The BETT show was a huge source of classroom inspiration for language teachers. Here MFL teacher Joe Dale rounds up some of the best
Having four MFL seminars on the same day at BETT this year proved to be not only excellent planning on behalf of the organisers, but also gave language teachers like myself the opportunity to catch up on all the latest developments.
Lesley Welsh, AST in MFL, lead practitioner for The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and classroom ICT star presented some bright ideas brought to life in her lively session Wicked Websites, Funky Flipcharts and Interesting Interactivity in MFL which looked at:
By running through a range of French websites designed for native speakers, Lesley convincingly reinforced the importance of using authentic resources to make lessons real to pupils.
Some of the sites mentioned were:
www.agency-dynamite.fr - personal descriptions such as hair and eye colour (Don't forget to click on the French flag bottom right so the site appears in French).
www.meteofrance.com - real forecasts which can be particularly useful for practising tenses. e.g. Il a plu hier (It rained yesterday). Il pleut aujourd'hui (It is raining today). Il va pleuvoir demain (It will rain tomorrow).
www.unpeudamour.com - generator of creative love poems.
http://vendre.visitenet.com - French Canadian site which includes descriptions of houses with slideshows.
Avis de recherche de la Police Nationale - includes authentic descriptions of French missing persons.
mtv.fr - multimedia French music site.
TV5 - Real French video clips with accompanying teaching tips. Paroles de clips particularly recommended for Saturday morning viewing.
Pubstv.com - downloadable authentic video clips of adverts from around the world.
Funky Flipcharts
Having wowed us with the potential of using real French sites in the classroom, Lesley went on to offer us some advice on using ACTIVStudio, the software which comes with the Promethean whiteboard. These tips included:
- using the Spotlight Tool to reveal elements of a picture and asking pupils what or who they can see.
- playing games you would have previously done on an OHP such as 'Qui n'est pas là' where pupils have to remember which piece of clipart on a flipchart has been removed.
- using the Reveal Tool to let pupils guess what is coming next
- placing rectangles over cells in a grid so pupils have to guess what vocabulary item may hide underneath.
- rubbing out annotations over a text to reveal words or phrases to test reading comprehension.
- reordering parts of a sentence with drag and drop in a given time using the built-in stopwatch
- labelling images with text boxes
- layering images one on top of each other and removing them one at a time
- using the dice feature to practise verbs or subject pronouns where each dice face refers to a different form.
Using wikis in lessons
For the next MFL session, Wikimania, Peter Morris, senior teacher and languages AST from Gordano School, in Bristol described how he has been using wikis (webpages that can be added to and edited by a group of users) to promote creative writing in German and French.
Originally set up as a CILT/ALL Action Research project to encourage pupils to produce extended spontaneous speech, Peter has found wikis to be useful for:
- developing collaborative writing as changes can be viewed and tips or guidance added
- assessment for learning purposes as pupils are able to see each other's work and correct each other's mistakes
- encouraging freer and more spontaneous writing
- independent work as pupils can access pages away from school
- linking to other resources such as advice on how to insert accents, Hot Potatoes grammar exercises or downloadable help sheets
To see examples of the wikis that have been created as part of the Wikimania project, click on the links below:
http://unserewebseite2006.pbwiki.com
http://gordonocool.pbwiki.com
http://goodbyelenin.pbwiki.com
http://germanvocabrevision.pbwiki.com
http://bonjour2007.pbwiki.com
To download the full report from the Action Research project, click here
Getting the most from free resources
Living Languages - Using ICT to Promote the Productive Skills in MFL was presented by Chris Harte, recently appointed head of department at Cramlington Community High School. His session was full of practical and creative ideas on how to exploit mainly free and readily available resources in the languages classroom to engage and motivate pupils. These included:
Chris made the following suggestions:
Photo Story 3
- pupils take action shots or background images to signify the language they are learning with digital cameras or mobile phones
- they import these images into Photo Story 3 via a shared folder, USB lead or bluetooth dongle
- using the software, they can then add subtitles, record narration with a microphone, add self-generated background music and save the results in a number of different formats suitable for any computer, mobile phone or iPod.
MovieMaker
- subtitle video clips in the target language with keywords
- make titles or credits
- add animations to subtitles
- using clips from sites such as Espace Francophone
Audacity
- to help pupils revise for GCSE oral presentations, the teacher can record sets of questions with suitable pauses as a single track
- pupils can listen to the questions and record their answers underneath as a second track
- the teacher can then listen back to the recorded answers and offer feedback, asking pupils to re-record if necessary
- both tracks can be mixed together and exported as a mp3 file which can then be played on a mp3 player, mobile phone, computer or burned on to disc.
Thinking Worlds
Thinking Worlds is a commercial service which allows users to create and edit their own virtual realities made up of customisable scenes, characters and biographies. Designed with an educational market in mind, the site already hosts games from a variety of subject areas including history and English. To date, MFL is not included, but Chris feels there is huge potential to use the game-making engine to create engaging and attractive resources.
To download Chris' presentation plus other resources click here
And finally, me...
For my own session, ICT… so what? - Using technology to enhance learning outcomes across all four language skills, I decided to show how listening, speaking, reading and writing activities could be enhanced with the use of software for pupils of different ages and abilities. As with other recent presentations, I captured proceedings with my iRiver and uploaded the audio recording to my blog along with my PowerPoint file, video tutorials and supporting links. You can check it all out here. | 
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