Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

I am returning to the theme of quite a few of my blog posts over the last month. I want to look at more of the detail of this report on which the new MFL A-levels are set to be based. I previously considered the five main weaknesses it pointed out in the current A-levels. I have also blogged about the implications of the indicative list of themes it has proposed for exam boards to consider. Here is the report:   https://alevelcontent.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/alcab-report-of-panel-on-modern-foreign-and-classical-languages-july-2014.pdf Firstly, below is the complete list of French themes which it is suggested should be studied from the three categories below: social issues and phenomena politics, current affairs and history intellectual culture, past and present The themes: Republican values Schooling Provinces and regions Paris/Montreal/Marseilles Dom-Toms Québecois culture Les grands projets Secularism Freedom of expression The French revolution The ...

Film, le septième art , has long held a high status within French culture. It is worth incorporating in an A-level course for several reasons. First, it is one way of becoming more closely acquainted with French-speaking culture. Second, films are an excellent source of authentic listening material. Thirdly, students who are going on to study modern languages at university will feel better prepared for the study of film at that level. Finally, watching a film, although less intellectually daunting than reading a novel or play, can be a stimulating challenge. Which films?   A number of factors should be kept in mind when selecting films or directors to watch. Is the language of an appropriate level of challenge? Is the soundtrack clearly audible? Is the content appropriate for the age range of the students? Is the content of the film stimulating and worth studying? Are there support materials to help with the study of the film e.g. study notes from books or onlin...

I have just been reminded of this excellent web site. http://24h-vie-enfant.partage.org/ The introduction reads: La vie d’un enfant peut être très différente en fonction de l’endroit où il grandit.  5 enfants nous racontent leur journée au Brésil, au Burkina Faso, en Roumanie, au Liban et au Cambodge. Si la réalité de leur quotidien est souvent très éloignée de la nôtre, elle est aussi parfois très proche. Très bon voyage et belles rencontres… There are five stories of children's daily liives in different parts of the developing world. You could exploit the words and images in various ways, but I might suggest that students be given a worksheet with one or more of the following exercise types: Tick off true sentences from a list Complete an English-French vocab list True/false/not mentioned Questions in French Questions in English Linking starts and ends of sentences Multi-choice in English or French The level is intermediate, so this would work with goo...

 Jacqui Turner is an experienced, practising teacher of A-level French. She kindly sent me her  views on the draft subject content being proposed for the new MFL A-levels to be taught from September 2016. She writes: Steve has written extensively about the proposed changes and new forms of assessment, so I don’t intend to repeat those here. Rather this is a personal reaction, from a teacher who has extensive knowledge and experience of teaching A Level and supporting practitioners in other schools. I’ve deliberated for quite some time about this post before putting pen to paper, so to speak, because my first response is actually one of disappointment over a number of issues. Firstly, I was somewhat dismayed over the makeup of the group putting forward these new recommendations. There was no representation from the examination boards; I consider this to be a major oversight, as there seem to be some exaggerations, even inaccuracies, in what is asserted by ALCAB ove...

Here is the latest list of resources which might appeal to primary French teachers, especially those teaching Y6. A particular feaure is the list of 21 parallel reading tasks. MISCELLANEOUS   “A good student” poster Teacher phrases for the classroom Stick-in vocabulary lists Strip bingo vocabulary game Fridge sheet – stick on fridge for revision Place mat with classroom expressions Prepositions – Où est le chat? (display/worksheet) Conversation questions board game Parts of the body strip bingo game Clothing strip bingo game Pair work interview slips Word re-ordering for revision What is the question? General revision questions NUMBERS, DAYS, MONTHS  Numbers wordsearch – which number is missing? Variations on number bingo Numbers 1-60 – arithmetic sheet Numbers 1-50 dominoes Numbers 1-100 dominoes Numbers 1-100 crossword Days and months wordsearch Months of the year + dates FAMILY AND PETS  Easy text and exercises on the Simpsons – good ...

In contrast with the backward-looking A-levels proposed by the Russell Group and accepted by Ofqual, what might we have done to improve an already effective modern languages A-Level? What would be fresh, challenging and engaging? The recent JCQ report looked into why students are not doing A-level language courses and one thing which emerged was that students would like to see more interesting topics, see a greater stress on communication and less stress on grammatical accuracy. Although this would not meet the preferences of Russell Group universities, I believe student opinion, if accurately recorded, has got it right. The British tendency towards conservatism finds its expression in the desire to protect the role of reading, writing and grammatical accuracy, even when most observers would place greater value on the practical skills of listening and speaking. Most of us learn a language primarily to listen to it and to speak it. A-Level should keep this strongly in mind. My own...

The Ofqual draft content of the proposed new A-Levels refers to three thematic strands which would form the basis of the subject matter studied. These themes were chosen by the ALCAB (Russell Group) advisory group to encourage students to engage with topics relating more directly to the culture of the target language. They feel that students arriving at university have too little knowledge of the literature, history and intellectual culture of the target language cultures. Although the Ofqual document does not list in detail what might be studied, they have kept the three strands put forward by the Russell Group. These are: Social issues and phenomena Politics, current affairs and history Intellectual culture, past and present The ALCAB report went into greater detail with an "indicative list" of topics which we may assume would be picked up by the examination boards. For example, under "social issues and phenomena" for French they suggest: Les valeurs...