Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

In 2022 a plan to transform the Champs- É lysées into a sort of pedestrain garden was put forward. originally it was to be ready for 2024 and the Olympic games. I now read the project has been pushed back to 2030. The resource below could be used with a high-performing GCSE class, or a Y12 class working on a 'patrimoine' theme. Les Champs-Élysées du futur Students should watch the accompanying video first. It's a longer-than-usual video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pplyJ-Mc-8U&t=177s    (5m 26) À Paris, les architectes de PCA-STREAM transforment les Champs-Élysées. Il y aura moins de bruit, moins de pollution, et beaucoup plus de nature ! Les centres-villes consomment beaucoup d’énergie et produisent beaucoup de pollution, de déchets et de bruit. Alors, les architectes utiliseraient l’écologie pour diminuer les nuisances environnementales. La transformation de la célèbre avenue parisienne devrait être terminée avant 2030. Ce sera comment ? On réduira les r...

Here is a simple listening and vocab retrieval activity from my frenchteacher site. It's easy to adapt to other languages, of course. I like this for its clarity and simplicity. I also like the fact that it helps build students' deep knowledge of vocabulary, by associating words with a meaningful context (words within conected language as opposed to words memorised from lsist or learned via a vocab app). Finally, the activity allows you to fully oprate in the target language. If you think more scaffolding is needed, you could always display partial translations on the board, though i would avoid this if possible. If you are recycling known, comprehensible language, you shouldn't need extra support. A listening exercise and vocab retrieval starter. Do as many examples as you wish. They are given in three sets of 12 sentences. Read aloud the sentences. Pupils must just supply the missing word (shown in brackets). They can do this on paper or on a mini-whiteboard.   Presen...

It is often said in the research literature on second language acquisition that two key factors behind success are aptitude and motivation . I have posted before about aptitude here. In this post, I'm lifting and adapting some sections sections about motivation from our handbook The Language Teacher Toolkit (Second Edition). I have not listed the references at the end of this post - they are part of the ample bibliography in the handbook.  Motivation has been considered over the years from various  perspectives, all of which cast light on the topic and can help language teachers provide the best conditions for learning. below are some of those perspectives. 1. Instrumental and integrative motivation Gardner and Lambert coined the terms instrumental motivation (language learning for more immediate or practical goals, such as mastering basic conversation for a professional role) and integrative motivation (language learning for personal growth, cultural enrichment and a desir...