Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

I was honoured to be invited by Tom Bennett to talk at the ResearchEd event on English and MFL in Oxford on April 1st. If you'd like to attend, other MFL folk there will be Gianfranco Conti, Joe Dale, Jess Lund, David Shanks and Crista Hazell, to name a few. Here is the link for booking: http://www.researched.org.uk/event/researched-english-and-mfl/ And here is the summary of the session I'll be delivering: MFL teaching; it’s not what you do. it’s the way that you do it. This session begins by looking at what is meant by “principled eclecticism” in this so-called post-methods era of language teaching. The history of second language teaching methods is briefly discussed with a focus on the dichotomy of conscious and sub-conscious acquisition. Is learning a second language the same as learning a first language or is it the same as acquiring any skill? Scholars such as Krashen, VanPatten, Long, Lightbown, Spader and Nick Ellis will be referred to. Is there a “third way” which can ...

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/spsmith45 You may already be aware that Gianfranco and I have been working on French GCSE translation units for some time. We had previously uploaded to TES a number of these at £3 each. We have now created a full bundle of eight units and are selling it at £15. Look out for special sale prices too. So what's in this bundle? The eight units , which are pitched at GCSE Higher Tier, cover these topics: 1.  Health 2.  Volunteering 3.  Holidays 4.  Marriage 5.  Television 6.  Ambitions 7.  School 8.  Environment Each unit consists of six to eight A4 pages of densely packed text and exercises with no pictures. An answer key is provided for self-marking by pupils. The pattern is very similar for each unit: 1.  Pre-reading A set of tasks featuring the vocabulary items which will appear in the reading texts to follow. Exercise types include matching vocab lists Fr-Eng, finding synonyms ...

Robert De Niro made a memorable video during the US presidential election in which he found a large number of nouns to describe Donald Trump. Here it is: So in honour of the US president here is a French vocab list for you. idiot imbécile arriéré faible d'esprit inepte couillon débile bêta con andouille ignorant brute cloche ballot crétin roi des cons dépassé par sa situation raciste islamophobe misogyne tyran délirant narcissique paresseux menteur imprévisible incompétent incohérent xénophobe chauvin sectaire intolérant impoli vulgaire grossier dangereux odieux bouffon arrogant fou dingue extraverti désagréable agressif colérique irréfléchi imprudent immoral gênant That'll do for now. You may have others. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

https://ilini.com/ Update August 2017: since this post was written this site now offers two levels - a free section and a monthly, fully-featured subscription. @iliniFrench This is a promising new site, currently in Beta, which features regularly updated, advanced level French videos, complete with sub-titles, downloadable, translated transcripts and optional English translations. The content so far would suit adult learners and advanced level students. Each authentic video lasts under two minutes and topics available so far include: A glass wall to protect the Eiffel Tower A French woman crowned Miss Universe (oh dear!) A record year for French car-maker Renault Emmanuel Macron's supporters Women in cinema A farmer gettinga suspended sentence for helping migrants The François Fillon scandal The presidential election The 2015 Paris climate conference The videos are sourced from the likes of France 24, BFM and Euronews (copyright?). For each video you can downlo...

I used these presentations as a basis for discussion with the PGCE and IPGCE students based at the University of Buckingham. Buckingham Uni PGCE Feb 2017 Teaching culture from Steve Smith Buckingham Uni PGCE Feb 2017 Assessment from Steve Smith Buckingham Uni PGCE Feb15 Listening from Steve Smith Buckingham Uni PGCE Feb 2017 Purposeful games from Steve Smith

Just to let you know that the typescript of my new book Becoming an Outstanding Languages Teacher is at Routledge and I'm hoping it will be available very soon. It's one of a series of books covering different subject areas. Maths and English are already published. There will be around 200 pages and this is what what the Contents page looks like: Introduction 1. Running a room 2. Dissecting a lesson: visuals 3. Dissecting a lesson: using written texts 4. Dissecting a lesson: task-based lessons 5. Enjoying sounds 6. Great games 7. Getting grammatical 8. Words and chunks 9. Dissecting a lesson: speaking 10. Dissecting a lesson: writing 11. Teaching all abilities 12. Pace, questioning and other interactions 13. Moving them forwards 14. What makes an outstanding language teacher? Conclusion What is a bit different about this book, I think, is the focus on detailed analyses of classroom interactions - notably typical question-answer sequences and the subtleti...

So Controlled Assessments are on the way out and we essentially.return to the form of oral assessment which preceded them. From May 2018 pupils will do a role play, discuss a photo and have a conversation based on the prescribed topics or "sub-themes". This applies to both Foundation and Higher Tier. What can teachers do to help pupils score well? I may have some useful ideas for you after many years of preparing pupils and a few years of marking oral exams for AQA during the previous regime. 1. Rote learning is still important While it's true that CAs encouraged learning whole talks by heart (though it was never meant that way - unintended consequences), don't think for a moment that the learning by heart won't play a role in the new format. I recall very clearly, when I marked for AQA at least 15 years ago, listening to the candidates of one school who all produced very similar answers. For example, when asked to describe a recent meal every candidate had ...

When the pressure is on and there are only so many hours on the week, you need a repertoire of zero preparation go-to activities which promote input and/or practice. Here are five you might well find useful. 1. My weekend We know that listening is the most important yet often neglected skill for language learning. It's also something some pupils find hard to do. To develop listening skill and provide tailored comprehensible input try this: You tell the class you are going to recount what you did last weekend and that they have to make notes in English. The amount of detail you go into and the speed you go will depend on your class. Talk for about three minutes. If you spent the whole weekend marking, you can always make stuff up! You then make some true or false (maybe not mentioned too) statements in the target language about what you said in your account. Class gives hands up (or no hands up) answers. This can then lead into a simple pair work task where pupils make up their own ...