From Mother Tongue to Tip Tongue. A Didactic Strategy Based on Reading

Abstract

In this paper I aim at presenting Tip Tongue, a new didactic strategy invented by the French professor Stéphanie Benson. This method of teaching foreign languages consists in reading stories in which the book character (as well as the reader) starts from his/her mother tongue and is gradually exposed to more and more complex structures of a foreign language, to 100% in the last chapter. It is a concept which gives confidence to the learner and facilitates the acquisition of a foreign language in a pleasurable way, thanks to literature.

Keywords

• tip tongue
• didactic strategy
• foreign language teaching
• literature
• bilingualism