Introducing Language
Chris Fuller started an interesting conversation on Twitter on Friday about how language teachers can teach language without presenting from the front. Here are some activities I like to use in the classroom:
Quiz-Quiz-Trade
Each pupil has a two-sided card: for vocabulary learning this would have the English on one side and the French on the other. Everyone has a different card. Each pupil also has a worksheet with all of the English words down the side. They have to go around the classroom, asking each other about their cards, quizzing each other on the vocabulary they have the answer to and finding out the rest of the answers. By the end of the activity, pupils have a complete list of vocabulary.
Vocabulary Hunt
When my HoD first told me about this, I was amazed at its simplicity but it has worked time and time again for me, particulary in period 5 lessons. The French phrases are around the room (with helpful pictures if necessary) and pupils have to find the French for the English they have. Ways to differentiate could include giving the class the first letters of tricky words, having the same pictures with the English as with the matching French and having the vocabulary in short reading texts to make pupils think more.
An example of an easy vocabulary hunt for a bottom set Year 8 group.
Match-up Cards
Rather labour-intensive but with lots of uses once made, cards with pictures/phrases, English/French or sentence halves mean pupils can teach themselves. I found this worked well with vocabulary rich topics that contained lots of cognates. Practice activities include pelmanism, Kim's game, quick flash, true/false, etc. The same cards could form the basis of a listening where pupils hold up the cards when they hear the vocabulary mentioned.
I used these whilst on PGCE placement to get me out of presenting the great French phrase 'un fanta'!
Dominoes
I think Dominoes allows for more sophisticated language introduction and practice as well as just teaching basic vocabulary. Splitting a reading text into sentence halves encourages pupils to engage with a text at a higher level and can be a lot more exciting than straightforward comprehension. It is also useful preparation for the GCSE gapfill questions which require candidates to understand if it's the noun/verb/etc missing.
I used these dominoes with a Y7 class to encourage them to look for gender as well as meaning.
Teacher Clones
Give the vocabulary list to each pair and let them be their own teachers! The same activities that teachers do at the front can often work just as well when pupils are working with each other - and they listen more.
I love these activities but I am also concerned about pronunciation. If pupils are not listening to and practising accurate pronunication, how can this be rectified? I'm not sure I've worked out the answer, but these are a couple of the pronunciation games I play once pupils have got a good grasp on the language:
- Simon says - I deliberately pronounce some words the way the pupils are doing to try to 'coach' them out of it.
- Repeat if true - different pictures on board, point at one and say French, Ps repeat if true, stay silent if I'm saying the French for something else. Teacher gets a point each time pupils incorrectly start to repeat, Ps get point when they stay silent. This gets very competitive!
