Teaching and learning MFL
Methodologies
Papers & recommended reading | Editorial reviews | Task for trainees
Focus
Undertaking study of historical and contemporary methodological stances
is an important step in the essential process of forming one's own language
teaching philosophy. Objectives should include attempts to define and interpret
what is meant by communication and grammar
and to plan explicitly how to help pupils identify and use appropriate language learning strategies; as a result, teacher capacity
for formulating clear and manageable pupil objectives and expectations of
pupil performance should be enhanced.
Study of this topic has the potential to address aspects of the following
wide range of QTS standards, depending on the trainer’s particular emphases:
| Professional attributes | |
| Personal professional development | Q8 |
| Professional knowledge and understanding | |
| Subjects and curriculum |
Q14, Q15 |
| Achievement
and diversity |
Q18, Q19 |
| Professional skills | |
| Planning | Q22, Q24 |
| Teaching | Q25 (a) (b) (c) (d) |
| Reviewing teaching and learning | Q29 |
Task for trainees
Group discussion
Discuss how people make themselves understood when speaking in a language that is foreign to them. Do they rely more heavily on knowing a lot of words, or on how those words ‘fit together’? In other words, is communication of meaning better effected by knowledge of vocabulary, or knowledge of form and structure?
What are the narrowest and widest definitions of 'grammar' that you can articulate? Can you argue that 'grammar' (whatever it is) supports good communication?
Are you aware that you use communicative strategies when you listen, speak, read or write in a foreign language to understand or produce new or unfamiliar language? Could you teach your pupils to do the same?
Observation focus
Does the lesson reach a stage where pupils can use language somewhat independently of the teacher? Exactly how has the teacher enabled this? Did enabling pupils involve discussion with or between pupils around HOW they would achieve this? Do pupils have to achieve native-speaker like levels of grammatical accuracy before you understand their message?
Check your planning
Analyse one of your key stage 3 lesson plans or sequences.
How does it take pupils beyond simply understanding or repeating ‘chunks’ of language as lexical items? Does your planning simply teach them all the language they use, or does it additionally and explicitly teach them how to learn some more language they can use to convey their own messages?
If they ARE enabled to take this extra step by your planning, can you anticipate what their production may sound or look like, to what extent it may or may not conform to native-speaker like levels of accuracy? How will you deal with pupil ‘mistakes’ and encourage them to be ‘risk-takers’ at the same time?
You might refer to the Key Stage 3 Framework MFL teaching objectives using it as a stimulus to give you ideas on how much further you might develop your lesson/ lesson sequence objectives, and consider how you communicate these goals EXPLICITLY to the pupils.
