Lesson 1: Football vocabulary in French
Exploring strategies for learning football-related French vocabulary and promoting independent language learning.
Learning objective
- To explore French football vocabulary through a variety of language-learning techniques.
Success criteria
- I can use different methods to learn vocabulary.
- I can work out the meanings of some new words using cognates, near cognates and my existing knowledge.
- I can begin to read and say new French vocabulary.
- I can evaluate my strategies for recalling new vocabulary.
Before the lesson
Depending on the language confidence of your class, you may want to extend this lesson over two periods to ensure that the children use all the vocabulary learning techniques and have a firm grasp of the vocabulary.
Check all images, videos, links and presentation slides are suitable for your class.
Presentation: Le ballon.
Presentation: French football vocabulary.
Presentation: Score a vocabulary goal.
Whiteboards or scrap paper with pens (one between two - see Main event).
A whistle.
Link: Assessment - French Y6: French football champions (optional - see Attention grabber).
Check all images, videos, links and presentation slides are suitable for your class.
Presentation: Le ballon.
Presentation: French football vocabulary.
Presentation: Score a vocabulary goal.
Whiteboards or scrap paper with pens (one between two - see Main event).
A whistle.
Link: Assessment - French Y6: French football champions (optional - see Attention grabber).
Lesson plan
Before starting this unit, you might want to check that the children can recall:
- The verb jouer - to play.
- How to conjugate regular, present tense verbs in French, e.g.: Je joue, tu joues, il joue, elle joue - I play, you play, he plays, she plays.
How to say how old you are or how old someone is.
Before starting this unit, you might want to check that the children can recall:
- The verb jouer - to play.
- How to conjugate regular, present tense verbs in French, e.g.: Je joue, tu joues, il joue, elle joue - I play, you play, he plays, she plays.
How to say how old you are or how old someone is.
Optional - provide each child with a copy of the Knowledge catcher (see link: Assessment - French Y6: French football champions) and ask them to complete it to the best of their ability. Explain that at the end of the unit, they will revisit it, adding more information in a different colour.
Ask the children what they think this new unit is about and then explain that the unit is called 'French football champions'. Explain to the children that France has a reputation as a great footballing nation, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 2018. More recently, in 2022, France reached the World Cup final again but lost to Argentina.
Ask for a volunteer to remind the class what is meant by the word 'cognate', which has been covered in previous units. (Cognates are words that have a common language origin. If two words in different languages look exactly the same, we use the term 'cognate', if they are very similar, we use the term 'near cognate').
Display the Presentation: Le ballon.
Optional - provide each child with a copy of the Knowledge catcher (see link: Assessment - French Y6: French football champions) and ask them to complete it to the best of their ability. Explain that at the end of the unit, they will revisit it, adding more information in a different colour.
Ask the children what they think this new unit is about and then explain that the unit is called 'French football champions'. Explain to the children that France has a reputation as a great footballing nation, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 2018. More recently, in 2022, France reached the World Cup final again but lost to Argentina.
Ask for a volunteer to remind the class what is meant by the word 'cognate', which has been covered in previous units. (Cognates are words that have a common language origin. If two words in different languages look exactly the same, we use the term 'cognate', if they are very similar, we use the term 'near cognate').
Display the Presentation: Le ballon.
Presentation: Le ballon
Using the slide, introduce the word, le ballon - the ball, saying the French word or playing the audio file.
Ask the children what they think the word means and why. Hopefully, the children will recognise the near cognate and make the link with the English words 'ball' and 'balloon'.
Ask the children to practise saying the word, le ballon.
Prompt a class discussion about any vocabulary learning games that the children have enjoyed playing in the past. Ask the children to evaluate, through discussion, how effective these games have been and why.
Explain that in this lesson, the children will be exploring and evaluating different strategies for learning new vocabulary.
Questions
What are your favourite vocabulary games?
How effective have these vocabulary games been and how can you apply these to learning new words?
Display the Presentation: French football vocabulary. Ask the children to discuss in their pairs what each of the words might mean, remembering to use their knowledge of cognates and near cognates to help. Ask the children to write down their guesses for each translation. These could be recorded on the Activity: Vocabulary list (one each). Encourage the pupils to say how they think the words should be pronounced.
Use the Presentation: French football vocabulary to reveal the answers. Encourage the children to practise their pronunciation of each word aloud by copying the teacher or the audio buttons. Draw the children's attention to the different words for male and female football players.
Ask the children how many goals they scored by asking:
Combien de buts ? - How many goals?
Ask volunteers to answer, using the format:
J’ai [cinq] buts - I have [five] goals.
Encourage the volunteers to say the French words they feel they have tried and learned. Ask the class to repeat these words (in French).
Ask the children which method of learning they liked the best and which they thought was the most effective and why.
Display slide 5 of the Presentation: Score a vocabulary goal. Click to reveal each word in French and ask the class to translate into English. Ask for volunteers to share tips on strategies for memorising these words.
Further resources
Activities
Invite the class to make flash cards for each piece of new vocabulary and display them in the classroom.
Use the new vocabulary in PE lessons.
Practise key sounds using the Pupil phoneme videos.
Contact your local football team and see if they have any French players who might be willing to visit your French lessons.
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