This story takes place in France and features a French accent. For Canadian or American learners, it’s a great opportunity to help them understand a variety of accents from the Francophonie.

You might want to explain the following two terms if you believe they are not familiar with them, and/or show pictures:

- Un cassoulet  
- Un millefeuille *There is a question about millefeuille in the quiz so you may want to show the millefeuille picture after the entire video. 

Here is the script of the story - *A PDF version is also available on the platform:

Pour mon dîner, je vais dans ce restaurant français.

J’ai très faim et il y a beaucoup de choix au menu.

C’est un beau restaurant !

Un serveur me dit « Bonjour ! » et m'invite à m'asseoir.

Je choisis une table près de la fenêtre.

Je regarde le menu et il y a beaucoup de plats délicieux !

J’aimerais manger quelque chose de nouveau aujourd’hui.

J’hésite entre le poulet et le cassoulet.

« Au menu du jour, nous avons une salade césar en entrée et un saumon grillé avec des légumes en plat principal. »

« Comme dessert, nous avons une excellente mousse au chocolat que je recommande ! »

« Êtes-vous prêt à commander ? »

« Oui, je prendrais le poulet à l’ail et citron et un millefeuille, s'il vous plaît. »

« Quelque chose à boire ? »

« Un café, s’il vous plaît. »

Ma commande arrive rapidement.

« Merci, madame. »

J’aime beaucoup ce que j’ai choisi. C’est très bon !

160 mots

I designed this listening activity so that learners can naturally and gradually acquire skills and vocabulary, conducting each step in a large group setting. Personally, I avoid individual work on the laptop or tablet at all costs.

To give you an idea, here’s how I would conduct this activity with my students:

As I do at the start of each period, I share the learning goals and success criteria for the lesson. In small groups or individually, I challenge students to write down as many three-letter words as they think they have heard and identified during the first listening. I usually set a focus on words with three letters or more to avoid concentrating on determiners and prepositions.

Listening 1: The first listening features reduced speed but does not include any written text to accompany the images. Students should be taking notes of the words they can identify.

I invite students to share with their teammates the words they managed to hear and refine their list.

We regroup to create a list of words, which can be done on the board, orally, or using a collaborative board like Jira if your classroom technology permits.

Listening 2: The second listening is also at a reduced speed and includes French subtitles.

I encourage them to follow along with the words. I remind them to compare with cognates, which are similar to English. From my experience, students appreciate being able to listen to this a second time.

Listening 3: This third listening offers the English translation at a reduced speed.

Here, they can easily compare the words with English and build connections with their first language. I usually pause the video multiple times during this listening to highlight words, differences, similarities, and fun facts. I distribute the vocabulary list and the script for their reference so they can refer to them and study from them.

Listening 4: This last listening plays at normal speed without subtitles or translation.

Once students are familiar with the vocabulary and understand most of the content, it's time for a final listen at a faster pace, similar to what they would hear in real life. They have the script in hand to follow along, as well as the vocabulary list.

At the end of the video, learners will practice with a short quiz projected on the board.

In my LMS platform, like Google Classroom, I share with my students:

- Learning Goals

- Success Criteria

- A short description of the task

- YouTube Video

- PDF of the vocabulary list**

- PDF of the script**

- Quizlet**

**available for free on this platform