Summer 2017: Summer of Productivity and Writing

Hello everyone! Comment ça va? J’espère que vos vacances vous traitent bien! Summer holiday 2017 is officially underway and many of us take this short period of time each year to refresh and to “forget” about the daily routines that the world of academia leads us to follow. For some, routines are extremely important and I know that at least for me, routines keep me motivated; constantly looking towards the future.

That being said, although summertime is meant for you to relax and enjoy yourselves, it can often times lead you develop new and disastrous habits. Alright, I’m being dramatic but as an adamant supporter of the importance of foreign language education and acquisition, summertime means that you are away from your instructor. Being away from your instructor means you are not learning new concepts, vocabulary, and are not actively in an environment where you allow yourself to be fully emerged in the language learning process.

But if you’re reading this post right now, you are probably doing something not many language students take the time to do while on holiday. You are seeking assistance and want to learn, grow, and flourish in French.

You may now be asking yourself... “what does any of this have to do with writing”? As a student of French, or any foreign language for that matter, you must by now know that there are four major skill sets involved in learning a new language — speaking, listening, reading, and writing. There are two additional skills that are necessary and essentially serve as the backbone for all foreign language learning; pronunciation and memorization.

If you are wholeheartedly dedicated to your foreign language studies then you probably have a French radio app downloaded to your phone or are constantly checking up on French news online. You are therefore constantly reading, listening, and repeating what you have read or heard…or maybe that was just me as a young student. Nevertheless, we all tend to neglect our writing skill set.

I want you all to change that this summer. I have created an “Écriture” section for the website which will serve multiple purposes; one (1) to provide you with tools and tips on how to improve your writing and two (2) to provide you with fun writing challenges that will allow you to practice your writing while on holiday. I will post a daily question or prompt that will allow you to write a short response; a few sentences in length. I will then go over your responses and provide feedback and corrections if necessary. Let us make productiveness a priority this summer! The first exercise can be found by clicking here! Bon chance et à bientôt!