The Accord web site offers
free access to self-correcting additional exercises.
Discover the Accord method.
For the first time, a French
method comes with a web site that allows learners to practice autonomously at
home or in a ressource center. The web site offers a series of self-correcting
exercises organized by "Dossier", "Unité" and language
goal and listed in the same order as they appear in the textbook.
For example, learners who are currently studying Unité 2 "Premiers
contacts" of Dossier 1 "Arrivée", can select the corresponding
unit in the "Sommaire" menu. A menu appear in which the exercises
are listed by language goal, allowing the learner to go directly to the lesson
of their choice - "la négation", "l'élision",
etc. The student then will be able to navigate between exercices in any one
"Unité" using the navigation bar on the left, without having
to return to the previous screen.
These exercises are self-correcting, using variations on fillin exercices and multiple choice to ask for information. While these are "closed" exercise format, variations in capitalization or spacing will not be interpreted as errors by the computer, and multiple correct answers are possible. Once the student has completed the exercise, the "Vérifier" button at the bottom of the screen will check their work. This all-important stage allows learners to examine their mistakes before receiving the correct answer, thereby adding a pedagogical dimension to the automatic exercises that is not present in self-correcting textbook exercises. Learners can then choose between clicking on the "Refaire" button (image) to correct the errors, or clicking on the "Les réponses correctes" button to display the correct answers.
While these are offered
as supplemental exercises, designed for learners who wish to further strengthen
their skills independently of the class, the teacher may of course assign them
as homework if they wish, to be done either at home or in a language lab or
ressource center.
The phonetic exercises (the second-last exercise in each unit) are designed
to be done with or without sound, in order to accomodate users who do not have
access to a high speed connection. The no-sound version appears by default on
the screen for this reason. To access the Quicktime audio version of the exercise,
simply click on the link undr the title.
For learners without Internet access, the exercises are all reproduced in a photocopiable format in the "guide pédagogique" for Accord. The teacher can thus copy the exercises for distribution to any students wishing to do additional exercises.