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One of the most effective teaching strategy for languages classroom are worked examples. As a type of instructional method, they provide students with a clear and structured way to learn new language structures i.e., grammatical concepts, fulfil tasks and they can support them in the development of all 4 language skills (receptive and productive). Worked examples are essentially step-by-step model demonstrated by the teacher guiding the students through the process whilst explaining each step as well as the reasoning behind it in order to solve a problem or complete a task. What are the benefits of worked examples? Here are mine … Improved comprehension: Worked examples provide my students with a clear and structured approach in terms of understanding new and complex structures, in terms of completing certain tasks and development of their language skills, making it easier for them to comprehend the process. Reduced cognitive load: By breaking it down (chunking it) into smaller steps, my students are able to focus on each step individually without being overwhelmed.  For us, the teachers, this is important; being aware of the limitations of the WM as well as taking into account that some of our learners might need more time to embed the new knowledge into their LTM (SEND/lower prior attainers). Increased problem-solving ability: They provide my students with a model that they can apply to similar scenarios and contexts in the future, thus fostering/supporting their metacognitive strategies. Increased confidence: Seeing how concepts/tasks are tackled step-by-step helps my students to feel more confident in their own ability to approach and complete similar tasks, hence nurturing their self-efficacy along the way as well. There are different ways how I model worked examples to my learners depending on the concept/skill or the type of the class that I teach. However, one of the most useful investment for my classroom has been my visualiser and I cannot recommend it strongly enough! Examples of step-by-step model (writing) Here are some examples of how I use worked examples in my own classroom: Grammar: I often use worked examples to teach grammar rules and concepts, such as verb conjugation, sentence structures or word order, which can be tricky in German. For example, I provide my students with a worked example of a sentence using the present, past or future tense of a verb, and then ask students to apply this rule to create their own sentences. Speaking and vocabulary: Worked examples can also be used to teach speaking skills and new vocabulary. For example, I show students a worked example of a conversation in German (also providing scaffolds where needed), highlighting key vocabulary words, chunks, and their meanings. My students then practice using these chunks/words in their own conversations. Where scaffolds are used these will be removed gradually as students become more confident and independent. Writing: Worked examples can be particularly useful for teaching writing skills. For example, I prepare a worked example of a well-written piece of writing (WAGOLL), highlighting the key elements such as the variety of languages, vocabulary, structures – we analyse it together. I often show my students 2 or 3 examples and they have to rank them from the most developed response to the simplest one. After we have worked extensively with the examples, students then practice their own pieces of writing independently using this model. Reading/Listening: In the context of reading or listening skills, using a worked example shows my learners how to approach a reading comprehension question i.e., by identifying the main idea, looking for supporting evidence (I get my students to highlight/underline where they have found the answer), and summarising key points. By seeing this process modelled, my learners can better understand how to approach similar questions on their own and in listening tasks, they can improve their ability to listen for and understand important information in spoken target language. Worked examples of the 80-90 word writing task To use worked examples effectively in the classroom, I … start with simple examples and gradually increase the difficulty. provide plenty of opportunities for my students to practice tackling similar concepts/tasks on their own. encourage my students to ask lots of questions and provide feedback during the guided practice/modelling process. use a variety of examples to show how the same concepts/ideas/structures can be applied in different contexts. In conclusion, worked examples are a valuable teaching tool in modern language classrooms. By providing our students with clear examples and opportunities to practice using these concepts/structures and language on their own, we can help our students develop strong foundations in the target language. #livemodelling #memory #metacognition #workedexamples

I have been asked by a few colleagues to write about my views on the National Professional Qualification (NPQ) Lead Teacher Development, so here are my thoughts: NPQLTD is a program aimed at enhancing the skills and expertise of teachers in leadership positions within the education sector. This scheme provides a structured framework for teachers to develop their leadership capabilities and effectively lead teams and improve educational outcomes. It also offers a comprehensive curriculum that covers various aspects of leadership, including strategic planning, instructional leadership, team building, and professional development. As a participant, you will have opportunities to engage in a combination of theoretical learning, practical application, and reflective practice to deepen their understanding and hone their leadership skills. Through the program, you will acquire the knowledge and competencies needed to drive positive change within your own school or Trust. You will gain insights into effective leadership strategies, learn how to foster a culture of continuous improvement, and develop the ability to effectively collaborate with your colleagues and other stakeholders. Upon the completion of this qualification, you should become equipped to take on higher leadership roles, such as middle leadership or headship positions and it will enhance your own professional growth as well. Overall, NPQ Lead Teacher Development plays an important role in raising the quality of education by empowering teachers with the necessary skills, knowledge, and confidence to lead effectively and drive positive change in their schools and educational communities. You will be studying and covering the following… Module contents: *Learning Module 1 Design and Implementation The first module introduces you to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) implementation guide for schools and drills down into the stages of ‘Explore’ and ‘Prepare’, while also considering the necessary foundations of treating implementation as a process and providing a supportive environment. You will: Audit your own knowledge and skills against the Early Career Framework (ECF) and use the same audit to monitor your progress and development through the programme. Further consider, with your in-school coach, the most appropriate data sets and analysis tools that you can draw on to inform your decision on which professional development priority to focus on Draw on research evidence about what makes for effective professional development, to inform your plans and actions. Be supported to decide on and engage with an applied learning experience in the form of implementation of an appropriate professional development programme, and Be supported from the start, in building an evaluation of the impact of your interventions on teacher effectiveness. Learning Module 2 Delivery and Implementation The second module uses the EEF guide stage 5 ‘Deliver’ to build on Module 1’s exploration and preparation to support you in implementing the delivery of your plans. You will: Consider how to deliver a range of development approaches suitable for all, with appropriate adjustments, drawing on internal and external expertise, as well as re-purposing well-structured frameworks and resources. Be supported to choose activities that suit the aims and context of your professional development programme. Consider strategies to enable staff to apply their learning to their own subject and phase contexts. Learn the importance of prioritising the ‘active ingredients’ of the approach until they are securely understood and implemented, and only then, if needed, introduce adaptations, and Learn the importance of developing strategies to manage expectations and encourage ‘buy-in’ until positive signs of change emerge. Learning Module 3 Evaluation and Implementation The third module draws on stage 6 of the EEF model for implementation ‘Sustain’, focusing on the sustainability of your delivery and its impact through a supportive culture and distributed leadership. You will: Learn the importance of monitoring implementation and using this information to tailor and improve the approach over time, e.g., identifying a weak area of understanding and providing further training. Learn the importance of reinforcing initial training with expert follow-on support within the school if impact is to be sustained. Learn to monitor and evaluate teacher development and its impact effectively, and Consider how to assess the appropriateness of scaling up, and how to implement this as a new implementation process. Each module will contain: Self-auditing Online self-directed learning Face-to-face sessions Online synchronous and multimedia activities Coaching sessions Applied learning experiences Engagement in online discussion forums, and A formative self- and programme assessment opportunity. LLSE program schedule To complete the course successfully and be awarded the qualification you will need to meet the following criteria: Participation in at least 90% of the course, and Pass the summative case study assessment. To demonstrate you have participated in at least 90% of the course, your engagement with the online activities will be monitored. A register will be taken for each of the face-to-face workshops and webinars. If your engagement with the course is at risk of falling below the 90% threshold you will be contacted to find out what additional support, you may need to ensure completion. I, personally, have enjoyed completing this qualification and believe it has given me the knowledge and the tools in terms of how to prepare for the whole school improvement approach; how to plan, implement and sustain changes and initiatives across the department(s) and school. * Source: https://llse.org.uk/ #CPD #leadership #NPQLTD #PD

I decided to write this blog post because too often, when I chat to my fellow colleagues either at conferences, subject meetings, or various social media platform, I am asked the same question: ‘How do you stretch your high-attainers?’ In general, we can identify our high attaining students in our classrooms quite easily. Although some of them might be more modest about their abilities, they tend to display the following characteristics… They are the students who exhibit strong qualities such as attentiveness, excellent concentration, precise imitation, rapid recognition of patterns, and the ability to hold complex or longer sentences in their memory, which they then can articulate quite fluently. These students also have easier time articulating longer words and distinguishing between unfamiliar phonetic sounds (phonemes). They are always keen, enjoy learning languages and will often choose to continue learning languages even further at A – Level and beyond. They are more adept at observation, pattern recognition, and vocabulary acquisition. So how can we, the teachers, harness our knowledge of these top-performing learners in a way that will be advantageous for them? To address the question, my answer is always to start with your curriculum! Curriculum design: I, personally, don’t believe there is only one ‘correct’ approach to language teaching. The way we choose to teach depends on our specific context, our class, our students, our setting… In cases of the best teaching, I have observed myself, it is often a combination of methods, therefore whatever is the teaching ‘method’ of your choice, be it a textbook, TPS, EPI, parallel text, didactic approach, when mapping out your curriculum, ask yourselves this question: “Is our curriculum designed in a way that it caters for all of our learners, in other words, does it provide the necessary scaffolding for our lower attaining students and the desired stretch / challenge for our high attaining students?” With the focus on your high-attainers, have you asked yourselves these questions and factored in the following teaching techniques? Retrieval Practice: when completing retrieval practice, how do we challenge our most able students? For example: what about asking the students to change the tenses? Using different persons or register, justify or give a reason? Or when using translation as RP task, we could ask our high-performing students instead of translating the sentence: ‘ I saw lots of countries.’, this sentence: ‘Last year we visited many countries.’ – here we have increased the challenge as the student needs to use 1st person plural, invert the verb as well as remember the irregular past participle of ‘besuchen’. In the upcoming Language Show (Saturday, 11th November 13.30h), I will be talking about ‘Effective questioning in the Language classroom’ as I believe, the way we question our learners is important not only in terms of C4U but also stretching them. Questioning: when asking students questions, do we (in accordance with the notion of adaptive / responsive teaching) in lieu of using a random ‘cold calling’, plan and match our questions to our students? Do we use targeted questioning? For example: Instead of formulating your question like this: ‘Was möchtest du heute machen?’ considering asking it like this and target your high-attainer: ‘Wenn du Zeit hättest, was würdest du am liebsten heute machen?’ Oral and written tasks: have we planned for open-ended tasks, so our higher attaining students can be stretched? How do we formulate the task, so it is stretching them? What about creative writing? Have we provided them with ‘models of excellence’, so they know what they are aiming for? For example: what about wording your written task like this: Das Thema: Mein Traumurlaub ‘Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie planen Ihren Traumurlaub. Beschreiben Sie in einem Aufsatz, wohin Sie reisen möchten, warum Sie diesen Ort ausgewählt haben, welche Aktivitäten Sie planen, und wie Sie sich fühlen, wenn Sie endlich dort sind. Geben Sie auch an, mit wem Sie diesen Traumurlaub verbringen möchten und was Sie aus dieser Erfahrung mitnehmen werden.’ This could be also applied to an oral presentation. Extra listening and reading input: do we provide opportunities for these? Do we have the necessary resources? Here on my Wakelet are examples of extra listening / reading / video apps, students can use. They are for German, but many are multilingual, and the language can be changed to the language you teach. Projects and competitions: could these be planned for in our curriculum? Examples: film and book projects, cultural projects with history, geography, art, music, cooking, and baking; just to name a few. For competitions, join Association for Language Learning (ALL), they send a weekly newsletter which lists all different competitions that are running for variety of languages – all in one place, how to enter them, submission dates, rules etc. Link to join here:https://www.all-languages.org.uk/join/become-a-member/ Here are examples of some: Setting: are we able to set / group our classes based on their attainment or prior attainment? If so, how have we planned for this? What adaptations have we made in our curriculum design? Have we adapted our lessons / resources and how did we adapt them? Grammar: how have we planned for teaching Grammar? High-attainers often want to know how the language works; there is nothing wrong with teaching Grammar explicitly. They want to speak about other people not just themselves, so teaching them verb paradigm is important as are cases, genders, adjectival endings and other ‘sexy’ phrases and idioms. How do we do this and when? Independent work: are there opportunities for our high attaining students to work independently? There are many websites (many are free), where students can work independently, in class or take the language outside of the classroom and enjoy the learning and exposure to it at home. Examples of some websites: lyricstraining, e-library from Goethe Institut, seedlang, readlang, easy German, Netflix series… I, personally, believe in teaching to the top, all of my students and scaffolding up. I have high expectations for all and tend to push them, as I have come to observe, from my almost 20 years of teaching experience, that many – even my lower-attaining students, once they believe in themselves often exceed what is ‘expected’ of them. However, I wanted to write a post, solely focusing on high-attainers. So, here it is! Any ideas, experiences and comments are welcome. 😀 #Challenge #higherattainers #stretchit

I believe that homework is crucial for successful delivery of languages curriculum and should be treated as such. It is not an optional but an imperative extra to successful language acquisition. If it is used effectively it can support and aid learning of a new language, develop students’ language skills and cultural awareness. Meaningful and well-thought through homework also helps to reinforce what’s being taught in the classroom and gives students a good chance to practise what they have learnt at school as the time in the lesson is limited and often not enough for students to explore and practise. Students often question the purpose of homework, so making it clear why this homework is set (i.e. to improve fluency in the TL) or why in this way (i.e. to improve listening/writing/reading skills or Grammar knowledge) is also very important if we want our students to complete their homework to high standard. The discussion about how we learn and how to organise learning to aid retrieval; using spacing to avoid forgetting is in my opinion also very important to have with our learners. With subject such as foreign language which on average is timetabled maybe for two lessons a week at KS3 and 5 lessons per fortnight at KS4 in most of the U.K. comprehensive schools, it is also essential that students regularly re-visit new language and structures again at home as this will reinforce their knowledge. Because the research on homework is rather mixed, we should think  carefully about the types of tasks that we assign and what is their purpose and whether they have a positive impact on students’ learning and progress. There have been times in our teaching careers when many of us have been guilty of  setting  homework just for the sake of it, following the school’s or departmental homework policy with tasks ranging from word searches, designing posters to asking students to write paragraphs on specific topics that we have taught in the lesson only to find out that the work submitted to us didn’t really enhance students learning or that it has been completed by Google Translate and not by our students! Over the past few months during the ‘Lockdown’, I had the time to critically look at how we set homework in our department and update our homework policy and on reflection I have decided to change how we set homework! These are the changes we have decided to make. We set two types of homework: Learning Homework This type of homework supports learning of new vocabulary and structures based on our sentence builders. Students can complete this type of homework in two ways. 1. Students can either use Quizlet cards that I have created for them – they practise first choosing any games and activities they wish, once they feel they have learnt their key vocabulary they need to take a test. Acceptable % benchmark is set by the teacher (i.e. they need to get 80%), when this benchmark is reached students take a screen shot of their result and upload it to Show My Homework (SMHW) as evidence. This ensures that students complete their homework to a desirable standard and if they don’t the teacher will notice immediately, it also enables them to improve (i.e. having to practise more in order to achieve the acceptable standard), they will also instantly notice where their weaknesses are for example in spelling. Example of Quizlet cards Another tool you could use for homework is Carousel Learning, where you can set up your questions and classes and create quizzes to assigned to your students as homework. This platform is new to us and we are still exploring it. For a useful and easy to follow tutorial on how to set up your carousel learning classes, upload questions and assign quizzes watch a tutorial created by @basnettj here. 2. Students can use self quizzing at the back of their book with set of key structures given by the teacher – this also gives no excuses to students who can not access the technology for various reasons. Example of Self-quizzing Homework supporting language skills This type of homework is set to support listening, reading or speaking skills. Please, note that we have decided against writing tasks for homework as we have come to the conclusion that they were often not completed by students using their knowledge but using ‘google translate’, which then proved to be a complete waste of time not just for the students but also for the teacher and didn’t enhance students’ learning, progress or knowledge. We are now focussing on independent writing skills in the lessons during our production or extension phase when we can oversee that students are completing them without any support. The types of homework we set (click on the picture for a link to the resource): TeachVid – supports listening and reading (writing) skills. The resource below I made myself, but there are many ready made videos in different languages which can be used. You and your students will need to open a free account to access the activities. You can give students a link for the specific task you want them to complete i.e gap fill, break the flow etc. Once the task has been completed students will be given a score, so no marking for the teacher. I do not set a % benchmark for these tasks – this is more about exposing students to different resources and also to the cultural capital. They might find some of the tasks challenging, but what I tell my students is – the more they practise the more words/structures they will encode and it will get easier. The key here is exposure to as much language as possible in variety of contexts. LearningApps – you will need to open an account and can create your own activities or there are ready made activities that have been shared by other teachers and which you can use. Result is generated upon completion of the task. Teacher marking not required. Wordwall – you will need to create an account. Free account will allow you to create 5 resources, for more you will have to subscribe, but again there are many resources ready made and freely shared by other teachers. Many resources for German have been shared by Abi Bryan. Result is generated upon completion of the task. Teacher marking not required. Resources by Abi Bryan learngerman.dw.com – supports listening and reading skills as after watching the short video there are comprehension questions to answer. Levels from A1 to C1 covered with various topics to choose from. Result is generated after completing the comprehension task. Teacher marking not required. languagesonline.org.uk – good for Grammar testing, but specific for Logo, so you will have to choose activities carefully. Result is generated upon completion of the task. Teacher marking not required. Flipgrid / TEAMS or QWIQR – great to support speaking practice, especially now during ‘Covid times’. Teacher feedback can be recorded as well. Other websites that could be explored for homework : lyricsgaps.com seedlang.com textivate.com german-games.net easygerman on YouTube quizzes.com language-gym.com lingua.com liveworksheets.com lyricstraining.com Final thoughts… So how do we ensure that students do a ‘decent’ job when completing their homework? What are the consequences if the homework is not of the desirable standard? Well, these are the questions individual schools/departments will have to decide on and answer for themselves, but if homework is to make an impact on learning and students progress long term it is an important and valid point for discussion for the departmental meeting agenda. #textivate #Wordwall #TeachVid #languagegym #lyricsgaps #QWIQR #lifeworksheets #lyricstraining #Flipgrid #LearningApps #homework #Quizlet #quizzes #DeutscheWelleDW #TEAMS #carousellearning

In my research of effective Retrieval Practice, when reading Mark Enser’s book ‘Teach like nobody is watching’, I have come across a technique called Cornell Notes, which has been successfully used in HE for a long time. Enser mentions this method in the Recap section of his book, so I started to ponder whether it would work in Secondary Education and specifically in the Languages classroom to support retrieval practice as well as how I could apply this technique to my context so it can benefit and improve the learning of my students. What are Cornell Notes? The Cornell Notetaking method was developed by Dr. Walter Pauk of Cornell University. It is a system used widely for taking notes of material presented in a lecture or from reading. It is also used for reviewing and retaining of that material. Using this system can help learners to organise their notes, actively involve them in creation of knowledge and improve learners study skills. When using Cornell Notes style, student’s exercise books are set up in four distinct sections: A title and date section at the top A section for key questions or key words on the left A main section on the right for the note taking A summary section about 6 lines from the bottom comprising the three quarters as pictured in the illustration above You can get your students to either grab a ruler and draw their own lines (if you choose to do this, I would model it first) or you can make/download a template from the many templates available on the internet. Template adapted from a template found on the internet AS/A Level I can see great potential for using Cornell Notes when analysing texts, films and social concepts. I think this method would be extremely useful for students when organising their notes and  their knowledge on various topics; it is another way to build retrieval throughout the course or lesson. Additional bonus is that students can use the questions they put in the second section to revise at home as well. In MFL context, I have also seen them used for Grammar notes, which again would apply more to HE (AS/A Level). Here is a post, I came across when researching, demonstrating how the learner uses it  for learning and revising Grammar. Secondary school level However, I was more interested in using Cornell Notes with my GCSE classes or even look at the ways I could use them with my KS3 classes as a retrieval tool. I discussed the method with my colleague who is the Subject Leader for Geography at my school and we decided both to trial it and compare our findings. She has trialled it with her year 8 higher attaining class when summarising a topic of rainforest adaptations and reported that a large amount of time had to be spent on teaching students how to lay out their book (this would diminish over time as students will become more familiar with the method or you could use a template) and how to apply the method (she modelled it on her white board), but overall she was pleased with the result. She has also emphasised that in her opinion this method would probably work with higher attainer classes only, but she was keen to use it again. I decided to trial it with my year 11 class as a retrieval task prior to their writing assessment. I have asked my students to pick any topic they wanted except for the one we covered most recently. I have given them a pre-made template, I have adapted from internet (see above) in order to save time explaining students how to organise their exercise book. This task was completely ‘free call’, without using any KO, SB or notes! I have asked them on their template: in the second section (left side), to list some key vocabulary (variety of word groups) – you could even ask them to list key questions in the third section (right side), to write examples of sentences they could use for the topic, encouraging them to use complex sentence that would be suitable for the grade they were aiming for. finally, in the fourth section, to summarise any Grammar points they have to consider and review when proof checking their work. On the pictures are some examples of students’ work – mixed ability. The next step in the process would be feedback – checking for any mistakes made, this could be done by teacher circulating around the class, noting common errors/misconceptions and addressing them either individually or if the same mistakes are made across the group re-teaching if necessary. This feedback is crucial to support students in developing their metacognition. It is also important to build a ‘culture of errors’ as Doug Lemov mentions in his book ‘Teach like a Champion’, so students are comfortable when discussing their mistakes and learning from them. I believe this method is worth exploring and could be even used with KS3 when recalling the knowledge from a SB, parallel text or KO. Please share your views here, I would be very interested to hear what you think! #KS3 #revision #feedback #GCSE #RetrievalPractice #CornellNotes

Technology is now integrated in our everyday lives, that is a fact. With the recent experience of the Covid-19 pandemic it is inevitable that our teaching will become more technology-led as we move forward. I believe that anything that can enhance our teaching and students’ learning is worth exploring! However, what are the pros and contras of using technology in the classroom? Should teachers and students embrace it? As I respond to these questions, I will try to explore the evidence and arguments in this area to consider the strength and limitations of using educational technology. New technology can often appear exciting, however to ensure it has an impact on teaching and learning it should be clearly planned and implemented considering any initial training, time and resources needed. Unfortunately, not all school have the resources to equip all of their students with their own iPads, Chromebooks or laptops and not all teachers/students are fully confident about how to use OneNote, TEAMs or even SMHW effectively, therefore establishing that both parties have the skills needed to use it, is essential. I am of the opinion that when used constructively, EdTech can support educators in improving learning outcomes. It can improve the quality of explanation and modelling as well as engage and motivate our learners. However, the relationship between technology, motivation and achievement is complex and monitoring how it is used is important (EEF, Digital technology guidance report, 2018). EdTech can also support classroom practitioners in terms of assessment and feedback – increase the accuracy and the speed of collecting assessment data as well as reduce the workload. What it can’t do for us is, to decide what we – the teachers do with this information and how our learners act upon the feedback provided. It is still up to us to determine what the next step, action or intervention is. Being a M(F)L teacher, I have always found technology to be a great way to support my learners in their acquisition of the German language; whether it is to aid content delivery through audio-visual materials, to complement retrieval practice via interactive quizzes such as Quizlet or Carousel Learning or encouraging the use of online apps to support homework. However, after engaging with Paul Kirschner’s presentation on technology (Chartered College), encoding, task switching (how it affects learning and processing) and the fact that digital natives don’t exist, we have to ask a paramount question whether schools are willing to allow teachers the time and flexibility to teach the effective use of technology which requires direct and explicit instruction. Are we willing to invest the time and money in technology despite its shortcomings? Every year I spend considerable amount of time explicitly teaching my new year 7 classes how to use some of the websites and apps that we use for our learning HWK and every year there are students out there who even after this explicit modelling and 4-5 weeks into the Autumn term still struggle how to set up an account, how to take a screen shot and how to upload it to SMHW (this supports Kirschner’s view about ‘digital natives’). Not to mention that in the 21st century Britain, I still have students who don’t have the access to a Wi-Fi or a laptop as many families struggle financially! This was also highlighted by the recent experience of home learning during the Pandemic. What has also resonated with me is the research of the use of laptops in the class. I found it very interesting to know that when students are making notes or working on their writing tasks on a laptop the processing is missed and the fact that handwritten notes are more beneficial in terms of processing (Kirschner’s slides provide a clear insight into ‘processing = learning’). It is worth mentioning that in my own classroom, I have observed many of my students making more spelling mistakes on a computer when typing than when writing by hand. We also have to take into account the other distractions that the internet and messaging pose. So is technology the future? I think technology definitely has a place in education. There are many tools and websites that we can use effectively. I, personally think that retrieval, especially revisiting content, low-stakes quizzing is well delivered very effectively via technology and also provides an immediate feedback. My most favourite and useful go to websites that I use or have used are: Wheel of Names, Flippity, Quizlet, LearningApps, Wordwall, Quizizz, Carousel learning, Whiteboards.fi, Language Gym, MicrosoftTeams. Other websites to try are: textivate, SentenceBuilders, Genial.ly, Blooket, Deck.Toys, Mentimeter, Screencastify, Flipgrid… The global pandemic and the shift to remote teaching and learning made clear the huge gap between students learning experiences. Those learners with accessibility at home, mostly managed a fairly smooth transition, yet many colleagues also reported having to drive around to students’ homes and drop off packs of photocopied worksheets, books or lend out school laptops so their students could access and complete their home learning. The piece of caveat is to remember that technology will not replace the traditional teaching methods. We need to be aware that the brain is most effective at learning when it is provided a balanced cognitive load. The most important thing to remember is that technology does not replace quality first teaching. #technology

As there is a lot of anxiety around the Ofsted Deep Dives in the teaching community, in this post, I would like to share my experience with my recent Ofsted MFL Deep Dive in a hope that it might be useful to some of you at some level even though experiences will vary from school to school; also depending on whether your inspector was a subject specialist or not. During the late afternoon of the day when the call came in, we were notified by our SLT about which departments will be ‘deep dived’. Reading this post, you can rightly guess – ours was one of them. The inspector that was assessing our department, was MFL specialist with a degree in French and an ex Headteacher. In my opinion, for the Subject Leader, this information could be a positive one in terms of being reassured that the inspector will have the understanding of how your subject, in my case – languages, is taught and learnt in U.K. secondary schools or negative one in terms of they can scrutinise, question and unpick your curriculum and provision in much more depth than a non-specialist inspector. However, in both scenarios the scrutiny will be a thorough and intensive one! Here is what it looked like on the day… The format of the day: I have taught my first lesson as normal. From the second lesson, to start with, I had a cca. 30 minutes long interview with the inspector answering a set of questions such as: How closely is your curriculum aligned with the National Curriculum for MFL? How do you ensure your curriculum is ambitious? Why have you sequenced it like this? How do you ensure there is a clear progression in your curriculum? Walk me through what students can do in year 7 as opposed in year 8, at KS3 as opposed in GCSE? What do you expect your students to know by the time they leave your school? How do you ensure students retain the essential knowledge? How do you close the gaps in their knowledge? How do you address misconceptions? How do you know students understand? What is your marking and feedback policy like? Why? What is the rationale behind it? What forms of assessment do you use to assess your students? How often? How do you support students with SEND? How do you stretch your higher attaining students? How does your staff keep their language knowledge up to date? What does the CPD look like in your school/department? In my case, the inspector didn’t want to see any of my documents, all I was asked to do is to ‘walk the inspector through’ it. I suppose it was to gauge whether I knew it really well; why we have planned it the way we have and how we knew the curriculum was working for our students. Obviously, this could have been different if it was a non-specialist, and they could have asked to see our curriculum map and sequencing documents… After the interview, we have moved onto joined lesson observations. We observed 3 lessons, each for 20 minutes to see if what I was saying can be seen in the classroom practice – a part of Ofsted’s triangulation. First observation was year 10 GCSE class – the teacher was modelling under the visualiser co-construction of an 80-90-word task in the run up to students’ CAEs. The inspector asked me to select 2 ex. books, one to be from a student with SEND/EAL and carefully looked through students’ books and folders which contained various workbooks providing scaffolding, such as i.e., writing and speaking workbooks… with a comment: ‘I can see what you have been talking about…’ When looking through the SEND/EAL student’s book, I mentioned that the student has joined the school in year 9 and chose to take up GCSE German. ( I knew this student as I taught him the previous year.) This was followed (after the inspector looked at the Retrieval Practice tasks in the book) by a comment: ‘I can see, he is getting it…’ Second observation was year 8 class completing their summative assessment. Still, we stayed for cca. 15 minutes during which the inspector circulated the classroom, looking at students completing the assessment and picking up some ex. books to look through (again selecting 2 – one being a SEND student). I was also asked to take a note of their names as these students would become a part of the pupil voice and interview. The class teacher was circulating during the assessment. Third observation was my own class of year 8 students covered by our ECT who only found out she will be covering my lesson in the morning when she arrived in school as the day’s timetable was emailed later on in the evening and I haven’t picked it up till the morning – I suppose we got some sleep, at least! During this part of the lesson, students were completing independently translation activity whilst the teacher was circulating and then giving feedback using CFU/ probing questions/process questions etc. The inspector sat at the back of the classroom next to a student and at one point, quietly asked the student to read out a small section of her writing. As previously, 2 ex. books were selected. The students whose books were selected were also interviewed by the inspector as part of the triangulation and evidence collecting process. There was one more round of observations during the last lesson, this time with a member of the SLT and I also got to be observed with my year 7 class. This was the second lesson in the sequence of lessons talking about pets. I was using MWBs for dictation, translation, CFU as well as cold calling – grammatical concepts of genders which I haven’t taught explicitly in this sequence, but students could transfer the knowledge of it from their previous learning and could produce written output independently. After this set of observations at the end of the lesson, the inspector came back to my classroom and asked me a few additional questions that are mentioned in the list above. I also had to respond to a comment about independent speaking, specifically pair/group work which wasn’t witnessed. The inspector felt there was a lot of speaking but it was teacher led. At this point, I had to ‘defend my cause’ and explain that the KS3 classes observed were at the start of the learning sequence and nowhere near the independent spoken production phase which is only possible after extensive practice and rehearsal towards the end of the learning sequence. In response to the GCSE class, I had to explain that we did not change our lesson planning because we had the Ofsted in, and at that point, we were preparing students for their writing CAEs hence that was why writing strategies inc. metacognition were modelled and taught. In a response to this comment, we have offered to the inspector to come and see another lesson to demonstrate that our students can speak independently, even though it wouldn’t be in our current lesson sequence. The last stage was the interview with the team. The feedback from them was that they were asked about safeguarding, workload, briefly about the curriculum and our ECT was asked whether she feels she is getting adequate mentoring and support during her first teaching year. On the morning of the next day, we were told unofficially, the department had done well, the inspectors were happy with the evidence and won’t be seeing more language lessons! Well done, team! From the experience I had, the inspector was not interested in what pedagogical approach to language teaching we use/follow but was interested in students making progress: knowing more, remembering more and thus being able to do more!! The experience was very intense and exhausting, and I was in bed by 8pm! No curriculum is perfect. The only advice from my own experience, would be: Know your curriculum and the rationale behind it really well, make sure it is logically sequenced, the staff in your department also knows it and can verbalize it, ensure that what you say is evident in the classroom practice, can be confirmed by your students during their interview and don’t hide anything or don’t put up an ‘one off show’! Do what you normally do and if something is not there yet (it’s work in progress), say it and say what you are doing about it. The curriculum is not finite; it is a working document which is constantly reviewed and adapted as necessary… We use E.P.I approach, examples of our curriculum map and sequencing documents are available on my Curriculum page. #DeepDive #inspection #Ofsted

With the languages uptake in British schools and universities on the decline, what can we do to reverse the trend? The British Council in its annual Language Trends England 2021 report found that more than half of primary school pupils and 40% of secondary school students didn’t do any language learning during the first national lockdown and 20% didn’t have any language education during the second lockdown! With the government’s ambitious target of 75% of students taking a language GCSE by 2022 and 90% by 2025 as a part of the English Baccalaureate and the falling trend, this seems to be highly unlikely to happen. The lack of language education during the Pandemic will inevitably impact the already decreasing uptake of languages at GCSE and A-Level even further! The entries for modern languages continue to fall. “Analysis of official figures by the Guardian shows that in schools in England, entries for language GCSEs have dropped by 41% since 2003, the last year that taking a modern foreign language in year 10 was compulsory. The position of German is particularly precarious, with only 36% of English secondary schools teaching it. Provisional German GCSE entries were down 66% on 2003 levels. Overall, just 5.8% of GCSE entries in England in summer 2020 were for MFL, according to the Joint Council for Qualifications. A-Level numbers also continue to dwindle: Ofqual figures show that provisional entries last year for MFL were down 17% from 2020 figures.” We, as many other secondary schools, are also fighting the battle of trying everything possible in order to increase the uptake of language GCSE. We believe that having the ability to communicate in another language, even at basic level, improves students understanding of other cultures, broadens their horizons and provides wider employment opportunities, ‘particularly as the UK renegotiates its place on the world stage.’* To tackle the issue of languages… being perceived as too difficult learning them is too boring can’t see the relevance/won’t need them … we have redesigned our Curriculum and delivery method to make them more engaging, to give students the opportunities to succeed in their learning and to develop their self-efficacy. Like many other schools, we organise competitions, give out praise cards and certificates, pen pal exchanges, create little events and tasting sessions to bring cultural awareness in, as well as speak to our students and parents about the advantages that languages can bring to their personal and professional life during the Options Evening. During ‘normal’ times we run language trips which have always had a huge impact on our uptake and students’ motivations to take languages further. The inability to run a trip abroad due to the current circumstances has had a huge affect on our uptake! As a result, this year, I am trialling something different, an idea that has been inspired by my colleague (and my NQT mentor – a very long time since I have been an NQT) a science teacher. We have been talking about the issues of lower uptake of languages GCSE and he was telling me about his Science Aspire group for year 11 – a group of students he has targeted with the potential to achieve a grade 8/9 in their science GCSE, the programme he has created for them and the impact it has had on their motivation as well as commitment. We started to ponder that I could try something similar with my year 9 top band students – students that we would expect to take a language GCSE, if they were compulsory (as our school doesn’t follow two different pathways – academic and more vocational one, unfortunately, not all of them do). In October, my Year 9 Aspire group was ‘born’! With the recommendation of my colleagues, we have selected our 30 target students, I wrote a letter and I sent it to the parents with the date of TEAMs meeting, stating that I would like to meet with them and explain the purpose of the group and its programme. I was amazed how supportive our parents were! Aspire Group letter Presentation for parents (TEAMS) Prior to my TEAMs meeting, I also met with the targeted students and briefly explained to them what was happening and also asked, if there are any of them there, who are certain it wasn’t for them as I had other students on my ‘waiting’ list. Three students stood up! Out of 30, I thought that was a pretty good so far. So what happened since then… The group meets with me every week on Monday from 08.10h – 08.45h, students spent time practising speaking in TL, ensuring they are secure in the knowledge of the core grammatical structures, working with variety of texts including literary texts and expanding their vocabulary. They are tackling tasks within the GCSE course specification. The atmosphere is nice and relaxed and I take students’ interest into account too. I have high expectations from my students and believe that, if students invest extra time and energy into their language learning outside their normal lessons, are keen to be a part of this Aspire group, they are likely to choose it in their Options, plus it seems that the ‘exclusivity’ is ‘infectious’ as other students have been asking me whether they can still take languages at GCSE, even though they are not attending the Monday morning sessions. Every session, I also take a register! Students know that if they don’t attend on more than three occasions without a solid reason, they will be replaced by another student. So far, attendance has been very good, despite Covid, every Monday, I have on average 26-27 students attending and it seems to be popular as well. This is our first year trialling this programme therefore, after students have chosen their Options, I am very interested in the impact it has had on our uptake. If the impact has proven to be positive we will consider the possibility to run 2 groups next year. Our Option’s pathways are not restrictive as they are opened to all of our students, regardless of their prior attainment or whether they attend the ‘Aspire’ programme, any student can chose to take a GCSE language for their Options.  I am aware that there are schools across the country that will consider only their top band students for GCSE because of the pressure of obtaining good results, I believe that any student who would like to take language GCSE, regardless of their target grade should be able to do so, as a result we teach mixed classes every year. Update to follow after our Option’s process… Please, share your ideas and strategies that you are using/have used which are/were successful to increase your GCSE uptake. #GCSE #language #Options #uptake

On this post I will be focussing on how I am preparing my students for their writing skill; on development of broad linguistic knowledge, content and communication as well as accuracy which are all the key elements of the GCSE writing assessment mark scheme. As we are all aware, the speaking examinations this year won’t take place and therefore the writing assessment which will be worth 33% of the overall GCSE grade will bare more weight on students’ overall GCSE result than before. Writing together with speaking is classed as one of the productive skills of language learning and is closely connected with communication, use of grammatical structures, language manipulation, translation skills as well as accuracy. Preparing and developing students’ writing skills is inevitably linked to their speaking skills and supports them perfectly, especially in a phonetic language such as German, because the topics tested are the same only the medium is different. I am a strong believer that students should be able to manipulate  the language and structures to build their own ideas and use them creatively and with confidence. I do not believe in students just memorising sentences and re-writing them from memory which was often the case in many schools when the written exam consisted of course work. As an examiner I have marked pieces of writing that  read like lists – disjointed, with idioms being thrown in just for the sake of it because students were told that this will score them higher marks. Lists can certainly be useful and I use them myself, but we should take the time to explain how to use them, so they don’t become just a tick sheet, they shouldn’t be just a sheet with a specific number of how many opinions, past, future tense, if phrases examples etc… students need to include in order to achieve grade 5, 6, 7, 8… The assessment mark scheme criteria do not require: ‘Student needs to include 3 examples of this and 4 examples of that!’ They state very clearly that students need to use variety of language and structures confidently and these need to be well linked. I understand that as educators we have the pressure to get good results and we are judged on these results (often out of our control), but the linguist in me is very vocal – being able to communicate and manipulate the language in meaningful way is the priority in my personal delivery. If we invest the time at KS3 and work on developing these skills early on we won’t have to play catch up at KS4 which is often the case for many of us. So, how do I go about it? In order to prepare my students to be independent communicators I make sure they have learnt the key vocabulary and grammatical structures which allow them to become more confident writers/speakers. For this I often use retrieval practice (please see my post on retrieval practice here) and homework (please see my post on homework here) during which I regularly check that my students have learnt vocabulary and grammatical structures, but I also ensure they can explain the HOW and WHY. I approach the extended writing task with my students only when they tackled the picture task and short writing task first. (On my resources page there adaptable examples of activities that I use.) How I address this differs greatly from how I teach writing skills at KS3. At KS3 this may include techniques such as dictation, delayed/running dictation, writing short sentences, translations – mosaic, first letter given, writing pyramids, one pen one dice, break the flow etc. (Inspired by Gianfranco Conti and his E.P.I methodology.) At KS4, in the initial stages I use structured writing – first, we look at some texts and analyse them from the linguistic angle (this idea, including the structure strips, were inspired by @MorganMfl/Wendy Adeniji). Example of text analysis sheet After we have looked at examples of texts and analysed them, we brainstorm some vocabulary (nouns, verbs, adjectives…), I ask my students to come up with some basic sentences (all without SB or KO), we then discuss how we could extend the sentences within (TMP, sequencers, qualifiers…), change them into different tenses, giving opinions with reasons – at this stage I also address any gaps in knowledge (i.e. misconceptions in tense building, word order, genders, verb and adjectival endings…). We also study some worked examples, like the one in the recording below. This video walks the students through the mark scheme, task criteria and a worked example for the crossover 90 word task. Direct link here. Finally, I use structure strips and a check list to support my students with the planning and writing process. Example of structure strip This approach seems to work well for our school – I teach in a mainstream comprehensive school in a challenging area with higher than average number of EAL and SEN students and as a result of this approach our results have been steadily improving in both of the productive skills – writing and speaking. Some feedback on the video from my students: Some examples of my students recent assessments: #writingskills #extendedwriting #structurestrips #GCSE #RetrievalPractice #homework #assessment #textanalysis #markscheme

Following the amazing response to my post on ‘Preparing students for GCSE extended writing task’ (the post had almost 900 views on the day it was published) – view here, I have now recorded a ‘walk through’ video for the 150 word extended writing task as well as requested by my students and fellow colleagues via direct messages on social media. When my GCSE students encounter the 150 word task for the first time in year 10 they often freeze and panic. They are convinced that writing so many words on such complex topics which require eloquent grammatical structures and language, especially when looking at the complexity of the last bullet point which demands highly sophisticated response, the task seems like ‘Mission Impossible ‘. However, the preparation process is the same as when we are tackling the 90 word extended task. I will not describe the process in this post again as I wrote about it in my previous post – for the link to the post see above. ‘Walk through’ video for the 150 word extended writing task Direct link to the video here Last week @MrBCurrier created an amazing resource in order to support his students with writing tasks and published his writing structures and support workbooks for Spanish on his blog. With his permission I have adapted them to German and am now sharing them with you. On his blog he explains in detail how he uses this resource with his students. German GCSE writing structures and support workbook – Foundation – download here. German GCSE writing structures and support workbook – Higher – download here. Examples of ‘Wow’ phrases: I usually ask my students to choose 10 phrases they would like to learn to use at the start of the year. Once they have learnt them they can trade them for new ones. If you find my resources useful, you can show your appreciation by buying me a☕. Link here. #extendedwriting #structures #support #video

My students don’t actually realise that I teach them a ‘foreign’ language through a ‘foreign’ language. As I am not English, speak with an accent and teach another language, they always assume that the language I teach must be my mother tongue. So, once they find out that this is not the case, the questions start pouring in… ‘Miss, how many languages do you speak?’ ‘Which language do you think in?’ ‘Do you have to translate in your head what you are saying, or can you just speak normally?’ ‘How long did it take you to speak fluently?’ ‘Do you think I would be able to speak it after I completed my GCSE?’… It is not just the students who are often in awe when they meet someone who speaks another language. Speaking another language is an amazing skill that will open the doors to new worlds and possibilities; it is impossible to deny that we experience the life and culture of another country on a completely different level when we speak its language and I always try to show this to my students even through my own experiences. Before I moved to U.K and became a teacher, I actually worked as a translator and interpreter in fashion business. The art of translation is a careful act of balancing the character of original language and giving it a new life in the second language; trying to figure out what is meant in one language and then transferring this meaning into another language. This can be quite challenging at times, especially when it comes to little cultural nuances or idioms. No two translations will be always identical, especially when we are attempting to translate paragraphs. The way these are translated often depends on the ability, interpretation and creativity of the translator. However, in the school environment, how can we teach translation skills to our students? I am sure you have encountered the same problem that I have. Students often try to translate the words or the text literally and in a linear way, basically thinking they can replace word from one language with a word from another language in the same way and order. In my opinion we – teachers should not approach translation of more complex passages (similar to those assessed in the GCSE higher paper) with our students before students have thoroughly studied and understood the syntax of the target language – in other words, they have studied and understand the rules of how words and other elements of sentence structure are combined together to form grammatical sentences. When it comes to translation of simple sentences/paragraphs  – taught from KS3, there are various ways how we can support our young learners to build their confidence in translation. After thorough processing of the language taught, I often use  scaffolds such as rock climbing, bubble, ping-pong, mosaic, gap fill or first letter translations amongst so many available in order to vary the ‘diet’ and in order to keep students motivated and focussed. These all provide different levels of support and can be used to target different needs of different learners and also allow all students to succeed which is so important in order to keep students motivated and nurture the ‘I can do’ culture within our classroom. I often introduce an element of competition to translation tasks as it increases students’ motivation, especially when it comes to motivating boys. However, many of these translation activities can be used with with GCSE students as well, as most of the GCSE classes we teach are mixed classes and students will need different levels of support to build confidence in translation skills. I find scaffolded tasks crucial for building students’ confidence and self-efficacy. Many structures are repetitive (there is/are; I would like, I find …) and if students are exposed to them repeatedly they become more natural to use in other skills too. Translation activities: Example of rock climbing translation – scaffold – students translate/re-construct the L1 sentences by choosing the right L2 chunks from the grid. Methodically, working their way upwards through the grid. Example of ping-pong translation – my year 9 especially like this activity. We set it out as a competition with a time limit which proves to be a great motivator. Two sheets (A and B) with sentences and mirroring answers, students take turns in translating their sentences. The most accurate translation wins. Inspired by Gianfranco Conti. Example of mosaic translation – scaffold – 3 different levels – level 1 – translate/re-construct the text using the chunks from the grid; level 2 – fill in the missing gaps – no words provided (you could provide the first letter of the missing word for extra support); level 3 – translate the text – only 5 key words provided. Level 2 and 3 inspired by Kim Davies. Example of tangled translation – text contains parts in L1 and L2 ‘tangled’ – students highlight L1 text in one colour, L2 text in a different colour – then translate/re-construct the texts in both – L1 and L2. This lay-out was inspired by @MflMullen, which I find in line with CLT – split-attention effect reduced than the standard lay-out. If interested in research on Metacognition, see my post on CLT here. Example of bubble and sweet translation – seen and inspired by Esther Mercier – @atantot. Similar to mosaic translation – students use the bubbles to translate the text. The sweet translation (instructions on the sheet) is also a great motivator with all ages. Example of pyramid translation – inspired by Gianfranco Conti. The repetition of some key phrases is also useful for independent writing and speaking. Example of first letter translation – scaffold – this would be used during the production phase as the support is minimal. I also prefer this lay-out as it reduces the split-attention effect than the more traditional lay-out – ( H…, i… h… B… u… i … h……) – Gianfranco Conti. Example of text puzzles – inspired by @HFooteMFL. This task could be followed by a writing task. Example of honey comb translation – inspired by Esther Mercier/Lesley Welsh. This type of translation provides more challenge for my higher achievers. For GCSE specific translation, especially when looking at more complex passages with more eloquent language, a variety of steps should be considered before tackling the translation. I also believe that these should be taught explicitly to avoid common misconceptions. Pre-translation steps: read the sentence/paragraph highlight or underline what you can translate immediately check the tense / the person / the verb ending / the adjectival endings / the gender of nouns / plural / singular more complex sentences – break them down into chunks or two separate sentences translate each sentence individually checking the word order apply any rules you need to when connecting them together (conjugated verb at the end etc….) words you don’t know – find a suitable synonym that will not impair the message being conveyed gaps – think of words which would logically fill them in The GCSE mark scheme criteria for the translation task do not require the student to translate the text exactly and as examiners we have been encouraged to accept translations as correct as long as the meaning has been fully conveyed even if students have used synonyms. To score the top mark for translation is states clearly that the meaning of the passage is fully and not exactly communicated. If translation skills are taught and practised early on, from year 7 they should not pose such a difficult and impossible task later on at GCSE. It is worth spending time nurturing this skill which in long term will pay off when preparing students for their summative assessments. Examples for some GCSE translation tasks in the work books in my previous post. These activities whether for KS3 or our GCSE classes would be also suitable for remote learning we are facing in the coming weeks. For low prep tasks, adaptable templates and example tasks, please see my resource page. #targetlanguage #mosaic #scaffolding #bubble #text #jigsaw #syntax #motivation #language #originallanguage #tangled #sentencestructure #words #translation #rockclimbing

On this post, I would like to concentrate on the listening skill, which based on a survey I did with my students, they find the hardest to tackle, especially in a high stress scenario such as GCSE examinations. Many of my students fear this skill especially in GCSE type of tasks which are often very ambiguous and many of us would agree almost seem to be designed to catch students out often incorporating vocabulary that wasn’t included in the syllabus. I, personally do not agree with this type of examination system. I am not sure what it is suppose to achieve other than alienate our students from language learning. Listening is the key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood or missed. A receptive skill that develops in humans first – babies even though they can’t speak are learning sounds, words and about the language through listening. When we are learning a new language, learning to listen to L2 improves the language ability. The sound, rhythm, intonation and stress of L2 can only be adapted through listening. Listening as a skill is also essential in the languages classroom. Students receive language through the ears in the first instance, they identify the sounds of speech and process these sounds into words and sentences therefore teaching of phonics and pronunciation is so vital for encoding and storing of the language in the memory. Learning sounds incorrectly means listeners will not be able to decode/recognise them when they encounter them, they won’t be able to match the phoneme to the grapheme. Understanding of the links between the spoken and written word is crucial for decoding of word meanings. Listening in any language requires high levels of focus and attention. It is a skill many learners need to work at harder than at other such as for example written texts. However, many times listening is approached just as a text book exercise quizzing comprehension and not as a decoding and parsing skill that should be nurtured and developed. I also believe that within our curriculum we don’t give sufficient importance to decoding skills, this could be due to lack of time allocated on the timetable, the pressure to cover a vast content in short space of time or just simply hoping that the skill will develop over time naturally. In many lessons, key phonemes are often not systematically recycled through listening, reading and speaking activities which naturally support their acquisition. L.A.M. (Listening as Modelling) as per Gianfranco Conti approach that we have adopted in our school last September focusses explicitly on listening skills which as he says shouldn’t be seen as separate from speaking, reading, writing and Grammar instruction, but interleaved and recycled in various contexts continuously. Through this approach we have noticed a vast improvement in students’ confidence, progress and willingness to ‘take risks’. In order to develop good listening skills from ‘the get go’, listening opportunities should be integral part of  every lesson and as any skill need to be practised over and over again through variety of activities in order to become more and more automatic. Listening activities should also be used to model new language/sounds not just as mere testing tool. Listening could be presented through simple activities (these will be different for novice-learner and expert-learners) such as greetings at the start of the lesson, register routines, giving simple instructions, to well planned and thought through tasks which focus on various micro – skills: decoding, parsing and lexical recognition skills. I found the book ‘Breaking down the sound barrier’ by Gianfranco Conti and Steve Smith invaluable when looking closely how to improve my students ‘ listening skills. Many of the tasks mentioned below are ideas from their book. I also try to use variety of tasks to keep students engaged and interested. Here are some examples of tasks I have been using: Recognising the correct sounds – minimal pairs – students write the correct number on their MWB. This could be conducted by the teacher reading out single words or for more challenge using the words within a sentence, so students have ‘distractors’. Other activities practising phonics – word endings / spot the error / spot the intruder Dictation – inspired by Gianfranco Conti partial  – teacher starts the word or part of the phrase and students finish it – could be done in writing on MWB or orally practising correct pronunciation. delayed – teacher dictates a short sentence, students hold this sentence in their memory for cca.10 seconds then write the sentence down on their MWB. running – parts of the text are stuck on the wall – students are divided into groups of three – one student stays seated whilst the other members take turns to run to the text and dictate it to the sitting member who writes it down. Here the students are practising listening, writing reading and memory skills as well. Might not be possible at the moment. Break down the speech flow – teacher reads the sentences and students put spaces as appropriate – extension task – students re-write the sentences correctly applying capital letters where needed (this applies specifically to German). Listening pyramids – first seen and inspired by @madamemassè. Students listen to recordings and write what they hear. The structure getting longer and more complex. Narrow listening – teacher reads texts which are very similar from the slide and students write the number of the text on their MWB. When I started this task initially, I noticed that as the texts were so similar, students stopped listening once they heard a specific key word resulting in some writing the wrong answers. I had to explain to them it wasn’t a sporting competition – who answers the fastest, but to listen to details in order to spot the differences and identify the correct text. Tick or cross activity – this idea has been recently shared by Gianfranco Conti Listening for key words in the sequence – inspired by @MissWozniak. Words could be in L1 or L2 depending on the level of challenge. Text could be read out or recorded. Listening for cognates/adjectives/time phrases/ nouns/verbs … – students work in groups for this task. Reconstruction of text – text is cut up into strips and students have to put the text together as they listen. This could be also used as a reading/syntactical/grammatical task. Listening gap fill tasks – could be used without support, with missing words provided in form of a list or multiple choice option for more support. Listening for Grammar points – tenses/opinions/negatives/clauses – this could be scaffolded even more by having students in groups and each member concentrates on one specific Grammar point thus building confidence in listening. ‘Tally’ idea by @MissWozniak. Listening – multiple choice questions Listening – comprehension questions Useful websites: Here are four main websites that I have been using so far to support my students with developing their listening skills. teachvid – with variety of activities to practise listening skills. lyricstraining – very popular with my older students who like to listen and explore music, good for the cultural capital. Allows you to print out the lyrics as well. Audio Lingua – recordings by native speakers – can be downloaded or embedded – the teacher can create various activities. learngerman.dw.com – different levels, good mainly for comprehension and also for ‘cultural capital’. Listening in real time – communicating with a person face to face where we can see the facial expressions, lip read or simply ask the speaker to repeat or re-phrase, is very different to listening to an audio or video recording which learners find the most stressful. I, personally still struggle (I have lived in the U.K. for almost 20 years now) when I am on the phone and the person on the other side spells their name to me. I have to ask them to either slow down or repeat it and I consider myself to be an accomplished and experienced linguist – polyglot. So where does it leave our young learners? I would say practise, practise and practise… Maybe one day the people who make decisions in education will re-consider how they structure the assessments and most importantly what they want to achieve with them. One day we might see the importance of language learning being more valued and language learning flourishing in the U.K. once again! Free resource based on Edexcel 2019 Foundation/Higher listening including work book for students – link here. If you find my resources useful, you can show your appreciation by buying me a☕. Link here. #sentences #phonics #sounds #communication #TeachVid #audiolingua #minimalpairs #attention #gapfill #pronunciation #lyricstraining #language #multiplechoice #words #listening #receptiveskill