GRIFF includes interactive exercises in French grammar, vocabulary, reading and composition based on a corpus of literary texts by French Canadian authors from the western part of the country. A version with grammar and exercises only is also available.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Learners will consolidate their grammatical knowledge; apply such knowledge to both texts and interactive exercises; develop vocabulary by learning literary or less commonly used expressions in spoken language; consolidate verb, noun and adjective morphology and rules of agrement between nouns and adjectives; develop reading and writing proficiency; discover French writers from the western part of Canada.
Target Student Population:
Intermediate high and advanced learners.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Originally conceived as supporting material for an existing basic course at university level for students with a French immersion background, this website may be adapted for intermediate or advanced FSL learners. Adjustment needed for FSL may be more or less significant, depending on course goals and the students's exposure to literature.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The site has a clear, well-defined purpose: help the students to learn the grammar while practising reading and writing. The main menu has the following sections: le present de l'indicatif, l?imperatif present, le subjonctif present, le nom et l'adjectif, le passe compose, l'imparfait. Each of these sections is further subdivided into 5-6 sections dealing with some aspect of the main section, and each subsection has 4-16 application exercises. There is a "revision" for each subsection, including more exercises. The test bank is still in development.
The grammar explanations are excellent for advanced learners; the exercises themselves may be applicable to other levels. The texts selection reflects some aspects (mainly vocabulary and idiomatic expressions) of Canadian French from the western part of the country. This may be a plus for those who wish French programs would be more inclusive of francophone diversity.
Materials are highly engaging and definitely complete in terms of the original objectives. The complete version includes exercises to be submitted to the course "tutor"; the other exercises have scoring, well done.
Concerns:
One possible drawback is that when the automatically scored exercises are corrected, the wrong answers are signaled by a check mark and the correct answer inserted. This does not allow the student to compare his/her original answer with the corrected one. The test bank, covering a general review is not yet available.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The rating is based on what is presently available and functional on the site: reading materials, vocabulary and grammar explanations, grammatical tools, writing exercises to be sent to the instructor, study guide for each chapter. The site is definitely useful as a teaching resource,
but keeping in mind the need to adapt the material for specific levels. Griff is also suitable for independent study, especially for the grammar overviews, the internal dictionary, and the interactive exercises. Independent learners may also use the grammar-only version: http://www.fsj.ualberta.ca/griff98/.
Concerns:
The test bank is not yet available.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
GRIFF is very well designed, very easy to use. Functionality will improve when all internal and external links work and when the corresponding pages have been developed in the test bank.
Creative Commons:
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