Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

I recently discovered the New York Times game called Connections. If you don't know it, you get a grid of 16 words and have to find four groups of four words which are somehow connected by meaning or usage. It's quite fun. Just like Wordle, you get one a day if you are not a subscriber. With my language teacher brain, the obvious thing was to take the same idea and design grids for my own language - French. Almost inevitably I enlisted the help of Chat GPT, though to be honest I could have done it nearly as quickly myself. I produced five grids for beginners and three grids for advanced level and uploaded them as slides on to my site. (Update: I have now added examples for Y9.) For the beginner slides, two of them consisted of three-word phrases, since I try to favour chunked language where possible - you must know the reasons by now! I found I had to edit the Chat GPT suggestions to fit with what I know about the sequence Y7s tend to learn new language. Also, Chat GPT made the...

 * and other generative AI tools such as DeepSeek, Gemini, Copilot and the rest. I don't know about you, but I am finding generative AI a tremendously useful tool for creating lesson materials. The free version of Chat GPT is my go-to, though I have dabbled with DeepSeek which seems at least as good. I posted on the GILT Facebook group recently about a few ways I have been using Chat GPT in recent months and asked group members what uses they had found for it. I am focusing here on written text uses rather than the more techie uses which I have not delved into so far. So in this post I'll list some ways I have been using Chat GPT and will also mention the uses that teachers shared on FB. You may not have thought of all of these.  Copying language from sentence builders (substitution tables) to create narrow listening and reading tasks . This makes sure that chunks are recycled in different ways. For anyone not sure what I mean by narrow reading/listening - this is where you pr...

I've been working on a booklet to support GCSE students with their vocabulary knowledge, use and fluency. The booklet consists of 18 pages, based on AQA sub-themes, though you could use it with other exam boards, even if they do not presctribe specific topics. I'll share an example of a topic below. You'll see that the format is similar to worksheets I designed ofr A-level, but at an easier level and with slight changes. I used Chat GPT to come up with the vocabulary and example senetnces. I just did a little light editing. I have not limited theshto the exam board vocab lists, but the vast majority of the words fall within the high-frequency category. The booklet could be printed off in its entirety, possibly for revision before exams, or you could pick and choose specific topics during a unit of work. Frenchteacher users will find the booklet on the Y10-11 page, right-hand column, in the GCSE exam section (2024 onwards). Here is the sample, with the tasks graded from easy...

Introduction In England, for a few years since the publication of the TSC Review of MFL Pedagogy (Bauckham, 2016), teachers have been urged to consider language teaching in terms of a 'three pillars' model, namely phonics, vocabulary and grammar. Departments have been encouraged to design their curriculum founded on those three pillars - producing a sequenced syllabus where explicit attention is given to teaching sound-spelling correspondences (SSCs), words and grammatical rules. The idea is that these these provide understandable building blocks for students who may be floundering in a sea of ill-organised input. You know how the argument goes: give students the words and the glue to stick them together (grammar) and acquisition gradually occurs. Of course, the reality is that most departments have been teaching in this traditional way for many years, even if we have moved to somewhat more communicative techniques compared with the the 1950s and 1960s. The particular focus on ...