Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

http://www.easy-languages.org/about/ I just came across this free site which has a decent archive of video interviews recorded on the streets. The site covers a very wide range of languages. Individual "producers" contribute recordings to the site. Each video is accompanied by a transcript in the target language along with an English translation. In a way, that's a pity because it makes it harder for a teacher who wants to design a listening task to do with the videos. By the way, the transcriptions are not entirely free of error! On the other hand, the recordings are a nice example of "parallel listening" so students could go online and just listen for practice whilst following the translated script. As a teacher you could create worksheets with questions in the target language. Students could then combine listening with reading to produce answers. This would be a very useful multi-skill exercise. As far as French is concerned, there are 26 vid...

One feature of the latest KS4 curriculum and GCSE draft specifications just released is the emphasis laid on the use of authentic texts. As far as reading is concerned, the DfE say: "GCSE specifications ... must require students to deduce meaning from a variety of short and longer texts from a range of specified contexts, including authentic sources involving some complex language and unfamiliar material, as well as short narratives and authentic material addressing a wide range of relevant contemporary and cultural themes" Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/400854/GCSE_modern_foreign_languages_January_2015.pdf A similar message comes across with regard to listening. We are faced with a familiar conundrum here. How do we source material which is authentic (i.e written or spoken for native speakers), whilst also interesting and at a suitable level for teenage students? This problem is particularly acute for listening, where almost...

I've been doing some superficial reading on the value of error correction in the classroom following a Twitter discussion with Chris Stolz, an American TPRS teacher who strongly supports the view, advanced by Stephen Krashen back in the early 1980s, that error correction plays no part in improving students' language proficiency. Like most teachers I used error correction of writing, sometimes selective, sometimes just underlining with or without codes in the margin, along with selective correction and "recasting" of oral responses. I confess that I rarely questioned this general approach and assumed it to be appropriate. I and my colleagues would, however, on occasion discuss different types of written error correction. In reality, most correction we did was of written work. Ah... Good old marking! To keep things brief, and because this blog is not an academic journal and you do not have much time, this is what I have found in my reading. Krashen's comprehension h...

The exam boards have been posting this week their new specifications and specimen papers for GCSE for first teaching in September 2016 (first exam Summer 2018). I'm going to take a look at AQA's offer first. AQA is by some margin the most widely used awarding body for GCSE MFL. As usual you can expect the differences between boards to be relatively marginal since they are working within a straitjacket imposed by the DfE and Ofqual, but many departments will be comparing to see if any one board meets their needs best. There is a good deal to take on board when considering a specification. I'm going to examine topics, assessment, specimen papers and mark schemes. The "at a glance" summary is here: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/french/gcse/french-8658/specification-at-a-glance The specification is here: http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/french/specifications/AQA-8658-SP-2016-V1-0.PDF I shall not look in detail at the vocabulary and grammar lists. D...

My wife, son and I just got back from a fabulous driving tour of California, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. That's why I've been quiet on the blog recently. I thought I would combine our experience with a lesson plan idea for you. This is the tried and tested journey account based on diary notes. You can copy an paste these if you wish or make up your own. I would use this type of stimulus for lots of oral question-answer and building up of longer utterances . Students could take notes during the conversation or just use their memories if they write up their account. First person singular or plural could be used - the latter if you want to specifically practise verb forms with nous or (better?) on . The exercise essentially becomes one of changing nouns to verbs, then adding as much extra detail as you or the pupils want. Students could then write their own illustrated accounts adapting the language they have practised or give an oral presentation. Watch out for pupils ...

Regular users of the site will know that there are plenty of useful resources for GCSE, AS and A2 exam revision in England and Wales. In case you are not familiar with the site contents, here is a summary. If you haven't signed up yet, don't forget it's still only  £20 a year, not much more than a single A-level text book - frenchteacher contains vastly more than a text book too. At least 1000 secondary schools subscribe in the UK. Instant online sign-up with Paypal or card. GCSE Reading booklet with a range of comprehension and translation into English tasks A set of higher tier reading comprehension passages with questions in English 400 French signs in Word or Powerpoint (foundation/higher tier) A large range of reading texts with various exercises for vocabulary building (foundation/higher) A higher tier vocabulary list with translations  A set of listening tasks based on the  Encore Tricolore  course for use in class A set of gap fill reading tasks for ...

In my last blog I looked at ways of practising translation into English. This time I'm going to suggest ways of approaching translation into the second language. Translation from L1 to L2 is what we might call an "output activity". It does not provide much meaningful input, but focuses on grammatical form and knowledge of vocabulary. It does a supply a small amount of input in the sense that the final product is in the target language. It is also reasonable to assume that it does help embed a command of vocabulary, morphology and syntax. Many pupils find it hard and it will feature in future GCSE exams in England and Wales (20% of writing marks). There is a really good Slideshare presentation about this topic: http://www.slideshare.net/richpemberton/l1-use-in-the-l2-classroom What variations can we find on translation into the TL? If you read the last blog you'll see some of these are mirror images! Teacher-led sessions where sentences or a passage are transl...