LANGUAGE TEACHING LANGUAGE TEACHING
Lighting fires
“Anyone who stops learning
is old, whether at 20 or 80.
The language of success
Anyone who keeps learning
stays young.”
Henry Ford

“The only person who is
educated is the one who has
In history we have started using Spanish and French
learned how to learn and
to help bring aspects of one subject into the other
and illustrate that languages have a practical use. We
change.”
have also developed teaching techniques that help
students remember phrases, words and facts using Venn
Carl Rogers
diagrams.
The Venn diagrams help students play with
“The teacher who is indeed
vocabulary that they are familiar with but may well
have forgotten. Topics covered at the start of a term
wise does not bid you
– such as holidays or foods – can be revisited here. It
is a fantastic revision tool and can be used in a slightly
to enter the house of his
different format in history while also mixing themes
from each topic together.
wisdom, but rather leads
Our students now really look forward to LiL lessons
you to the threshold of your
and instantly become more engaged. They know that
it is going to be a good lesson and they want to get
mind.”
involved, which illustrates the approach is working.
Although the results are not set in stone, 90 per cent
Khalil Gibran
of year 9 students who have been involved in the LiL
lessons say they will be taking a language at GCSE.
“The true teacher defends
This is beginning to be reflected in the number of
students that take French and Spanish at key stage 4,
his pupils against his own
but we really are anticipating, as the approach beds in,
that many more will opt for languages next year. There
personal influences.”
is real enthusiasm about the subjects and a marked
Amos Alcott
improvement in the ability to remember vocabulary as
a result of the lessons.
LiL has also helped teaching staff. In schools, “Good teaching is more a
certainly in large ones like ours, teachers can often be
quite focused on their own curriculum areas, or their
giving of right questions
own year teams. LiL has enabled them to work in trios
across curriculum areas, sharing pedagogy with different
than a giving of right
subject teachers.
answers.”
With a similar approach other schools can achieve the
same results and make languages exciting while ensuring
Josef Albers
good marks are more obtainable. SecEd
Further information
“I am not a teacher, but an
• CILT, the National Centre for Languages:
awakener.”
www.cilt.org.uk
• For more on the Leading in Learning programme,
Robert Frost
search for this at www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk
Coming soon
the hotel again to book one of their conference rooms The LiL programme was developed to improve
for the party. pupils’ thinking skills across subjects by raising their
Again, all the activities took place in French, tying own awareness of the thinking skills and learning styles
together research and language skills and giving the that suit them best. National curriculum thinking skills SecEddigital
students valuable future experience. include creative thinking, reasoning, and evaluation,
Once again, feedback from the project was very which are reiterated through the use of collaborative
positive and it has been hailed as an unqualified strategies to improve learning and teaching.
success. Consequently Brentford School for Girls Our languages department has always had a keen
SecEd, the only weekly newspaper for secondary
achieved highly commended status in the National interest in finding out how young people learn rather than
Business Language Champions Partnership Award adopting a one-size-fits-all approach to learning style.
teachers, is soon to be available straight to your
2007, a project supported by the Department for All our language lessons use LiL alongside a handful
inbox, as a free of charge email digital edition
Children, Schools and Families through CILT (the of other subjects, and they always start by throwing
National Centre for Languages), the Regional Language young people in at the deep end to immediately
Network London, and the National Education Business involve, engage and motivate learners in an exciting
You can:
Partnership Network. way. This seems to set the tone and pace of all lessons.
• Search the issue for keywords
The Brentford School for Girls’ Novotel French For example, teachers might immediately hand-pick a
Language Project was filmed and included in the pupil for translation while students are walking into the • Access archived editions
National Strategies for key stage 3 training programme classroom.
as a sample of good practice for teachers across the Once the teacher has gained the attention of all
• Bookmark and annotate pages for colleagues
whole of the UK. students, the objectives of the lesson are explained so that
• Email issues and news directly to the editor
More importantly, the scheme has had a discernable young people know what is expected of that class. It is
impact on the numbers of students choosing to take also important for teachers to inform students that they • Search the latest teaching jobs
French at GCSE level, with 2008 seeing a 20 per cent will be able to do something new by the end of the lesson
rise in take-up. so they can see the real-life value in what they are doing.
Brentford has always put an emphasis on teaching At the end of the lesson, the teacher takes time to
transferable as well as academic skills, and the Novotel reflect and evaluate with the students on what they have
Heathrow French Language project has given students learnt and how this will help them in the future.
the opportunity to experience how the knowledge they Importantly, views on how the class can be improved
learn in the classroom can be put into practice. and how the style of lesson helped them to learn are
I would encourage all schools to pursue similar also discussed. This reflection at the end of the session
links with local enterprises, particularly for helps inform the next, so that the group gets a tailored
If you want
language partnerships, as the benefits to industry, experience that is best suited to their needs.
to teachers and most importantly to students cannot Anecdotal evidence shows that students enjoy these
to receive
be underestimated – neither can their role as global lessons because they can interact and communicate in
citizens able to communicate with confidence in a an open atmosphere where participation is encouraged.
SecEddigital free
foreign language. It has also encouraged students to strive to learn more,
while making best use of their ability to remember.
every week,
Katrina Borowski
It has given them and their teachers confidence and
they are seeing concrete results, which in turn enthuses
Eggbuckland Community College, Plymouth
email editor@
young people to learn more.
There is an assumption among young people that These results are further enhanced by the way
sec-ed.co.uk
English is universally spoken and other languages are in which LiL encourages work across departments.
simply not required. To overcome these challenges, Whereas languages have tended to be seen in
we have implemented a Leading in Learning (LiL) isolation with little relevance to others, this approach
programme, which aims to engage young people and can help show their importance in, for example,
has had a significant impact on encouraging students to history where the curriculum touches on European
select a language at GCSE. and world topics.
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SecEd • November 13 2008 9
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