#1775. French through TPR - La Voiture

other, level: all
Posted Wed May 24 11:15:44 PDT 2000 by Sara Stanton (jwblt@hotmail.com).
Blaine Ray TPRS homepage
Blackville-Hilda High, Blackville, SC USA
Materials Required: toy cars, toy traffic light
Activity Time: 1-3 lessons
Concepts Taught: French vocabulary acquisition

Use Total Physcial Response to liven up vocabulary
acquisition. Decide which vocabulary you want the students
to know, and then present it through commands. With our unit
on cars, I had the students execute the following commands:
Ouvrez la portière. Montez dans la voiture. Prenez la clé.
Mettez le contact. Accélerez. Roulez, mais pas trop vite.
Attention, il y a un feu rouge. Freinez. Don't have the
students repeat the commands out loud - just have them act
them out. Give them time to absorb the material. When
students seem to understand the commands, switch to
statements(Marc prend la clé. Il met le contact.)Continue
to let the students act out the material.Try to put the
sentences into the form of an amusing story. By this time
the students will be ready and eager to speak. Let them
issue the commands or tell the story. It really helps to use
props or hand signals to reinforce the vocabulary. I
brought in hot wheel cars which the students used to act out
the commands and stories.