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A-level handbook update

Steve Glover and I have made very good progress with our forthcoming handbook for A-level language teachers. Steve has been focusing mainly on the teaching of film and literature, while I have been producing material on aural and written texts, vocabulary and grammar, and developing oral skills. If all goes well, we could publish in around two to three months.

If you don’t know Steve Glover, he writes the superb website dolanguages.com and has a long record of materials writing, including his own A-level French course Attitudes. He is an expert in his field and has provided specialist CPD to A-level teachers on many occasions. He’s also an old friend which makes the collaborative writing process easy and enjoyable. I’m sure he’s done many other things I don’t even know about. It’s fair to say we are both veterans now!

My own relevant expertise stems from 32 years of A-level teaching and resource writing, working as an associate for a few years with AQA (focused on A-level) and my general knowledge of second language learning theory and pedagogy.

The book will be structured as follows, barring last-minute changes of heart.

Introduction

1. Pedagogical principles

2. A-level courses

3. Teaching with written texts

4. Developing listening comprehension

5. Developing oral skills

6. Vocabulary and grammar

7. Teaching film

8. Teaching literature

9. The IRP

10. Preparing for assessment

Yes, 10 chapters. Satisfying, isn’t it?

The book will be A4 format, around 180-200 pages, with a lot of ready-made sheets to print off for French, German and Spanish. The emphasis is on practical pedagogy, which should come as no surprise.

We have kept in mind A-level teachers in UK nations and those teaching International A-levels with Cambridge and Edexcel. This has complicated the writing process, since each specification is different, especially the international ones. In addition, the role of AS-level is different in Wales and Northern Ireland. (It is stilI part of A-level - a good thing in my view.) I reckon Scottish Higher teachers and Irish Leaving Certificate teachers will find most of the chapters relevant and useful.

We see this book as useful for trainees, recently qualified teachers, and more experienced teachers who may be teaching A-level for the first time. The book contains a lot of activities and guidance based on personal experience. We hope that comes across to readers. Teaching A-level is very rewarding!

We are grateful to teachers who have responded on Facebook groups to fact-finding questions. Reading specifications and assessment schemes has been a necessary, but relatively less interesting aspect of this project!

We are keeping fingers crossed that there are no imminent changes to A-level courses. (The current specs go back to 2016.) But in fact, if courses were to alter, we could make changes to the texts in due course.

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