, often remotely, and across languages and/or across borders. There were three challenges: « Il était une fois dans la forêt… », « Mon … Continue reading “Collective Storywriting: Well Done!”
We stumbled across this simple visualisation to help pupils remember the spellings of the homophones their, there and they’re. We couldn’t resist sharing. It just shows the power of a well-conceived image. “their” refers to a person or people so there’s a little stick man replacing the “i”. “there” refers to a place so the … Continue reading “Memory Tricks: Their, There and They’re”
Author and illustrator Eric Carle passed away on 23 May at the age of 91. He had enchanted children the world over with his colourful picture books, and especially the best selling The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Carle was born in New York state in 1929 but his German immigrant parents were homesick and they returned … Continue reading “Death of Eric Carle, Enchanter of Childhoods”
Thank you for all your interest in our new Escape Games pack for collège. Now it’s time to find out more as two of its authors present the concept and answer your questions in the replay of our 2 June webinar. Emma and Patrick describe their experience testing the games in class with their pupils … Continue reading “Escape Games Webinar”
Le travail de mémorisation en présentiel n’est malheureusement pas assez pratiqué dans les cours de langues. Est-ce par manque de temps ? Pourtant, les sciences cognitives préconisent un effort conséquent en tout début d’apprentissage pour une meilleure rétention des notions. Cet apprentissage, rebutant pour certains élèves, peut, en réalité, se faire de manière ludique grâce à … Continue reading “La mémorisation en présentiel en langues vivantes grâce aux roues numériques”
Il est indéniable que, bien souvent, l’autonomie langagière et la capacité à communiquer se mesurent davantage à l’étendue et à la richesse du lexique qu’à la correction grammaticale même si cela peut sembler contre-intuitif dans un pays où les progressions pédagogiques en cours de langue ont longtemps été déterminées par « les points de grammaire » à … Continue reading “Acquérir et retenir du vocabulaire”
The Five Eyes Alliance is a very discreet intelligence-gathering agreement between five major Anglophone countries: the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It was created during the Cold War with the former Soviet Union. But it is currently in turmoil over the five nations’ relations with China. The Alliance has existed in its … Continue reading “Five Eyes”