Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

I’ve posted previously about grammar teaching, for example here  (what does knowing grammar mean?), here  (what's wrong with the words + grammar approach) and here  (how do we curb our addiction to grammar teaching?). I also posted a general summary of research on grammar here .  Drawing on what I’ve read in the research and my own experience, I’d sum up my views as follows: Teachers often overestimate how useful it is to know and practise grammar structures. There is confusion between declarative knowledge (“knowing that”) and procedural knowledge (“knowing how”). Teachers often don’t know that research suggests that it's hard to turn the first type of knowledge into the second. Given how little time we get for languages in school, we shouldn’t spend that much of it on grammar practice because it’s not grammar practice that drives acquisition. Grammar is more useful and interesting for some pupils than others. Most think it’s a turn-off and would rather use the...

 This is an update about all the video listening tasks I have for French classes on frenchteacher.net. I'm happy to be able to share such a large range of interesting and sometime fun listening resources based on online videos I have chosen for: - Interest - Relevance to syllabuses - Clarity (being able to slow the audio is an advantage) - Length (generally no more than 3 minutes) The fact that there is a visual element makes the listening more palatable and interesting, I think. I found classes were very attentive when I ran lessons with video. As always, I favour intensive listening — getting students to listen carefully several times over so that they can really process what they are hearing. Stuents can either listen individually or the teacher can play the video from the front. I quite like the second solution as you can supplement the content, adjust the pace to the class. It's more fun for the teacher too. Exercise types I use are nothing revolutionary and depend on the ...

We’ve just had the latest batch of A-Level results in England, Wales and NI. It’s the familiar tale of small cohorts and high results, the latter caused by the former. Results day often provokes reflection, so here is mine! It’s about acknowledgement of failure and accountability. I’m getting political! Over the last decade or so, modern foreign languages in England have been subjected to a succession of reviews, reports and curriculum initiatives. We have had the Teaching Schools Council report on MFL pedagogy (Bauckham, 2016), the work of NCELP, the emphasis on the so-called three pillars of phonics, vocabulary and grammar, and the ALCAB review of A-level. More recently, these ideas have been embedded in curriculum and examination reform, with a strong emphasis on carefully specified vocabulary, phonics and grammatical knowledge. Whatever one thinks of the thinking behind these reforms, it seems reasonable to ask a fairly basic question: H ave they worked? If one important aim was t...

 I’ve seen references to this newer version of TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) from US teachers and was curious to find out more. I asked ChatGPT, which gave me the description below. Given its main sources, I would think the description makes sense, though no doubt TPRS-users would differ in their interpretations. After sharing the AI description, I’ll add a few thoughts about TPRS (both versions). I risk treading on one or two toes! ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… TPRS 2.0 is an updated version of Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) , developed and promoted by Blaine Ray and colleagues. Unlike the original TPRS, which emphasized comprehensible input through teacher-led storytelling and reading, TPRS 2.0 deliberately builds in more opportunities for learners to produce language, while still keeping input at the centre of the approach.  The main innovations are: A greater focus on “manageable chunks”. Instead ...