ICT and MFL
Principles and practice
Papers & Further reading | Editorial reviews | Tasks for trainees
Focus
To the array of audio-visual tools at the disposal of the MFL teacher has
been added the PC and interactive accessories. Computer hardware and software
has opened up a world of learning beyond and within the classroom walls,
and furthered the boundaries of management capability in all sectors of
education. To access and utilise this exciting and developing area, study
objectives for student teachers need to include: locating and accessing
resources for teachers and learners of MFL, managing ICT in the MFL classroom,
and using the computer as a management, teaching and learning tool. If ICT
is to be fully integrated into MFL teaching and learning, it is important
to see how use of this range of tools relates to major teaching and learning
issues such as access to target language and cultures, inclusion, motivation,
assessment and monitoring of progress, and learner autonomy. Thus it is
hoped the student teacher will view ICTs as a purposeful and stimulating
key to unlocking a whole range of pedagogical and management challenges.
Study of this topic has the potential to address aspects of all the QTS
standards.
Tasks for trainees
Group discussions
Compare mark books or hard copy of records of pupil attainment you have
made. Could you transfer this to an electronic database format? What would
be the advantages? What extra dimensions to the information might be made
available?
Discuss aspects of your pupils’ work and learning experience which have been facilitated by using computers. Can you articulate precisely the advantages under the headings:
- Provided access to task
- Enhanced the learning experience?
Observation focus
Arrange to observe classes in order specifically to familiarise yourself
with use of interactive whiteboards. It may be useful to observe within
and outside the MFL department in order to obtain a bigger range of ideas
for their exploitation.
Analyse the notes you have taken from an observed lesson to determine
1 which aspects of the teacher’s preparation, planning and conduct of the
lesson seem to have been enhanced by access to ICT;
2 whether the pupils’ learning experience has been enhanced by access to
more independent forms of learning.
Check your planning
If you are taking a group into the ICT suite soon, does your planning specifically
note strategies for managing the pupils' behaviour and learning in a location
with which you may not be familiar, and which may not necessarily be well
designed as a classroom?
Select a worksheet you have prepared for any one of your classes this week. Have you addressed the issue of differentiation? Is there an opportunity to prepare more or less challenging versions of the same task relatively quickly because the file exists as an electronic document?
If you are integrating ICT into your MFL teaching this week in any one lesson, you might ALSO consider whether you have integrated ICT into the PUPILS’ LEARNING. Can you articulate the benefits to pupils’ learning that ICT use will bring? What would be missing in pedagogical terms without access to ICT? Are you making the most of the access opportunities to encourage increasingly independent learning? Is their learning of language and associated skills benefiting from using ICT, as well as their learning of ICT skills?
