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Médecins Sans Frontières resources

Some time ago Médecins sans Frontières placed some excellent French resources on their British site.

The themes covered, unsurprisingly, are the causes of poverty, the work of humanitarian associations, immigration and medical research. They say:

"The films illustrate challenges facing the global community and encourage the discussion of wider social issues. The resources can be used by schools wishing to promote cross curricular collaboration since there are links to Science, Geography, Maths, RE, English and ICT.
Our aim is to provide authentic sources which will be engaging for students. We would also like to raise awareness of MSF’s work in the field and show young people the circumstances and challenges faced by their contemporaries in the wider world."

There nine short videos in all, each one accompanied by a transcript and exercise.

I had a look at one on AIDS. The images are accompanied by a voice-off narrative, spoken in very clear French read at a perfect pace for advanced students. An interview during the film is voiced over in French. The content is interesting and should open the eyes of the average A-level student.

The transcript is in Word which is great because the teacher can easily edit it, produce a gapped transcript or other exercise. The exercises are also in Word and are well put together, with true/false, notes to take, a brief gapfill summary and essay.

These MSF resources are superb and would complement perfectly a sequence of lessons on poverty, development and the work of "associations humanitaires".


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