Spring-cleaning at Frenchteacher Towers

View from here

Just a note to frenchteacher subscribers to say that I've been going through all the subscriber pages of the site checking that all the resources are up to date and accurate. I've also been making some minor cosmetic changes to the appearance of the most of the worksheets.

So far I have gone through the Y8, Y9 and Y10-11 pages. I am currently working through the A-level pages and bearing in mind the latest changes to exam specifications while doing so. Most of my resources have a good shelf-life, but some require updating with latest figures and a few need ditching completely.

Changes in technology mean that some discussion questions go quickly out of date, notably with regard to the internet, music and TV. I have been updating these.

In addition, as the old specs disappear this summer, you'll find that the A-level page in particular will be reorganised somewhat. I have renamed the "current" A-level, "legacy" and have moved some resources around, fitting them in with the new specs where relevant.

Some topics are, of course, no longer in the specifications, notably science and the environment. I shall leave these resources on the site just in case you want to use them. Quite a lot of subscribers are outside the UK and they may want to use these too.

As always, I welcome feedback on the site and ideas for new resources. I am aware that not all the resources have answer keys, but my time is limited and I would prefer to write new resources rather than go through older ones adding answers.

Thank you for subscribing and thanks in particular to the many schools and teachers who subscribe year after year. I shall not be changing the subscription price and I hope you continue to find it excellent value.

Comments

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought. ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).

The 2026 GCSE subject content is published!

Two DfE documents were published today. The first was the response to the consultation about the proposed new GCSE (originally due in October 2021) and the second is the subject content document which, ultimately, is of most interest to MFL teachers in England. Here is the link to the document. We are talking about an exam to be done from 2026 (current Y7s). There is always a tendency for sceptical teachers to think that consultations are a bit of a sham and that the DfE will just go ahead and do what they want when it comes to exam reform. In this case, the responses to the original proposals were mixed, and most certainly hostile as far as exam boards and professional associations representing the MFL community, universities, head teachers and awarding bodies are concerned. What has emerged does reveal some significant changes which take account of a number of criticisms levelled at the proposals. As I read it, the most important changes relate to vocabulary and the issue of topics

La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans,

Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

Search This Blog