I had decided a couple of weeks ago that I would report on the monthly newsletter I send out in connection with my French website. The website and newsletter have been going for about six years and with a wealth of really excellent learning websites coming out in the past 12 months I really begin to question whether there is much point in continuing. However my website has always been a hobby and experimentarium rather than a professional place so the comparison is not really valid.
The purpose of the newsletter is first and foremost to draw learners of French to authentic francophone websites but I also include a more pedagogic link as well to dictionaries, other language tools or learning websites. The idea is to remind people of the reason for learning French by highlighting intrinsically interesting websites and giving them a linguistic exercise based on the content. I first got the idea from Tower of English which does this for English language websites. The newsletter goes out once a month and for June I had decided to feature a website I first learned about through Graham Attwell. The site was bilingual which I always think is interesting for learners. It was pedagogic but not in the direction of language and it was interactive, almost immersive. Ideal! I was clicking round and started looking at the conditions when I found this:
“Moreover, the creation of hypertext links leading to the Site shall only be possible with the written and prior authorization of XXXX "
There began a long email correspondance with the sponsoring company about my wish to feature the site in the newsletter. I had to give exact URLS and the text I proposed to use. Some additional text was suggested for inclusion which did not fit at all with my reason for featuring the website. I did not for example see any reason to explain how many languages the site is available in since the newsletter is only about helping people with French. And at the time of writing, the ball is in the company's court. I am waiting for a reply to my latest email supplying the additional details they requested. I must admit that I have pursued this just to see how far this would go. I realised long ago that I would have to give up and find another link for June. I find it incredible that a large well-known company expects to have so much control over something which they have put into the public domain. I thought that the whole idea of the internet was to link. I know that Google got into trouble for basing a service on links but in general moderate use of links I thought was accepted practice. I just wonder how many people even find this small print.
So this month's link is a blog of cartoons, Le Blog Krobs, because these are stories which work mainly without words and I thought it would be a good exercise for learners of French to write their own stories in French to describe what is going on. If they feel brave they can record their stories on the Voicethread of my blog. There are many different stories on the blog and so users can choose the story which appeals to them or which they think they can talk about with their current level of French.
The pedagogic link is to one of those websites which I mentioned above which make me ponder the wisdom of continuing. The site is French Pod run by Ken Carroll who has proven his approach with Chinese and Spanish. I like the site because there are lots of free short podcasts which are categorised according to level. The podcasts are short and for the lower levels include lots of repetition. The site also includes guides to grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. You pay for transcripts and exercises if you are a serious learner. What I particularly like about the site is the community of users which it facilitates so that learners can support each other. This is a feature of many of the sites which I find exemplary at the moment.
I also added a third link this month which was to a Collins dictionary widget which you can embed in your website and which I have now added to mine. In fact I have also embedded a podcast feed from French Pod as encouraged by the website. So two very different business models, one of which will make me very careful to read the small print in the future.
Added June 23: I got permission to use the link!
Keywords: Collins dictionaries, French Pod, Graham Attwell, Tower of English
