Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

Introduction Here’s an issue I have come across. It crops up when a teacher says something like this to me “But students have to know grammar to speak and write properly. If we don’t teach the rules, how will they learn the grammar.” So let me look at this and try to clarify what knowing grammar means and how we might help students ‘know grammar’ in a useful sense. When language teachers talk about knowing grammar, what do they mean? It could mean either the ability to explain rules, or the ability to use rules fluently and accurately in real-time communication. Or both! Declarative versus Procedural Knowledge Declarative knowledge refers to factual knowledge - knowing that something is the case. In the context of grammar, it’s the ability to state rules explicitly: for example, knowing that, in English, we use the third person singular -s in the present simple (e.g., “She runs every day”). It’s the kind of knowledge often gained through formal instruction, textbooks, and grammar expla...

 It's always an interesting challenge trying to find a non-mechanical way to practise grammar, one which will motivate a class more and force them to use a construction in an interesting way. Technically speaking, this is an example of ' pushed output' - putting students in a position where they have to use a structure repeatedly. In so doing they have a greater chance of internalising or 'acquiring' the construction. (We'll not get into the debate here about whether pshed output is a valid way to further acquisition, but, like most teachers, I happen to think it is and there is plenty of research support for the idea, starting with Swain (1985).) The example below, from my website, is a homework task which will force students to use the imperfect tense in French. I have in mind Y9-10 students with about theree yeras of French. In English it could equally be used to get students to use verb phrases with 'used to' - 'he used to go to school in Birmin...

This post is mainly for teachers in training, but may interest others thinking about their everyday practice.  I'm going to return to a topic I have blogged about before and one which I have referenced in videos and books for language teachers. It's about how to develop a teacher-led question-answer sequence in the classroom. This is similar to what TPRS teachers would call circling. This sort of practice no doubt goes back centuries, but becasse a central part of Direct Method from, roughly, the turn of the 20th century and was widely used in British schools from the late 1960s through into the 70s as a central plank in the Oral Approach (aka Oral-Situational approach). Many teachers would still use QA sequences today, but I suspect the craft of questioning has been neglected. Hence this post! Firstly, a simple rationale informedd by research, then an example with some tips thrown in. 1. During a teacher-led QA session students are receiving comprehensible input , interacting ...

I recently had the pleasure of reading Kedi Simpson's 2024 PhD thesis  The Developmental Trajectory of Second Language Listening Errors.   Kedi teaches French, German and Spanish in Oxfordshire and has been researching listening for a few years now, via an MA and doctorate. Since she is at 'at the chalkface' she has an intimate knowledge of what students find easy and hard. The thesis is almost a bit of a wake-up call, because what struck me the most is how many misunderstandings typical pupils have when they hear quite simple sentences in French. Over a long period Kedi got pupils to write down the meaning of what they heard when listening to short audio snippets. She also got chosen students to tell her about their experience of listening - what goes on in their heads. It's fascinating!  They often understand far less than we may think.  A central theme of Kedi’s thesis is  Fuzzy Lexical Representation Hypothesis (Gor et al., 2021), which argues that second...

  This new book is published by Routledge and is edited by Laura Molway, Senior Lecturer at the University of Oxford Department of Education, specialising in second language teacher education and  Anna Lise Gordon a PGCE tutor who now has leadership and research roles at St Mary's University, Twickenham. Key topics, as described in the book, include: Roles and responsibilities of mentors The subject knowledge and understanding required by beginning languages teachers The lesson planning process Guidance on teaching core skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening Development opportunities for languages teachers Observations and pre- and post-lesson discussions Contributors include some well-known teachers from MFL community, for example Bernadette Holmes (NCLE), Suzanne Graham, Robert Woore, Caroline Conlon, Juliette Claro, Crista Hazell, Adam Lamb, Gillian Peiser and Judith Rifeser. There are five sections and 18 chapters in all. The book is aimed at university and sch...

This post is for teachers just finding their way with AI - like me! Not written or checked by AI. Over the last year I've got into the habit of using AI, mainly Chat GPT, occasionally DeepSeek, for creating resources for frenchteacher.net. I thought I would share with you my thoughts so far. And these are overwhelmingly positive. Speed and productivity By far the most useful aspect for me is the speed at which I have been able to create worksheets and lesson plans. I am more productive as a result. In all cases, AI has not done anything I couldn't have done myself, but it has done it all so much more quickly. The best example I can think of is the ability to create multi-choice questions, which I have usually avoided since are very time-consuming to write. It's true that the options provided may not be the most subtle or create 'plausible distraction' - a requirement of assessment materials. But for my purposes, the MC questions produced are at the right level and p...

Introduction This post follows up on my previous one, which explored why L2 listening can be so difficult. Anecdotally, throughout my career—largely spent teaching higher-aptitude students—I often felt that listening, to some extent, took care of itself. This was because my students were doing a lot of listening right from day one: through oral question-and-answer work, drills, games, information gap tasks, dialogues, role plays, short audio clips, songs, and the occasional video. It’s worth recalling here that oral work almost inevitably involves listening , even if we think we’re primarily teaching speaking. This common perception—that speaking is more “visible” or measurable—may explain why listening is often under-emphasised in classroom planning. The so-called 'listening lesson' is about so much more than playing a recording while students do some exercises based on it. Let's explore how teachers can 'teach listening'. Do lots of listening A first, obvious prin...