Ideas for MLPS

Practical and creative suggestions to help motivate children and teachers

Making language learning fun and engaging for everyone

My Background

Teaching English in primary schools in France

Having bilingual children Teaching French in primary schools in

Scotland My experience has led to my continual

search for creative ways to teach languages.

Motivation is the key to success

Making the learning relevant is crucial My strategy has been to plan topics

around stories CfE has been beneficial in giving me the

freedom to create cross-curricular links in teaching languages

Freedom can create issues

Where do I start? What content should my lessons cover? Research is time consuming Issues of confidence: is it easier to follow

a prescribed pack? Issues of funding: will my school buy

resources?

Choosing the right stories I will provide websites to give you a head start.

Choose stories which are simple and repetitive. This helps improve everyone’s confidence.

Active learning and use of the target language can be accomplished on a very simple level.

Games and songs to reinforce the language of the text. These give plenty of opportunities to use the target language simply.

Get The Order Right

Comprehension

Speaking

Word Recognition

Writing

Group, Pair, Individual

Flashcard Games

comprehension- card above head, beat the teacher, corners

speaking- missing card word recognition- matching

word/image, putting words and images in order of story

Songs Many songs relating to stories available on

websites e.g. youtube: ‘Nous-promenons dans les bois’ linked with ‘Je m’habille et je te croque’ by Bénédicte Guettier

Be inventive using simple well known tunes e.g. frère Jaques to compose songs with chosen vocabulary. (See film clip)

Written Work

Printable resources available from various French websites designed for pre-5 and early primary stages in France

Creative writing: creating French speaking avatars using the Voki website

Writing simple stories using the Storybird website

Creating simple texts using Tesiboard literacy section.

Literacy: Fairy Tales Using familiar stories to create a focus on literacy Good stories to begin with as children can follow

and enjoy the stories because they know them Repetition in the stories helps children look for

patterns and notice differences and similarities between languages

Reading stories help children think about how their own language works and gives prominence to grammar

Versatile can be used on many levels Plenty of free resources available on the internet

Little Red Riding Hood An example which I used in a recent ‘Traditional

Tales’ Topic

Used a storyline approach

‘Annette la Chouette’ was the main facilitator

For Little Red Riding Hood I used several versions of the story and puppets. We progressed towards the final outcome of a drama production for parents.

Planning Little Red Riding Hood

Pros and cons of different versions of the story

Focus vocabulary depends on chosen version

Balance of nouns and verbs Always remember the

importance of constructing a sentence

Possibilities of other stories which link in with the main story (see resources after)

Time and Energy Make a range of resources to suit your needs and

make the learning active. Flashcards provide a great stimulus for a range of

activities Bingo cards and matching cards Dice games (Nexus blank dice) Worksheets from the internet or LJR and GSG

Taskmagic generated sheets Resources can be recycled in early years literacy

and in future topics

Final Outcome

Work towards exciting and creative summative assessments

Written work and recorded drama Emphasis on oral production Examples: a simple short story, a

collaborative wall display, a play

The Primary School is the perfect setting for interdisciplinary learning

Real opportunity to be creative with cross-curricular links.

Modern languages can be developed in every area of the curriculum.

Subjects which are active lend themselves to being delivered in the target language.

Non-specialists can deliver an elementary form of CLIL.

Plan topics which develop language through art, dance, drama.

Examples of interdisciplinary learning

Hungry caterpillar Eating and food Vocabulary Numeracy with caterpillar theme Final outcome: Performance of story and

French Café for parents

Mardi Gras Cultural and religious traditions Cooking: following recipe and making

crêpes Dance Final outcome: Animal Carnival parade and

singing at Easter service

MethodologyThe importance of learning approaches

To ensure the motivation and engagement of pupils

Collaborative learning

Working in teams helps the children to social construct their learning e.g. Making a board game for ‘La Surprise de Handa’

Active learning

Children learn naturally by actively engaging with a task e.g. participating in an action chant to learn the verbs used in ‘Le Petit Chaperon Rouge’

Experiential learning

Children should be given opportunities to live experiences in the target language.

Le Goûter Français

La Surprise de Handa

French Websites for Pre-5

La Maternelle de Moustache

http://jt44.free.fr/ Des albums en maternelle http://materalbum.free.fr/

La Classe de Lilli http://www.gommeetgribouillages.fr/MateR.htm

Websites for teaching Languages through stories

http://www.growstorygrow.com A fantastic collection of stories for different levels. Differentiation

within the stories, games and worksheets. (subscription)

http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/languagesFree resource: good collection of fairy tales and teaching notes

http://www.storybird.com Free resource although you need to pay to print stories. Great site for

writing simple stories with beautiful illustrations. http://www.tesiboard.com Good literacy resources which can be adapted for modern languages

Websites for songs

http://www.youtube.comNow available in schools. This has fantastic resources for songs

accompanied by animation.

http://www.mamalisa.comGreat collection of children’s songs from around the world

http://www.momes.netGood collection of French children’s songs

Other useful resources

To find suitable picture books the European bookshop and little linguist websites are good.

Amazon is also great but can be difficult to look for books if you don’t know what titles you want.

La Jolie Ronde CD-ROM ‘La Ronde des Histoires’ is good for printable resources for fairy tales (French/Spanish).

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