ISMLAISMLA NEWS L E T T ERN EWS L E T T ER Independent Schools’ Modern Languages AssociationIndependent Schools’ Modern Languages Association

No.47 Autumn 2009

activities check course department

development exchange foreign

french gcse german head host

language learning

level modules online order programme project

pupils school students study

teachers teaching

textbook texts work year

www.ismla.co.ukwww.ismla.co.uk

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Chairman Nick Mair, Dulwich College Tel: 020 8693 3601 mairn@dulwich.org.uk Vice Chairman and Membership Secretary Geoffrey Plow, University College School Tel: 020 7433 2302 gplow@ucs.org.uk Treasurer Peter Ansell, Stonyhurst College Tel: 01254 826345 p.ansell@stonyhurst.ac.uk Secretary Jenny Davey, Glenalmond College Jennydavey@glenalmondcollege.co. uk Liaison with prep schools Gillian Forte. St Christopher’s School, Hove Tel: 01273 735404 gf@stchristophershove.org.uk Exhibitions Organiser David Cragg-James davidcragg-james@tiscali.co.uk Newsletter Editor Peter Langdale, North London Collegiate School Tel: 020 8952 0912 plangdale@tiscali.co.uk Reviews Editor Patrick Le Berre, Highgate School Tel: 020 8340 1524 Patrick.LeBerre@highgateschool.org. uk Website Editor Thomas Underwood, University College School Tel: 020 7435 2215 tunderwood@ucs.org.uk

Liaison with ALL, ISMLA representative on Executive Council Kevin Dunne, Ampleforth College Tel: 01439 766000 kjd@ismla.co.uk ISMLA Representative on AQA consultative committee Patrick Thom, The Manchester Grammar School Tel: 0161 2247201 thompat@mgs.org Regional Co-ordinator (East) Julia Whyte, St Francis' College Tel: 01462 670511 jwhyte@st-francis.herts.sch.uk Other members Astrid McAuliffe, Colfe's School (Responsibility for German) Tel: 020 8852 2283 AMcAuliffe@colfes.com Helena Gonzalez, Mount St. Mary's College (Responsibility for Spanish) Tel: 01246 433388 speedyhelena@hotmail.com Duncan Byrne, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School Tel: 020 8266 1787 duncan.byrne@habsboys.org.uk Alex Frazer, Hampton School Tel: 020 8979 5526 A.frazer@hamptonschool.org.uk Richard Oates, Sherborne School Tel: 01935 812249 roates@sherborne.org

Contact the Committee

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Contents

From the Chairman Page 4

From the Editor Goodbye to all that? Page 6

Helen Wright To (I)GCSE or not to (I)GCSE ... is this the

question? Page 9

Duncan Byrne School exchanges under threat? Page 13

Mark Beet Language Exchanges . Why carry on? Page 15

Lydia Morey Japanese and Chinese in UK Schools Page 19

Arnd Witte Schule im Wandel Page 21

Nicholas Harrison E-Learning in Action Page 24

Teresa Rodríguez Reconocimiento Institucional a Las

Brigadas Internacionales Page 26

Announcements Page 28

Practical Ideas Page 30

Reviews Page 31

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But back to where I started. The new AS results have not emerged without causing some consternation. Many teachers have contacted us to say that they can see no reason for the disappointing grades awarded to good linguists who, in other years, would have performed well. Quite what has occurred is difficult to fathom. Have teachers misunder-stood the new requirements? Has marking been erratic? Are exam boards scared of grade inflation?

ISMLA, in conjunction with ALL-London, has set up an online survey and would welcome information from as many schools as possible. We are keen that schools with better than expected results should also contrib-ute and that this should not be seen as an exam-board-bashing exercise. Results will be made available to participating schools and, should they wish it, exam boards. Whatever may have happened, we hope you will support any initiative that helps pupils receive appropriate grades. The link to the survey can be found on the ISMLA website. Please take part.

On a brighter note, as pupils prepare UCAS applications we would like to suggest those taking a gap year consider the excellent Anglo-Omani and Prime Minister’s Global Fellow-ship schemes, links to which can be found on the ISMLA website. May your specification be with you. Nick Mair

You may expect me to start with the new AS/A2 exam results, but I think that there is something else looming large in the world of modern lan-guages.

Significant changes were proposed by QCA in the Modern Languages National Curriculum Level Descrip-tors which apply across KS2 and KS3 (not to be confused with the recently published non-statutory framework). ISMLA members and other modern language teachers have responded, raising their concerns about these changes in an online consultation which finished on 24th July 1.

But what were these concerns? The proposal was to combine the four separate skills (Listening/Reading / Speaking/Writing) into two mega-skills (Speaking and Listening, Writ-ing and Reading) and to add a third called ‘Intercultural Understanding’. Remember that these are the skills to be assessed and, later, examined.

Why worry? Are we not all commit-ted to ‘Intercultural Understanding’? Indeed we are (even if did disappear from A level…) but this version of ‘Intercultural Understanding’ is re-garded by the government as com-prising two distinct strands – one is a concept of ‘social cohesion’, the other ‘the avoidance of violent ex-tremism’ (or, more pithily, terror-ism). ISMLA encourages you to ex-press your reservation to QCA re the proposed changes to come into force. Quelle machine infernale! .

From the Chairman

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1 QCA's deadline to submit their report with all analyses of consultation

data is the end of September. DCSF will then decide when to publish. In the

case of the Level Descriptors consultation the report will definitely be pub-

lished, as this was a Section 96 consultation (relating to statutory orders).

We very much hope that QCA will respond to the major concerns raised.

You can participate in the survey regarding the AS results mentioned in the

Chairman’s message on the page opposite by going to the ISMLA website:

www.ismla.co.uk

The ISMLA website is now an integral part of what the association offers its members. On it you can find:

• Announcements

• Factsheets • Back numbers of the Newsletter in .pdf form

• Reviews • Materials from the last conference

• Committee and membership lists

• How to join • Links to other bodies ... and much more.

If you have any suggestions or material for inclusion, the Website Editor,

Tom Underwood, will be happy to hear from you.

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Goodbye to All That?

As the 2009 A level exam session came to a close this year, I was hit by a simple and blinding revelation. I had taught my very last set text. Ever since I started teaching, one of the most challenging and rewarding part of my work has been the de-tailed study of literary texts in the Sixth Form.

So I put away my files on Racine (Andromaque, Phèdre, Britannicus), Moliere (Tartuffe, L’Avare, l’Ecole

des Femmes), Rimbaud (Poésies), Primo Levi (Se questo è un uomo) and Pirandello (Sei personaggi in

cerca d’autore), to name but a few, and said goodbye to preparing stu-dents for demanding questions on theme, style and characterisation.

From now on (with the exception of the Welsh and Northern Irish) we can expect from exam boards gener-alised questions such as these, taken from the French Specimen Papers:

• Évaluez le rôle et l’importance d’un personnage dans le livre, le film ou la pièce que vous avez choisi/choisie. L’auteur/le metteur en scène a-t-il fait un bon portrait de ce personnage? Justifiez votre réponse. (Edexcel Research-Based Essay, 240-270 words !)

• Choisissez un livre/une collection de contes et analysez ce que l’au-teur invite le lecteur/la lectrice à

considérer en ce qui concerne les rapports personnels. (AQA Cul-tural Topics, L’œuvre d’un auteur français, minimum 250 words)

OCR’s new syllabus contains no dis-cernable invitation to detailed study of literary text at all, and I look for-ward to admiring the ingenuity of question setters in coming up with original questions in the years to come.

For many decades students were asked to reflect and write about sin-gle texts in English, but then the new orthodoxy of the 1990s required them to write about them in the ‘target language’. I recall the con-cerns at the time as to whether this would lead to a dilution of the intel-lectual content of courses and in-deed one distinguished colleague was so disillusioned by the move that he abandoned modern language teaching altogether and was wel-comed with open arms by a grateful English department. Personally, I came to terms with the new pre-scription largely because my own students responded admirably and the very best of them were able to write about literary matters in French or Italian with great aplomb.

What all this reflects is the major shift in the last 15 to 20 years in what our ‘subject’ actually is. If I think back to why I and my contem-poraries of the 1970s chose to read Modern Languages at University, it was for the most part in order to

From the Editor

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modern language courses as they will not for the most part have ac-quired the necessary critical skills at A level under the new language syl-labuses. Some of these concerns certainly emerged in the survey of students at University contained in the last edition (No. 46).

The central question is whether the study of literary texts in the lan-guages we teach is central enough to be pursued in our schools. The answer is undoubtedly yes. The writ-ings of writers and dramatists of the past (or even present) are the high-est expression of what a language can achieve and can serve both to motivate pupils and encourage them to believe that there is more to French, German, Spanish or any other language they study than the artificial scribbling of text book au-thors or the outpourings of journal-ists.

First of all the introduction of shorter texts to the younger years helps bridge the gap between the content of the language courses (ma maison,

mes vacances …) and what 14 or 15 year olds are actually capable of and interested in. Try for instance to read in class poems or extracts which illustrate a grammatical point. As examples, in French I am inevita-bly drawn to Victor Hugo’s Demain

dès l’aube when studying the future tense (and don’t be afraid to elabo-rate in English and or get them to write their own imitations) while for the imperfect I found a wonderful passage in Julien Green’s Partir

study ‘the literature’. A Level was a preparation for this, whether it was through ‘set texts’ or through prose and unseen translation of literary-style text. Culminating in the latest revisions to A level, recent years have seen a steady (and not alto-gether unwelcome) shift away from this position.

Students are now exposed to a much wider range of text-types, listening has become a central skill (pace Edexcel’s abandonment of this at A2) and most particularly they are now much more confident speakers of the languages they study than my generation ever was at the same stage. I would only add the reflec-tion that despite the ‘shortcomings’ of my own training, I have never had a problem reading the newspa-pers or listening to radio or under-standing television!

A serious consequence emerges when we wish to advise and encour-age our students to pursue language studies at university. Where certain universities have to a greater or lesser extent followed the trend set by A Levels, many of the more pres-tigious retain a strong emphasis on literary study, often retaining the study and reflection on texts and authors in English. Frankly, confu-sion reigns. For many students, the courses at university are almost a different subject to that they studied for A Level and, let us be clear, any-one who has not studied English Literature for A Level may well be at a serious disadvantage on some

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novel alongside the main course of study. If you can get over the ‘Sir,

is it on the syllabus?’ question, the rewards are significant both linguisti-cally and in terms of building the link between language and literary study. Then, when it comes to A2, it seems to me that in the modern exam-driven world, everything hinges on the choice of board, even more than on how the course is de-livered. This is not the place to go into this, especially as the choice of exam board was of necessity made last year. However, those syllabuses which allow us to continue prepare students adequately for the more prestigious modern languages courses at university do stand out.

To conclude, our ability as a teach-ing body to continue to teach litera-ture discretely has been seriously compromised by recent changes. Yet literature must surely remain central to our teaching of modern lan-guages. If we fail to introduce our students to the richness and variety inherent in the literature of the countries whose languages we teach, we are doing them a serious disservice.

Peter Langdale

Postscript: Geoffrey Plow has writ-

ten an article on the use of literary

texts in German A level oral exams

for then latest edition of Deutsch: Lehren und Lernen in which he

enlarges (far better than I) on what

is still possible in literary studies,

despite everything. Highly recom-

mended, not just for Germanists.

avant le jour that describes cinema as it was when he was young (leading to a discussion on the ori-gins of cinema). To take that fur-ther, do look back at Patrick Le Berre’s article in the last edition of the Newsletter describing his use of Maupassant with a Year 10 group. And even without exploiting a text to that degree, why not consider just setting aside time to read in class (I too recommend Maupassant for this)? The response has always been very positive.

Even with A level ‘topics’ many of them can be studied as much through literary text as through newspaper articles. Many depart-ments I know have produced book-lets of literary texts to accompany each topic and this can only be en-couraged. This year I had a very able AS level group and having dis-patched the introductory material I had on drugs (oh dear, it’s very bad for you—look what happens when

people take them), we studied a series of carefully chosen extracts from Baudelaire’s ‘Paradis artificiels’ in class as a prelude to some of his poetry. After some initial bemuse-ment, the pupils certainly appreci-ated the additional perspective on the topic! And how many passages from Racine (and any number of novels) add a new perspective and source for discussion to ‘Personal Relationships’.

What is more, with more able pupils, the new AS prescriptions in my view leave us time to read at least one

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tures of each examination format, save in two key elements which, it strikes me, lie at the core of the decision-making about which to choose: firstly, the potential effect on developing students’ linguistic ability; and second, the potential effect on examination results.

It is undeniable that linguistic devel-opment occurs over time and is cu-mulative. Unlike many other sub-jects, in which content and topics form the essential structure of the course, there is a much heavier em-phasis in the learning and teaching of languages on skills development over time: a growing understanding of the framework of the language, coupled with a growing facility to be able to manipulate this in speaking, writing, reading and listening. Lan-guages therefore do not lend them-selves to the type of piecemeal con-trolled assessment at regular inter-vals which is fundamental to the new home-grown GCSE, and which risks compartmentalising language in a way which inhibits the flexibility and fluidity of use that is so central to real fluency, developed at A Level or IB and beyond. In fact, it could be argued that these new GCSEs are a retrograde step in language develop-ment, and that as a result fewer of our students will continue with their languages in the Sixth Form, for with the lack of coherence that their course to that point has given them, any subsequent courses will quite simply be beyond them.

Heads who are linguists sometimes – nay, often – have a rather odd relationship with their Languages Departments. A mutual fear on the part of Head and Head of Depart-ment that the Head may seek to interfere or micromanage the affairs of the department can lead in fact to the opposite being true, as the Head steers so far clear of the department that languages in school can suffer from less of a push towards strategic change than can other subjects. Maybe there is also something pecu-liarly British in this – a fear of per-ceived favouritism which leads to institutional neglect; whatever the psychological undertones, however, it is rare for a linguist Head to be seen actively to promote lan-guages ... which, on reflection of the economic and cultural need for good linguists in our world, is actually very unfortunate.

Cometh the hour, cometh the lin-guist Head, however, and certain events propel us towards change in a way which enables us to reconnect with our departments and help move languages forward in school. Changes in examination qualifica-tions are often the focus of such events, and the recent changes to GCSE are a real motivation to re-consider radically how we approach the teaching of languages in schools, particularly when we compare them to what has been presented as the only real alternative, the IGCSE. I do not wish to rehearse here the fea-

To (I)GCSE or not to (I)GCSE ... is this the question?

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upon which to base their compari-sons between schools) and worry little about statistics other than take-up at A Level ... but this will only ever be a short-term solution (IGCSEs are bound to be included at some stage in the tables), and in any case it avoids the fundamental and radical question – is any exami-nation at this level genuinely going to mark achievement of any real and sustainable linguistic worth? And, if not, why are we bothering ourselves with it at all, especially if by taking it, we find ourselves caught in a un-desirable position educationally whichever way we turn?

In public moments like this, the hall normally falls silent, as delegates wonder with slight levels of panic about a mass of immediate thoughts and reactions: the need for inclusiv-ity and involvement of all pupils, who need concrete achievement to motivate them; the practical consid-erations of competition with other subjects – if we don’t have an ex-amination, will our pupils value us at all or ever do any study?; and whether this would actually ever work at all. It is the right and duty of Heads, however, to challenge con-ventional wisdom, however, so I press on – why not let us consider the abandonment of GCSE as a genuine option?

What could we do if we did? A pleth-ora of thoughts immediately spring to mind: we could start from scratch in discussing, deciding and deter-mining what we thought was impor-tant in language learning. What do

From this perspective, the IGCSE with its linear assessment is attrac-tive; moreover, with the abandon-ment of controlled assessments, time is freed up in the curriculum for real learning - time that would oth-erwise have been devoted to the preparation for, the stress of, and the recovery from, what are effec-tively mini-examinations spread throughout the course. However, the IGCSE becomes less attractive when one considers the likely effect on examination results. Linear assess-ment has one major disadvantage as far as outcomes: there is but one chance at it, and sometimes it can all go horribly wrong at this point, leaving an indelible stain on a candi-date’s UCAS form. In this age of intense competition for university places, where some universities are openly quoting the need for 8 A*s for students from high-achieving schools to enable them to pass through the first round of sifting, it would be a foolish Head of Depart-ment who did not even entertain the thought of doing the new home-grown GCSEs in order to maximise results.

Thus we have a conundrum: the new GCSEs may maximise exam achieve-ment but reduce linguistic develop-ment, while the IGCSEs may maxi-mise development but risk achieve-ment. What are we to do? For now, while IGCSEs do not count in GCSE league tables, there is a compromise to be had – take the IGCSE, with-draw as a school from the league tables (which means that universi-ties have less evidence in any case

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rote-phrase learning involving lost cats and missed trains, which the average 16 year old treats, quite rightly, with an element of con-tempt. We would have the chance to raise the level of vocabulary to one which was genuinely more meaning-ful for young people and therefore more likely to engage them long term in the subject. We discuss in other school contexts with our younger teenagers the ethics of abortion and the vagaries of politics, and they possess the intellectual qualities to be able to do so; why not let us find ways to allow them to develop the language to do this in German or Spanish, for example, as well as in English?

If we are not restricted by textbooks that fill every moment of the school year with schemes of work designed to practise for the text-types and question-types that our students would expect to encounter at GCSE, then we have the scope to build into our programmes some significant immersion opportunities abroad. Even as exchanges fade into obscu-rity in many parts of the country, home study stays blossom despite the strictures of legislation; work experience too can take students’ language levels to a new high.

If we are not hidebound by examina-tions, then we could have greater scope for a wide range of ab initio courses for beginners which provide a flavour of a language alongside a language or languages which are being studied in greater depth. Why not an explosion of Swahili, Norwe-

our young people need? What do we believe in? This is not intended to be a retrograde step back to some imagined utopia of 1950’s grammar school language classrooms, with prose and translation on the agenda at all cost, but rather an opportunity to consider how best we can moti-vate young people to learn lan-guage. There is much to value in prose and translation; coupled with the accelerated learning techniques available to us now, what might we be able to make happen? How best do our students learn language? If this is the question that motivates us, then we will more likely make a difference in how we teach them.

We could design language learning programmes which last over the five or seven years of senior school edu-cation and which are not broken up by the restrictions placed on us by textbook schemes of work which persist in being very teacher driven and focused on what can be achieved in the school day, week and year. The garden of language learning benefits from constant wa-tering; if we thought creatively about this, what might we be able to design that stretched over the entire year, using our school VLEs to guide and structure learning. Boundaries between work and home are more blurred for our young people than ever before, and this is a world with which they are already very familiar, and will need to grow to embrace; let us help them do so.

We could design programmes that move away from the banalities of

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tabling being but the first to rise to the surface, not to mention time allocation across the years – but this is exactly when Heads of Depart-ment need to work closely with Heads to explore the vision and start thinking about how it might begin, become embedded and evolve throughout the school. It may be a cliché to say that if we do what we have always done, we will get what we have always got ... but it is also perfectly true, and with numbers of qualified and interested linguists dropping by the year, then we need to do something quite extraordinary if we are to develop a generation of young people who have an under-standing of other languages and cultures, and the ability to be able to communicate with ease and enthusi-asm.

So: a challenge to us all as linguists - Heads, Heads of Department and teachers – to let our commitment to languages drive us forwards. At the very least, we need to begin the conversation. And to my Head of Languages, who will be reading this ... forgive me, for I shall enjoy the journey!

Dr Helen Wright—Headmistress, St

Mary’s Calne

gian and Czech? We might then be able to expect all of our students to study a language at some level right up to the end of their time in school, just as we expect them to do Games or General Studies or PSHE.

And to answer the critics regarding the need for qualifications, why not let us give these courses a focus and put the marker of AS in place at some point (at the end of Year 12 at the latest, but conceivably before)? It is not a perfect examination, by any means, but arguably it is a more meaningful one than GCSE in terms of outcome, and it is certainly one to which universities most certainly pay attention. As long as you avoid the temptation to return to regular ex-ternal assessment, you may wish to look again at the Asset Languages qualifications framework. For the more adventurous, why not look at the courses available through the Open University? You might surprise yourself when you consider what your students are capable of doing in other subjects; we frequently do our young people a disservice when we judge their capability and poten-tial to rise to challenge; it is our ten-dency to focus on their mistakes – which in languages are very evident - that leads us to do this, I suspect, but in fact one of the most powerful lessons I have learned as a Head is that our students will usually sur-prise us when we allow them to do so.

Inevitably, there are huge implica-tions of any such radical considera-tions – staffing, resources and time-

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Why are host parents included in

this legislation?

The Vetting and Barring Scheme determines that anyone who provides care and accommodation for children under 18 will be engaging in regulated activity and will need to be registered with the ISA. It will be the responsibility of the exchange's organising body to check that host families are ISA registered and it will be a criminal offence for anyone to engage in regulated activity of this kind if they are not registered with the ISA or are barred from it.

Who exactly needs to be

checked?

• From 26th July 2010, for any hosting arrangement of less than 28 days (i.e. most exchanges), one parent present in a household hosting an exchange student must register with the ISA and

I must admit to having struggled to obtain a full understanding of the new child safeguarding legislation and its requirement to check parents who host foreign exchange pupils. This brief article summarises the essentials as I understand them to be at the time of writing (21st Sep 2009). There is nevertheless some lack of clarity: detailed information on our specific case is hard to come by because exchanges are, in some respects, the unintended ‘victims’ of broader legis lat ion. I have nevertheless checked with the ISA ( I ndependen t Sa f egua rd i ng Authority) that the content of this art icle is in l ine with i ts understanding of the current situation.

School exchanges under threat?

The new safeguarding laws

Many schools and their Modern Languages Departments have been

struggling to understand the new regulatory environment that is due for

implementation this year. Much of the more recent publicity in the national

press has been concerned with volunteers offering to drive children to or

from sports clubs. However, a major consequence, certainly crucial to

languages departments, is the effect it will have on the traditional school

language exchange. Concrete information has been hard to come by, so

ISMLA asked Duncan Byrne to investigate the new safeguarding legislation.

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• I am assured by the ISA that, although employers will have to pay to register their permanent staff, registration for volunteers (and parents hosting pupils are classed as such) will be free. (Having been told this by two ISA employees, I cannot, however, find written confirmation on the ISA website.)

Although ISA registration should usually take only seven working days (schools can thereafter check that individuals are registered via the ISA-online service), an Enhanced CRB check will continue to take up to e ight weeks . Exchange arrangements will therefore have to be in place in good time to enable checks to be carried out before the arrival of students.

Is this the end of my exchange?

Not necessarily, but ML departments that believe that the traditional reciprocal exchange is far superior as a linguistic and cultural experience to the study visit will have to fight for their exchanges, by bringing forward planning deadlines, b u t mo re impo r t a n t l y b y communicating clearly with parents and partner schools to ensure that all parties understand not just the legislation but also the steps that we take to ensure our pupils’ safety when they go abroad. I would suggest the following:

• The school (i.e. Headteacher)

undergo an Enhanced CRB

check. Although the Vetting and Barring Scheme will be launched on 12th October 2009, there is no legal requirement to submit parents to an Enhanced CRB check and ISA registration until 26th July 2010. There will therefore be no effect on exchanges being organised during the current academic year.

• There is no requirement to check all those over the age of 16 in a household unless the visiting child is staying for more than 28 days; a check on one parent is sufficient.

• ISA registration need only be done once, no matter how many times a parent is involved in hosting, as the individual’s record will be updated in the case of any information coming to light about his/her unsuitability to work with children.

How much does it cost and how

long does it take?

• From 28th June 2010, a new single form will need to be completed for the Enhanced CRB check and ISA registration.

• The individuals must apply themselves; schools cannot do so on their behalf.

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schools work with us. Ultimately, an individual Headteacher will have to be convinced that the measures taken by partner schools to vet families are sufficiently robust: it may indeed be possible for an extrait de casier judiciaire to be obtained for French parents, but if the directeur / proviseur is unwilling to consider this option, will our school management teams will sa t i s f i ed w i th l e ss fo rma l assurances?

I believe that exchanges are worth fighting for, even with the added bureaucracy that these measures entail, and I hope that this article gives the information required so that strategies can be developed to enlist the support of school management and parents as we move towards July 2010.

Duncan Byrne

should communicate with parents during the current academic year to explain the requirement for vetting of host families whilst restating the school’s commitment to exchanges and asking for parental support.

It is inevitable that parents will ask what measures are in place to check the suitability of the families that will host their children. DCSF guidelines (not legislation) advise that exchange organisers should “be clear about procedures in the

relevant country for vetting the

suitability of host families including

criminal background checks insofar

a s t h e s e a r e a v a i l a b l e . ” Communication must therefore take place with partner schools urgently, in order to ensure that they understand the parameters under which we are working. Exchanges can only survive if our partner

Language Exchanges– why carry on?

Against the background of the new regulations, Mark Beet explains why,

despite the many difficulties involved, he remains a big supporter of school

language exchanges.

I am convinced that linguistically, culturally and socially the pupils benefit much more than from any of the alternative experiences. We have tried languages courses with home-stays, languages courses with accommodation in youth hostels and sight-seeing cultural trips, but none of these provide everything we want from a trip. A home stay lacks the idea of reciprocity as you do not

welcome anyone back to your home, an important aspect in my opinion, and our trips to Paris and the Rhineland are interesting for the pupils culturally, but they just do not have the opportunity to practise their languages. They may order a meal or buy a few post cards but they do little beyond this. Only an exchange combines the possibility to advance the pupils on the linguistic,

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can be a problem and plans have to be made to remove a pupil from a family if they are genuinely incompat ib le or unsuitab le . Fortunately this has happened extremely rarely on any exchange.

The minor difficulties clearly do not out-weigh the hugely positive experiences of most of our pupils who participate in one of the exchanges. This is why I am so frustrated by the government’s insistence that all adults in any home hosting a foreign pupil be police checked. Child protection is clearly important, but we have to remember that the CRB check only shows whether any crimes have been committed up to the point in time when the check takes place. We intend to hold an information evening for parents of pupils going on all three exchanges and ask them to bring in their identification so that the CRB check can be carried out. This is the best solution I could think of and I would be interested to hear from colleagues who have other ideas. However, this does not cover eventualities such as a sibling returning from university during the exchange, a grandmother who becomes ill and has to be cared for in the house with an exchange pupil or even the family cleaner. I am also preparing myself for the obvious question from our parents about whether the foreign families will have to undergo this process to which the answer, I think, is a resounding “no”. Given the difficulty of organising exchanges anyway, I feel this is another level of

cultural and social fronts. They have to practise the language with members of the host family who do not speak English and they learn to adapt to a new situation and realise what it means to live in a foreign family. Culturally they discover more, say, about Potsdam under communist rule by living with people who experienced it rather than a boring lecture from me!

This is not to say that exchanges are not without problems. When a partner school does not share your vision for the exchange, problems can arise. At Bromsgrove I inherited an exchange set up by the (now-ex) francophile headmaster. Exchanging with two institutions (a lycée and a collège) was made all the more difficult by the fact that they would not communicate with one another at all. In addition, there seemed to be the assumption that we would organise the exchange on both our side and theirs. The exchange I established with a Gymnasium in Potsdam also exchanges with a French school in Rennes and we now have a three way link of like-minded independent schools which works really well. We also have a long established exchange with a school in Pravia in Northern Spain. The German Exchange is particularly special as the German school hosts guests from its exchange schools in France, Holland and Poland all at the same time which makes both cu l tu ra l exchange and an international football match (which we usually lose to the Germans!) possible. Homesickness from pupils

17

bureaucracy teachers could do without and which may not protect children anyway.

At Bromsgrove we intend to carry on with exchanges as we feel they are so important and valuable. Pupils who participate in year 10 look forward to returning in the sixth form which is excellent for our AS / IB recruitment. The pupils learn to give and receive hospitality and have to practise their languages. Perhaps most importantly, however, they often make friends for life. Many of our pupils go back on a private basis to see their former hosts and this year on our commemoration day countless Old Bromsgrovians I spoke to said they were still in contact through email and facebook with their exchange partner in France, Germany or Spain. This shows what is unique about exchanges and the obvious enthusiasm of our former pupils further convinced me of their value. If only there were not so much paperwork…..

Mark Beet. Bromsgrove School

CONTRIBUTIONS

PLEASE!

ISMLA always welcomes

articles,announcements,

reports, letters, reviews

and other contributions

that would be of interest to

members. Maybe you want

to respond or add to what

you have read in this

edition.

Articles, letters or any

other contributions for the

Spring 2010 edition of the

Newsletter should reach

the Newsletter Editor,

Peter Langdale

(plangdale@tiscali.co.uk) by

1st December 2009.

MANY THANKS IN

ADVANCE

18

19

Pupils generally enjoy the challenge of learning a totally different script: the fact that we Japanese teachers assume everyone in our class is illiterate and start from scratch when teaching reading and writing often gives weaker pupils, or those lacking motivation in other languages, a fresh start and a chance to succeed at something different. Another advantage of studying Japanese is that there are quite a few competitions and scholarships available, and since the pool of people potentially applying for these is much smaller than for European languages, pupils may relatively easily get the opportunity to take part in exciting events or even go to Japan.

Mandarin Chinese

The teaching of Chinese in Schools is also currently enjoying a boom, and it has been a pleasure to see new schools and new teachers at every Chinese teachers’ conference over the last few years. There is a great sense of excitement and “buzz” in the Chinese teaching community at the moment, with lots of teachers and schools trying out new programmes and ways of delivery. There is certainly a choice of suitable textbooks on the market and excellent support for teachers from the SSAT. The GCSE is becoming

Japanese

There are currently about 250 secondary schools teaching Japanese in UK; many of these are specialist language colleges. Different schools offer different models: many have Japanese as part of the curriculum, offering Japanese alongside other languages as a choice to be made in year 7, 8 or 9. Some schools offer Japanese as an after school or Saturday enrichment class, whilst others run successful one or two year programmes in the sixth form.

Pupils’ interest is often sparked through their interest in Japanese culture, anime / manga or martial arts being the most common entry points. From the school’s perspective, Japanese is a relatively easy language to introduce for the following reasons:

1.There are a range of Australian textbooks available, which can be used as a basis for a course

2.The GCSE exam is very accessible and pupils gain good grades

3.There is a reasonable supply of UK trained and qualified teachers available

4.There is excellent support and advice available from the Japan Foundation London Language Centre.

Japanese and Chinese in UK Schools

Lydia Morey, Head of Oriental Studies at Marlborough College, gives an

outline of the current state of play.

20

Japanese: a one year course leading to GCSE is open to any sixth former.

Arabic: a one or two year introductory course is open to any sixth former.

If you would like any further information, would like to be put in touch with sources of help or would like to come and visit us, please email me!

Lydia Morey

lmm@marlboroughcollege.org

more accessible to genuine learner candidates, and it is assumed that with two Boards now offering a GCSE in Mandarin, the competition for candidates will lead to further s y l l a b u s a n d e x am in a t i o n development. It seems to me that the great issue currently needing to be faced is teacher training: making sure that there are a sufficient number of well qualified teachers, trained in MFL teaching methodology in the UK and able to achieve QTS, de l i ve r ing we l l s t ruc tured , interesting and accessible lessons to pupils. There certainly is a demand for Mandarin to be taught for future business purposes from parents and pupils; the long history and rich culture of China make Mandarin a fascinating and richly rewarding language to study.

Incidentally. what we do at Marlborough is as follows:

Mandarin: one or two sets a year take French GCSE early (at the end of year 10), and these pupils are offered the choice of continuing with French at a higher level or starting Mandarin. This usually leads to a year 11 Chinese beginners set of between 8 – 12 pupils. If these pupils wish to continue with Mandarin, they can take GCSE at the end of year 12.

Mandarin can also be started in the sixth form: either the ab initio course as part of the IB programme, or a 2 year course leading to GCSE.

21

on teachers. Being a teacher means more than simply ‘teaching’ students; it requires a broad range of skills, abilities and knowledge that often do not receive enough attention in degree courses and in teacher training. It is exactly in this area that the project sees the need for offering effective, integrated further training to teachers. This applies especially to the professional development for teachers of foreign languages.

Social changes have profound effects not only on theoretical and pedagogical aspects of teaching such as the development of curricula, teaching/learning methodologies, co-operative efforts like team teaching and project learning or the actual delivery of teaching a particular subject in a specific setting but also on the architecture and layout of school buildings. In these respects, there are new developments emanating from European countries which frequently go unnoticed by their neighbours. Therefore one of the objectives of this COMENIUS project is to increase awareness of innovative and important teaching approaches so as to improve the quality of teaching of foreign languages in Europe. It is also the intention of the project to provide a European reference model for professional development of teachers of foreign languages. In particular, the blended learning

In 2008 a new COMENIUS project was set up which aims particularly at further training of teachers of foreign languages, in particular of teachers of German as a foreign language. The project, which is being funded with support from the European Commission, uses a blended learning format for the training activities. This means that the learning activities can be done in a flexible manner: individual and cooperative exercises can be completed by online learning, by face-to-face activities, or a combination of the two. Participating teachers do not even have to leave their home in order to take part in and to benefit from this training if they choose to select online activities only.

The background for this project is the realisation that in an ever changing world the role and function of schools and teachers also have to change rapidly if they want to keep abreast of social developments in their country and across borders in a European context. Nowadays, social changes are placing new demands

Schule im Wandel

The Changing Face of Language Teaching

22

and innovative teaching approaches from their respective countries which will serve as additional stimuli in the blended learning program. These films will be available in PDF format in various languages, including Eng-lish, from the project’s website (see below).

The content of the films, which form the core of the project, will be expanded upon by exercises and questions in a variety of interactive formats. These exercises range from simple content and value questions to complex questions as to the potential criticism and improvement of the sequences from the lessons analysed. Reference will be made to present methodologies, theories and opinions so that the teacher as learner in this project will not only be aware of recent developments but he or she will also be in a position to develop a strong personal voice with regard to these o v e r a r c h i n g t h e o r e t i c a l considerations. In completing these exercises online, the learner is not alone and isolated at his or her PC. Many exercises require group work and discussion groups (all online) so that the learner never feels lost. Furthermore, an online tutor will constantly provide feedback to the individual and to the groups in order to stimulate, co-ordinate and develop responses.

The COMENIUS project was constituted in October 2008 and its developmental stage will conclude in September 2010. However, this does not mean that the project will cease

modules offered by this project highlight an innovative route to training teachers effectively and in a skill-orientated manner.

This will be done in a teacher-centred way in that the practice of teaching foreign languages will be focused upon in the form of short films (of 2-18 minutes duration) showing present tendencies and developments in the institution school. In particular they provide ins ights in to the comp lex developments of school activities and teaching and they show how traditional forms of communicating knowledge are being replaced with new learning methods and teaching concepts. These films were made at 10 different schools throughout Germany, and they are based around three content areas, namely Schools, Teaching and Educational

Concepts and Projects. They provide the hands-on stimulus for discussing concrete concepts and situations, as seen in the films, and to transfer them to and compare them with one’s own teaching context in order to improve one’s own teaching; this aspect is of central relevance to the project. The blended learning concept guarantees that every voice will be taken into consideration, and the films made in Germany just serve as a stimulus and not an example of how things should be done. In order to complement, and possibly counterbalance the films from Germany, our partners in Portugal, Finland, Poland and the Czech Republic will also provide film examples on selected school projects

23

modules according to their interests and their professional needs. Although some exercises of the blended learning course may be completed in English, a good knowledge of German is needed to complete the course.

To summarise, the main objectives of the ‘Schule im Wandel’ project are:

• To offer an innovative model course for the professional development of foreign language teachers;

• To encourage cooperative ways of teaching/learning and media skills by using a variety of tools and formats;

• To stimulate a European dialogue on effective professional development for foreign language teachers;

• To fuel the discussion on school-related concepts and projects throughout Europe.

Further information on this project, including film samples, information about the schools, option of registering for the newsletter, events calendar etc. is available in German at www.goethe.de/schule-im-wandel

Aternatively, the information is provided in English at http://www .g o e t h e . d e / l h r / p r j / s iw /enindex.htm

Dr Arnd Witte, Department of Ger-

man, National University of Ireland

Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare,

Ireland. Email: a.witte@nuim.ie

after that; on the contrary, from 2008-2010 the project is being developed in detail and every module is being tested in most of the par t i c ipa t ing count r ies (Germany, Finland, Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal and Ireland). Only after successful testing will the project go online for the wider public in October 2010. It will be available for recognised further training for teachers of foreign languages in modular form. The modules on offer are centred on three topic areas:

1. Development of School

a. Profiles of Schools

b. Changing School

c. New Tasks for Teachers

d. Visions of School

2. Teaching

a. Start into the Foreign Language

b. C o n t e n t a nd L a ng u ag e Integrated Learning (CLIL) in the Foreign Language

c. Learning by Teaching

3. Educational Concepts Projects

a. Becoming Autonomous Step by Step

b. Facilitation of Multilingualism

c. Pupils take over Responsibilities

d. Opening of School to the Outside World

Each letter (a, b, c etc.) stands for a module which can be completed online. There is no need to complete all modules or to tackle them in the order listed above; teachers or trainers can select and combine

24

pressure!). But they will have a lot of flexibility day to day and week to week; and in a given academic year they will be free to take anything from a single module to the whole MA programme. Students can also simply opt to take one or two modules that interest them, without embarking on the entire programme.

Of the six modules on offer initially, four are language modules, covering a range of skills including spoken French and writing. This emphasis on language is the programme's other great novelty, compared with other MA-level courses; very little instruction in French at postgraduate level is on offer elsewhere, even though, apart from native speakers, no-one finishing a BA in French feels they have reached the highest level they could.

The remaining modules focus on French literature/culture: 'What is a (French) Classic?' and 'The French Avant-garde and its uses'. In these two modules, online discussion of the set texts will take place primarily in English, whereas the language modules are taught through French.

Students completing all six modules successfully will be awarded a PGDip; those who go on to write a dissertation, on a topic of their choosing, will be eligible for the full MA. Each individual 20-credit module will be priced at £500; the full PGDip

This September, King's College London is launching a new MA/PGDip (Postgraduate Diploma) in French Language and Culture delivered entirely through Elearning. It has been developed jointly by the Modern Language Centre and the Department of French, which already offers two successful campus-based MAs. Inspiration has come partly from other departments at King's that already offer thriving MA programmes by elearning, including War Studies – where many students are in active military service, and nearly all are part-time – and Dentistry (!).

The French programme is intended to be particularly appealing to teachers of French in schools who wish to refresh and extend their French and/or to deepen their knowledge of French culture. Because all modules will be taught wholly through King's virtual learning environment, students will be able to study at times that suit them, working around other commitments. This is not to say that the modules are self-taught or open-ended: they are based on structured interaction with tutors and other students, and each term-long module will be subdivided, usually into two-week blocks. In that respect, students will be committed to working at a certain pace and meeting certain deadlines (and will be put under a little productive

E-Learning in Action — A new Postgraduate

Diploma for teachers of French

25

will be £3000, the MA £4500. F u r t h e r d e t a i l s ( i n c l u d i n g instructions on how to apply, contact detai ls for the programme organizers, and a special offer to mark the programme's launch) can be found on the King's College London website, www.kcl.ac.uk/

schools/humanities/depts/french/pg/

languageandculture.html

Professor Nicholas Harrison Head of Department of French,

King's College London

DATE FOR YOUR

DIARY

ISMLA Conference

2010

***

An unmissable array

of practical, user-

friendly tips

for getting to grips

with new things in

MFL (that you

thought you didn't

have time for)

***

North London

Collegiate School

Saturday 6th February

2010

***

Invitations will be sent

out shortly and please

spread the word to any

non-members who

might be interested.

26

Como les dijo La Pasionaria en su emotivo discurso de despe-dida aquel 28 de octubre: “Por primera vez en la his-

toria de las luchas de los pueblos se

ha dado el espectáculo, asombroso

por su grandeza, de la formación de

Brigadas Internacionales para ayu-

dar a salvar la libertad y la indepen-

dencia de un país amenazado, de

nuestra España”...

... ¡Madres! ... ¡Mujeres! Cuando los

años pasen y las heridas de la gue-

rra se vayan restañando; cuando el

recuerdo de los días dolorosos y

sangrientos se esfume……, hablad a

vuestros hijos; habladles de estos

hombres de las Brigadas internacio-

nales”

La larga noche de la dictadura espa-ñola silenció a los brigadistas y a otras muchas gentes no adictas al régimen que se exiliaron o fueron encarceladas. Se dice, por ejemplo, que intelectuales exilados españoles llenaron el claustro de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Méjico.

Tras la muerte de Franco hubo mo-mentos delicados, tensos y titubean-tes hasta conquistar la democracia, que dieron lugar al acuerdo constitu-cional de 1978, a la observancia de una voluntad de convivencia política

Atrás queda aquel 28 de octubre de 1938 cuando mandos del ejército Republicano y una multitud de civiles despedía emocionadamente en las calles de Barcelona a la Brigadas Internacionales: hombres y mujeres alemanes, americanos, austriacos, británicos, italianos, polacos, húnga-ros y de otras muchas nacionalida-des procedentes de distintos estra-tos sociales y con diferentes creen-cias políticas y religiosas. Entre ellos había intelectuales, obreros, estu-diantes, enfermeras…. y a todos le unía el mismo lazo: ayudar al pueblo español y a la República para libe-rarse de los fascistas cuyo golpe militar encabezaba el general Fran-co.

Los primeros voluntarios antifascis-tas llegaron a España al estallar la Guerra, el 12 de julio de 1936, y en oleadas sucesivas fueron viniendo otros. El Cuerpo militar de Brigadas

Internacionales, fue autorizado por el gobierno el 22 de octubre de 1936 – 3 meses después de estallar la guerra- y el Estatuto legal de las Brigadas Internacionales lo firmó el ministro de la guerra, Indalecio Prie-to, en 1937. Llegados en distintas oleadas se calcula que hubo unos 35.000 brigadistas en nuestro país desde 1936 a 1938 y participaron activamente en las batallas más importantes de la guerra civil: Bru-nete, Belchite, Ebro, Jarama, Madrid, etc. demostrando gran valor. Aproxi-madamente unos 6000 murieron en suelo español.

Reconocimiento Institucional a Las Brigadas Internacionales

27

siguientes palabras el acto de la Embajada: Hemos tardado pero

hemos llegado a casa… Atrás quedan

aquellos que no volvieron, que yacen

bajo el sol, el suelo y los olivos de

España.

El discurso que les dedicó nuestro Embajador, contenía tintes de agra-decimiento y emoción: Estos siete

brigadistas representan a todos y

pueden estar orgullos porque su

esfuerzo ha sido finalmente recono-

cido. Muchos de los ideales de los

brigadistas son una realidad hoy en

nuestra monarquía parlamentaria. ¡ Vuestra lucha no fue en vano!

Queridos brigadistas, España les

está agradecida y desde ahora son

uno más de nosotros.

Han pasado ya casi 71 años desde aquel memorable desfile de despedi-da por las calles de Barcelona, pero el espíritu de los brigadistas prevale-ce y su mensaje se trasmite de ge-neración en generación como pode-mos observar en las múltiples publi-caciones y páginas Web dedicadas a ellos.

Teresa Rodríguez, Consejería de

Educación

Referencias:

Baxell, Richard. British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the Interna-tional Brigades, 1936-1939, Lon-don, Routledge/ Cañada Blanch Stu-dies on Contemporary Spain, 2004.

entre vencedores y vencidos, a un espíritu de paciencia y resignación de éstos últimos, etc., etc. No es hasta la promulgación de la Ley de la Memoria Histórica en diciembre del 2007 que se sientan las bases para que los poderes públicos lleven a cabo políticas dirigidas al reconoci-miento y reparación de quienes pa-decieron persecución o violencia durante la guerra civil y la posgue-rra, para la localización e identifica-ción de víctimas que todavía yacen en barrancos, cunetas o campos, y para el reconocimiento a los briga-distas.

Gracias al desarrollo de dicha ley se concede la nacionalidad española, sin pérdida de la propia, a los volun-tarios integrantes de las Brigadas Internacionales. Entre ellos a siete supervivientes de los aproximada-mente dos mil voluntarios británicos que dejaron su familia y sacrificaron sus vidas, para luchar en España contra el fascismo emergente. De esos dos mil unos quinientos yacen en el suelo español. Estos siete bri-gadistas recibieron su pasaporte de manos del Embajador de España, Carles Casajuana, en el acto que tuvo lugar el pasado 9 de junio en la Embajada de España en Londres. Entre ellos se encontraba Sam Les-ser, de 94 años, que combatió en la batalla de Madrid y que todavía tiene una clara capacidad para recordar, hechos y palabras en español, como ya nos demostró el pasado mes de diciembre en una de las actividades conmemorativas celebradas en Insti-tuto Español Cañada Blanch. Sam, con vitalidad característica, dijo las

28

La Ruta Quetzal es un viaje de estudio y aventura, financiado por el BBVA, de seis semanas de duración por España y América del Sur.

El programa se creó en 1979 a suge-rencia de S M el Rey de España, con el objetivo de consolidar entre los jóve-nes de 16 y 17 años los cimientos de la Comunidad Iberoamericana de na-ciones entre todos los países de habla hispana.

Cada verano unos 200 estudiantes de todo el mundo participan, como repre-sentantes de sus países, en esta enri-quecedora experiencia de esfuerzo, compañerismo y amistad.

El representante del Reino Unido para

Videos de Youtube relacionados con el tema:

• Declaraciones de Sam Lesser, bri-gadier de la Guerra civil española:

• Despedida a las brigadas Interna-cionales:

• Discurso de Adiós a las Brigadas Internacionales de la Pasionaria:

• Canción de Víctor Manuel: Como

voy a olvidarme de la memoria histórica

Película

Land and Freedom, 1995 dirigida por Ken Loach.

Páginas Web

• h t t p : / /www . i n t e r n a t i o n a l -

b r i g a d e s . o r g . u k /education_support.htm

• h t t p : / /www . i n t e r n a t i o n a l -

brigades.org.uk/british_volunteers

Announcements

la próxima Ruta Quetzal en el verano de 2010, será elegido en un diverti-do concurso entre los 30 mejores estudiantes de español, nacidos en 1993 o 1994 y propuestos por sus colegios.

Las candidaturas deberán presentar-se en la Consejería a finales de octu-bre. Los estudiantes seleccionados y sus profesores serán invitados* a asistir a esta fiesta en Londres el 11 de diciembre 2009. Habrá pre-mios para todos: tapas, viajes, ropa y un largo etcétera.

¡Esperamos a vuestros candida-

tos

Para más información:

www.educacion.es/exterior/uk

* Se reembolsará los gastos de via-

je, y alojamiento, a los estudiantes

que residan lejos de Londres.

29

The Autumn 2008 edition of the Newsletter carried an article announcing the second edition of the European Commission’s competition for young translators.

58 schools from the United Kingdom were selected to enter pupils for the competition, a good proportion of them from the Independent sector.

The 2008 UK prize was won by Sabrina Vashisht from North London Collegiate School who has been studying French, Russian and Spanish at A2 and who was also one of the school’s team for the Joutes Oratoires earlier this year. She has a place to read French and Russian at New College, Oxford.

She writes: “ Finding out that I’d

won the competition was an

incredible surprise, ! The trip to

Brussels was truly a once in a life

time experience, especially as we

were taken to the European

Commission for an awards

ceremony. However the highlight of

the trip was definitely getting a one-

on-one session with a real

translator, and getting to know how

the translation process works.”

The Directorate General for Translation of the European Commission will be running the contest for the third time in 2009.

The contest is aimed at 17 year-olds in secondary schools all over the European Union. They will have the task of translating a text in a language pair of their choice, selected from the 23 official languages of the EU. Translators from the European Commission will mark and select the best translation per Member State. The winners will be invited on a two-day trip to Brussels.

To find out more visit: http://ec.europa.eu/translatores.

Key Dates:

• Registration : 1 September 2009 until 20 October 2009 directly on the website.

• Contest day: 24 November 2009.

Pupils from all participating schools in Europe will translate a text at exactly the same time under the supervision of their teacher.

• Announcement of the winners and award ceremony: 1st half of 2010.

30

The tag cloud on the front cover of this edition was generated (though subsequently adapted by the editor) using the free services available at www.tagcrowd.com. Paste your text, upload your file or link to a web page and up pops a tag cloud which you can then use on your blog or web site, but could equally be seen as a text study tool or a vocab list generator. Can you work out which famous 19th Century French poetry collection generated this tag cloud?

âme ange baisers beau beauté beaux belle bras choses ciel cœur cœurs

corps désir dieu dit douleur doux enfant esprit femme feu fleurs fond front gloire

gouffre grand grands haine haut jamais jour l'air l'amour l'homme l'œil loin long longue

lune main mal matin mer misère monde mort noir noirs nuit nuits œil parfois parfum pieds pitié

pleurs poète prends profond puis race regard remords rêve rire sang Satan soir soleil sombre temps

ténèbres terre tête travers triste vent veux vie vieux vin voir vois voix volupté yeux

Below is a tag cloud generated from a newspaper article on a web page of an Italian newspaper, this time with word counts. How about such a tag cloud to introduce a topic or a warm up session at the start of a lesson?

Peter Langdale

capo (11) cavaliere (10) corriere (9) elio (9) giugno (26) letizia (10)

maggio (46) minorenni (8) noemi (30) pagina (19) palazzo (9)

parole (8) patrizia (17) politica (13) possono (5) potere (8) premier (11)

presidente (14) ragazze (7) repubblica (22) sezione (11) silvio (8)

Practical Ideas

31

32

up to date. For example, the chapter on films included recent releases such as Wall: E and Quantum of Solace.

There are additional activities at the end of the textbook, again for all four skill areas. At the end of each unit there are sections dedicated to controlled speaking and writing assessment preparation. At the end of every two units, there is an additional double-page spread full of practice exam-style listening and reading activities. Although I did not see a teacher’s book, the publisher promises that specific guidance will be provided within it to accompany each of the pages dedicated to examination practice.

The grammar section at the end has been revised and is presented in a new format: bronze, silver and gold. For word order, then, bronze is making the conjugated verb the second idea in the sentence whereas gold concentrates on the use of subordinating conjunctions and their effect on word order. The explanations are followed by practice exercises, again split into bronze, silver and gold. I found this both clear and motivating to students.

I also particularly liked the clear Grammatik and Tipp boxes to highlight various aspects of German grammar or the GCSE examination. The new two-colour format of these makes them more attractive to the eye and generally more user-friendly. These are complemented

Echo AQA GCSE German

(Heinemann)

“Echo” is a revised course which has been designed to address the requirements of the new GCSE from September 2009. The series includes differentiated student textbooks (green for Foundation and red for Higher, as will be familiar to current users of Logo 4), audio CDs, teacher’s books, differentiated student workbooks and an online resources kit, to which I will refer later.

Each book is divided into nine units. The contents pages state the AQA context to which each unit refers so that students can place their learning within the scheme of work. However, the purposes are not necessarily covered in consecutive units, so Leisure as a context is covered in Units 1, 2 and then 10. This division of the contexts may or may not appeal to teachers depending on their personal preference for following the book in a linear fashion or taking each context in turn and in full.

Within each unit, there are approximately six chapters, each occupying a double-page spread within the book. At the start of each new chapter, the lesson objectives addressed are listed in accessible English for the students. The double-page spread incorporates activities for all skill areas as would be expected. I found the materials in the student textbook refreshing and

Reviews

33

The exam café is intended to provide students with extra practice. There are interactive grammar activities, f u r t h e r e x p l a n a t i o n s a n d examination practice for all four skills. This is all provided in a high-level graphics simulated café environment and is both eye-catching and easy to use. This is by far the best online resource which I have seen.

Overall, this course ought to be suitable for all students of GCSE German. The textbook contains the solid foundations a teacher usually expects, and the additional resources are stimulating. This is a well-constructed, well thought through course which I think will make the new GCSE accessible to both teachers and students.

Samantha Ryan, Birkdale School

¡Mola!

ISBN 978 1 84489 623 3, Philip Allan Updates

This is probably the best textbook for GCSE students in Spanish amongst a range of excellent teaching methods coming from various publishers in the last few years. If your students are looking for a challenge and you are keen to t each beyond the na r r ow expectations of the new GCSEs, then ¡Mola! Will provides the platform for

by the Grade Studio, a step by step guide to improving your work in order to obtain a better GCSE grade for controlled assessment pieces, followed by a “now you try it” exercise section to put new knowledge into practice.

I have seen online resources from other publishers, so I was not expecting anything special when I logged on to Active Teach to look at the online sample. However, I was very surprised to find a high quality, user-friendly resource. There are three sections: student’s book, exam café and find resources.

The student’s book section is an electronic version of the textbook, which can be projected onto a whiteboard. The teacher can then click on part of it, such as a Tipp box, and it will then appear on the whiteboard in a larger size. Gone are the days when students will wonder which Tipp box and which page, as they can now be guided using the interactive whiteboard.

The find resources section is an index to all audio materials, transcripts and linked grammar exercises for each double-page spread, and even includes materials such as tables for listening activities so that the teacher can print them off beforehand and avoid using lesson time to copy tables into the back of exercise books. Schools which prefer not to purchase separate teachers’ books and audio CDs could use this function of the online resources to manage their teaching.

34

independent learning.

The good mix of activities on each double page including all skills is clearly laid out and offers a challenge to the more able range of students. However, the grammar explanations, exercise, ‘Lengua Clave’ boxes and vocabulary lists are so logically presented that I would not be too surprised if lower ability students also started to reaching the same dizzy heights with this textbook.

Instructions are in the target language and the style does cater for teachers who have the resolve a n d t e c h n i q u e s t o s t i c k predominantly with the target language in the MFL classroom. ¡Mola¡ could also be labelled as a textbook for IGCSE because of its uncompromising style but anyone who has been teaching languages for some time would argue that this is merely good practise if you wish your students to become fluent rather than just pass exams.

Pupils will be required to learn a lot of vocabulary and to know their grammar well in order to complete the tasks but this textbook is also alive with Hispanic culture in ‘Cultura’ and the choice of texts. However, this textbook also gives them the means to do so! Altogether, this is one the best language textbooks available at the moment.

Patrick Le Berre

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