This is the follow-up post to my one the other day, in which I wrote about the Twitter polls I posted about common MFL teacher procedures and practices. Totally unscientific, but the results are in. So this is what teachers said, with responses ranging from around 100 votes up to 347, depending on the question. I'll summarise the scores and add a few comments here and there.
I altered a very few questions from my original list.
Digital apps for vocab learning
153 votes. 83% said often or occasionally. Yes, Quizlet, Memrise and others are basic tools for language teachers and students these days. My usual line on this is: fine, but don't overdo isolated words at the expense of chunks or connected language. I remain concerned that written homework has been sidelined because of Google Translate use.
Sentence builders (substitution tables)
347 votes (!). Only 13% said rarely/never, with 64% saying often. This is surely a major change brought about by the 'Contification' of the MFL curriculum. Substitution tables have been in text books for years, but I don't think they were used that much. I rarely used the ones in the Tricolore course. Teachers have a much clearer idea of how they can be exploited, using chunked comprehensible input to generate input, output and fluency. they have helped move listening from being a comprehension, product-based activity, to a process-based approach ('listening-as-modelling'). Lexicogrammar has been taken on by many MFL teachers.
Retrieval starters to lessons
107 votes. Only 2% said rarely or never, 86% said often. Not surprising. Teachers have traditionally done this a lot in MFL lessons, but all the information we have been hearing and reading about the retrieval practice effect has reinforced the role of retrieval starters.
Choral repetition (especially for beginners)
107 votes. 75% said often. 11% replied rarely/never. I think there has always been a minority of teachers who aren't keen on what they might think of as parrot repetition (as opposed to meaningful interaction). I would have answered 'often'.
Pupils reading aloud
100 votes. 81% said often or occasionally. This was out of fashion, but is now commonplace. I find that to be a positive change. Its presence in the new GCSE from 2026 will secure its role. It is a staple of the EPI approach, which will also have influenced responses.
Language learning games
122 votes. Only 3% said rarely/never. 63% said often. MFL teachers love a good game!
Teacher-led question and answer (‘circling’)
101 votes. 84% said often or occasionally. Circling is a staple of TPRS and has a long tradition in the British oral-situational approach. I would have answered 'often'. It remains a basic tool in the MFL teacher's box.
Translating sentences or paragraphs into L1 and L2
135 votes. Only 10% answered rarely/never. 64% said 'often'. Translation has always been around, but its presence in GCSE exams has made it pretty unavoidable in England. It has never left A-Level exams. I see a place for translation and used it often, but I remain sceptical about its inclusion at GCSE. It will stay there in the new subject content for 2026 onwards. (See my previous blog post.)
Narrow reading or listening tasks
188 votes. 87% answered often or occasionally. 13% hadn't heard of them. Definite Conti influence going on here, aided and abetted by moi. Recall that it was Stephen Krashen who came up with the general concept, but when Gianfranco and I write about it, we are talking about something much more tightly written, with much 'input flooding' of high frequency chunks. I think this makes more sense in a typical MFL classroom setting.
Information gap tasks
94 votes. 91% answered often or occasionally, with 53% saying often. Good to see this staple of communicative teaching alive and kicking!
Task-based activities (eg class surveys)
96 votes. Mixed results, with 62% saying they use them often or occasionally. It's certainly the case that task-based language learning generally plays a minor role in MFL, but with many teachers sometimes using tasks to support learning (what Rod Ellis calls 'task supported language learning'). My own influences from EFL and writers like Penny Ur led me to make use of 'tasks' in the classroom.
Choral reading aloud
89 votes. Mixed results, with 65% saying often or occasionally. It would have been 'often' for me. I suspect this has come into fashion with recent approaches such as EPI and Knowledge Organisers. But may practitioners, like me, have used it a lot.
Audiolingual-style (mechanical) drills (eg ‘change one element in my sentence’)
101 votes. 68% said often or occasionally, 32% rarely or never. My own response would have been often. the influence of behaviourism has not gone away, it seems.
Story construction
127 votes. 65% said rarely or never, 35% said often or occasionally. This is a staple of TPRS, but also forms part of other teachers' repertoire. I would have answered occasionally.
‘Milling around’ activities
100 votes. 71% answered often or occasionally. I would think that activities like classroom surveys, 'find someone who...' and 'Sentence Stealers' may have increased the use of walking around tasks.
Carousel work
167 votes. 79% said rarely or never. carousel work seems a little 'niche'. 18% said they use it occasionally. I never used it myself. It felt a bit messy and uncontrolled to me.
Copying out grammar notes
112 votes. 69% said often or occasionally. As with vocab tests below, this traditional practice remains well used. A great use of classroom time? I'm not convinced. that same time could be devoted to using language.
Traditional written vocab tests
111 votes. Mixed results here, with 76% saying they use traditional vocab tests often or sometimes. As I've mentioned elsewhere, this is not a favourite of mine, though i would have answered 'occasionally' in truth.
Quiet reading (eg graded readers or free voluntary reading)
103 votes. 73% said rarely or never. I'm not surprised by this finding. I daresay teachers would point to lack of time and lack of suitable readers. They may also feel that in the limited time available to them, there are better things to do. I sympathise, despite the merits of silent reading.
Knowledge Organiser booklets (with parallel texts)
105 votes. Quite a bit of love for these. 56% said that they used them often or occasionally. My first contact with these was a visit to Michaela Community School in London where Barry Smith and colleagues were using them to great effect. KOs vary, with some looking more like traditional vocab lists, but I was keen to see how many used ones with parallel texts.
Singing along
121 votes. 53% said rarely or never, 47% said often or occasionally. If you are not up for this yourself, you might consider using YouTube exponents like Alain Le lait for French. Many beginner classes find this motivational, which has to be a factor in acquisition. Not to mention the ear training and pronunciations skills singing along provides.
Verb chanting or singing
132 votes. 54% said rarely or never, 56% often or occasionally. I had imagined that rather more teachers do this. It depends quite a lot on whether respondents teach beginners. Singing verbs can be fun and give an immediate sense of mastery, but does it contribute to acquisition? Not much, though the motivation it provides may play a role.
Do you prefer to get students to work out grammar rules or just explain them up front?
281 votes. Not the easiest one to answer, since many teachers do both, depending on the class or the grammar point in question. 58% answered 'Just explain it'. There is some support from research for this, e.g. in Frank Boers' recent book which I blogged about here.
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