Steve Smith

Aw, thanks. Enjoy the coming year. It’s still the middle of the holidays in Europe.

Declarative vs. procedural memory in language learning: What every learner & teacher should know – Matt Bury MA Online & Distance Education & Applied Linguistics | Computer Assisted Language Learning

I’ve only just discovered your blog, Matt. I like this post. Good for language teachers. matbury.com/wordpress/in...

World Language colleagues: What do you need? Here are some resources to support you as you begin a new school year journey: drive.google.com/file/d/1cMWM...

30 years! Dare I say you look too young?

I now have two volumes of blogs plus commentary being proofed. Around 600 pages. I hope to publish the first later this month.

A new post for teachers interested in language teaching history. frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2025/08/wilh...

You may be right, but we don’t know, do we?

A new post for teachers interested in language teaching history. frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2025/08/wilh...

Nothing. I am against Cooper’s decision, but when she says there is more to PA than the public knows, I am curious.

YouTube video by Kevin Stratvert ChatGPT 5 Is Here — Free to Use & Packed with Game-Changing Features!

A short intro to the new GPT 5. youtu.be/CmkkuCfZJbc?...

From my archive. I’m now putting together a second volume of blog posts with commentary. frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2025/07/what...

Spain’s economy is the envy of Europe, but the plight of its strawberry pickers tells another story | Tone Sutterud Its migrant-powered GDP growth is lauded. If only the people who pick its fruit could be treated with dignity and respect, says Tone Sutterud, a human rights and environment journalist and translator

Not something for Spain to be proud of. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Is it, like, OK to say ‘like’ now? A new book argues the long despised word associated with valley girls is now essential to the way we communicate

“The only language police are self-appointed.” Nice. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Good for them!

Not sure I agree. I see a lot of ALL events, show and tells, free webinars, MAT-organised CPD. The more business-focused stuff too.

I do think there are many creative teachers out there who do not seek to share ideas. I’m struck by how blogs have gone out of fashion. There’s definitely a ‘follow the guru’ tendency. But that happened long ago, e,g Krashen.

On X I had many followers but not that much interaction. I left it for the obvious reasons. I have found LinkedIn good recently, for promotion and some discussion.

Don’t you think there is a far greater variety of views and practice shared these days thanks to the internet? As a young teacher I had much less input. In MFL my feeling is that Facebook is where most subject-specific, well moderated collegiate discussion happens.

‘Vous’ form and infinitives are more common.

Yes, similar. I found this.

It’s quite common. You see it on signs and in leaflets, for example.

Is that quite the same? Not sure it is.

You can make a case for avoiding nous and vous for beginners and just stick the phonologically identical forms of many verbs.

Also pools.

Is that rules for trunks are so strict (tight?) in French polls?

Btw, I like the French use of ‘je’ for giving jnstructions/guidance, eg ‘Je mets ma ceinture.’ We don’t do this at all in English.

Yes, not just possibly. I was asked once to review content for the latest Tricolore book. I suggested they replace lots of ‘nous’ with ‘on’ in audios.

Add ‘iel’ for 9 legged thingy.

I’ll never think of pools any other way now. Don’t let them dwell on country.

Fun post. I agree with your final paragraph. Indeed, attempts to shoe-horn linguistics into MFL concern me since time would be taken away from the main goal of language learning. I say that as a Linguistics graduate.