Online learning
Fall 2011:
The AFLCR is now in its third season of producing Elementary Hospitality French classes, provided without charge to downtown Burlington retail and hospitality workers. The live classes are being videotaped and then webcast on Chittenden Community TV's cable Channel 17, and archived at the CCTV website for online viewing. The instructor once again this term is Kim Chase, the French teacher at Hunt Middle School in Burlington, who grew up in a bilingual home in Winooski. The production is a joint project of the Alliance Francaise of the Lake Champlain Region and the Church Street Marketplace District, underwritten by local businessman Ernie Pomerleau.
Text materials to accompany the cablecast and online video classes.
LANGUAGE LEARNING RESOURCES:
The BBC is the granddaddy of remote language learning, and you no longer need to own a shortwave radio receiver! www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
The Fletcher Free Library offers free use online of Mango Languages language-learning software to library members, from its website (www.fletcherfree.org, under "Database Links"). Library membership is free to Burlington residents, and available to nonresidents for $35/yr ($15 for seniors).
Another thing to try is www.yabla.com, which offers a free selection of contemporary video clips with simultaneous French and English-translation subtitles, pitch-adjusted slowdown, looping, word games and other features for
aural/oral practice. A paid subscription at $10/month, less for a longer period, gives access to a much larger selection, searchable by category of content, and good for lots of exposure and practice.
Annenberg Foundation: French in Action, a series of 52 half-hour video lessons http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html
Carnegie-Mellon University's site is known for its modern-language-learning online resources. Here's the link to the French page: http://ml.hss.cmu.edu/mlrc/links/french.html