The Goethe Institute has a simple boardgame using a number of Bauernregeln (farmers' proverbs). It is called Bauernrallye and the website has the gameboard as well as worksheets and other teaching suggestions.

My own Bauernregeln collection has over 800 proverbs arranged by months and other themes. They are great for cultural discussions in the classroom as they are short insights into attitudes and practices. Here are some more teaching ideas using Bauernregeln.

Labels: farmers' proverbs, games, german, links, teaching ideas, website

Looking for a entry point into the German music scene? The Step into German website offers videoclips, songtexts and extensive worksheets for many of Germany's current bands.

If you are a soccer fan, check the archive for materials from the World Cup in 2006.

Labels: german, links, promotion of languages

This new website www.hausgemacht.tv has short "How to" videos, offering advice on many aspects of daily life: House and garden, Food and drink, Health and fitness, Family and pets, Sport and free time, Auto and technology, Saving and DIY, Rights and law, Job and career. The videos are uploaded by users, and are accompanied by a written summary.

This site offers lots of potential for listening practice or language extension in bite-size chunks. Some videos have a very polished look, others have a more "home-made" feel. Check out Oma Luzie's cooking for a particularly nice example of the latter.

Depending on your school's attitudes towards suitable content, this is, at least at the moment, a fairly safe browsing site for students. There are a few cocktail recipes, but most other potentially non-suitable content is not permitted.

Labels: german, links, teaching ideas

I am starting to use TPRS in my teaching and am really encouraged by the student response. Yesterday I went to a great workshop in Brisbane about using gestures in language teaching.
It seems to me to be a case of reinventing the wheel for teachers to create their own sets of gestures for vocabulary when there are established sign languages that we can draw on. Using signs from DGS/Auslan/BSL/ASL etc has the added advantage that we are increasing students' awareness of these languages.
There are video dictionaries available online:
Australian Sign Language (Auslan)
British Sign Language (BSL) Site 1
British Sign Language (BSL) Site 2
American Sign Language (ASL)
I haven't found a video dictionary for Deutsche Gebärdensprache (DGS), however, there is a DGS Lexikon with illustrations of the signs.

Labels: all languages, gesture method, links, teaching ideas, TPRS