This December we’re pleased to have Vincent Everett sharing his festive ideas on the Teaching Languages Today blog. I remember, one winter’s day, taking a frustrated pupil out of a French lesson to cool off a bit by walking round the school site. It was just after a “snow day” and I think he would still […]
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Following on from our blog post on the AQA GCSE examiner reports, we’ve taken a detailed look at the AQA A Level examiner reports for French, Spanish and German – here’s what we found out. Enthusiasm pays off… For the IRP (Individual Research Project) or photo activity, students who had chosen a topic they were […]
Read more This year’s AQA examiner reports for French, Spanish and German GCSE exams were extremely positive, the transition from controlled assessment to exam went well in general and students had been correctly entered into the right tier. Here’s a short summary of their advice to students. Read. Then re-read Some students lost points for mistakes caused […]
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This month we’re welcoming Tony Weston and José Antonio García Sánchez, Languages leads and authors of ¡Claro! KS3 Spanish . We love to hear what you would add to this list? Mi clase es tu clase Whether your languages department has a very clearly defined area in your school building, or if you are lucky enough to teach […]
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This month we’re delighted to be welcoming back David Shanks with his second post about preparing for GCSE 9-1. Have an effective and organised general approach Measuring what works in education is a notoriously tricky business with so many variables acting upon the learning process. However, advances in the world of cognitive science and educational […]
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With exams looming on the horizon, David Shanks is back to share his top 4 exam preparation tips for teachers… With just six short weeks remaining until the speaking examination window opens, we are firmly in the ‘home straight’ as we head towards the first sittings of the long-anticipated “more challenging” 9-1 MFL GCSE exams […]
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Our January blog post welcomes back Yvonne Kennedy, MFL consultant and Allez author… The phenomenon of the ‘backwash effect’ whereby the format and foci of GCSE assessment has a direct influence (positive or negative depending on your point of view) on teaching practice at Key Stage 3 will be familiar to many language teachers. Some, […]
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This week we have joint guest bloggers and OUP authors Margaret Bond and Lorenzo Moya-Morallón. With a wealth of teaching experience between them, they’re providing some tips for those new to teaching literature at A Level… Select your text carefully. Avoid popular novels just because they are popular, choose ones that you’ve enjoyed yourself. Also don’t […]
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This month, we’re welcoming David Shanks back with his 4th blog post… In a recent conversation, a colleague pointed out that her journey in teaching had real parallels with her previous experience of the acting world. The similarities are indeed quite striking: the working in front of an “audience”, the improvisation, the regular re-runs, the tweaking […]
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This week we’re delighted to have Dr Simon Kemp, Associate Professor of French at Somerville College, Oxford to the OUP MFL blog as our guest blogger. Teaching language skills through literature How can you best bring language and literature teaching together? On literature-heavy undergraduate courses like the one that I teach, there’s a danger that students feel […]
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