The power of culture: project based learning in MFL

Two of the criticisms I see on social media about the use of Sentence Builders, is that students just learn chunks of language, without being taught how to manipulate these in preparation for a GCSE exam (parrot effect) and the fact that there is not culture incorporated into the lessons leading to a loss of motivation and disengagement from learners. This last assumption also estates that activities are narrow minded and do not lead to creative project based learning.

On a previous post I explained how Grammar and language manipulation was key for students to become spontaneous and autonomous. The difference in this approach is when the necessary explicit grammatical rules are tackled: after routinalisation of Sentence Builders, not in isolation with single vocabulary items.

On this post I will show how culture and project based learning can also be incorporated in lessons using this methodology. The key is that students need to be trained fully, via Sentence Builders, on how to tackle a creative project involving culture if we do not want them to resort to Google Translate! Let's face it, with the little curriculum time dedicated to MFL, the learning process is slow and students, especially at KS3, do not have proficiency required to carry out creative projects which rely on sophisticated use of language, unless we explicitly teach it!  In fact this ability does not occur naturally until the end of KS4 and throughout KS5 for the most able learners. 

Does this mean we cannot use culture and project based learning in MFL? Of course not! The beauty of learning a language is learning about the culture and project based learning is perfect for this. The key is how we plan and structured this task. 

This is our structure for cultural and project based learning in Spanish:

Year 7 

At the end of term 1, under the topic of family and descriptions we do teach a module on Picasso and Miró. We teach students more sophisticated vocab such as figura estrellada or the present tense continuous to describe what is happening in an image. Students use this new Sentence Builders to describe real Picasso and Miró pictures. They do this, first in writing, and secondly orally, using Flipgrid, Thinglink or Onenote to insert audio on a particular picture. Finally, students, in conjunction with the art department, will create their own Miró/Picasso drawing which they describe orally and in writing using the previous apps. QR codes are finally created on their outcomes, which we display in our talking wall. This module also allows teachers to introduce Spanish art to students.

Smartboard materials to teach a Miró and Picasso module

Powerpoint Sentence Builders on Miró shared by J Santos on our MFLtwitterati Padlet

Powerpoint Sentence Builders on Matisse shared by Ruth Hedley 

Year 8

Y8 traditionally take part in a eTwinning project with our partners schools in Spain and France. Our last project consisted in the collaborative creation of a touristic guide which included emblematic cities in the UK, Spain and France. Students prepared presentations, using Google Slides on different cities in the target language and would work collaborative, via Google Slides with students in all involved countries. The language was definitely more challenging here, but, still was studied via Sentence Builders during lessons prior the project. The beauty of this project, as you can see in the link below, is that we carried out many other activities involving real language exchange with our partners: real communication in the MFL classroom.

Rutas Molonas eTwinning project with Spain and France

eTwinning is a great tool run by the British Council which allows teachers to look for partners and/or register a project for which you get an online space/platform (your twinspace) making your project look super professional! See the example above. Most interestingly, projects get recognised by the BC with certificates (great CPD opportunity). There's also the possibility to be awarded a Quality Label for outstanding projects! Finally, from all the projects obtaining a Quality Label, 10 will get a National Prize, which is a great achievement and wonderful recognition for the MFL department and students alike!

How to plan a successful eTwinning project?

Keep it simple!  You can develop simple projects linked to your SoWs so that when a topic is covered, students have the opportunity to do something meaningful and creative with a real audience!  Describing each partners' schools, cities, families in the target language and create a collaborative ebook, via Thinglink or just Padlet, has proven very successful in the past.  These activities do not require a lot of planning and the impact is great! 

Another simple project I conducted was based on the creation of real listening and reading materials from both schools, ours in English and our partner school in Spanish, which we would exploit as authentic resources in the classroom. To plan this, we created resources on the topic covered by each partner school. It was great to receive videos from our partners talking about their family members, when doing this topic, which we could exploit as listening activities and followed up with videos my students' own Spanish videos!  So keep it simple! A pen-pal structure to your project is also a good idea so for Xmas, independently of the project, students would get/write Xmas cards, for example  I always pair (different nationality) students taking part in the project so that these do keep real communication throughout! If you do a project linked to a physical exchange, then, the whole project and the forged relationships take shape and it all becomes something really special. 

eTwinning also has project tool kits to get you inspired!

Year 9

Y9 students study the topic of Media during the second term so in the past we have carried out a project on the film Voces Inocentes. We dedicated around 5/6 weeks to do this in lesson time: after watching the film in two lessons, specific vocabulary to talk about the film was taught via SBs and throughout our normal range of activities. Students carried out translation activities leading to oral/written practice and a creative project where they needed to describe the film and write a review. We got inspiration from Rachel Hawkes' resources on the use of film for this one!

Smartboard Voces inocentes teaching materials

This year, we are changing the film to Coco. Watch this space for resources!

Less able pupils, instead of carrying out a specific film project, completed a booklet based on different Spanish short films. This was a success! 

Short Film Booklet 

In the summer term, Y9 students study the topic of healthy living and food. This is a brilliant opportunity for students to cook some Spanish food. 

This year, during lock down we run a Masterchef cooking competition on making Palmeritas. Students first learned specific Sentence Builders on giving cooking instructions and practised the vocabulary via a demonstration video filmed by me cooking Palmeritas. After some practice, students needed to cook their own Palmeritas while giving oral instructions and filming the process. Finally videos got shared on a Padlet and winners were chosen. 

The Language Challenge embedded in the curriculum

Single linguists in Year 9, dedicate a MFL lesson out of four, to complete the Language Challenge.  This is an award run by Routes into Languages which encourages students to research and learn about the culture of the language they study. Most of this independent research, guided by their teacher, will be done in English. Students need to complete a series of tasks which translate into points aiming to reach 100 points, when they get awarded the Language Challenge. In practice, single linguists dedicate 3 lessons to language learning and one lesson to research based culture learning. The benefits are great: independent, self-motivated students who take ownership for their learning and become more motivated to learn the language.

Year 10

Y10 students and some able Y9s also take part in our Erasmus language programmes every other year. Erasmus, despite requiring a lot of work via the application process, management of grants etc, is a fantastic way to promote languages and embed project based learning in the curriculum. Students work collaboratively with partners in La Reunion and Spain on a particular project using e-Twinning as our working platform. Erasmus also include mobilities, which in Erasmus jargon just means an exchange funded by the Erasmus grant! 

Our last Erasmus project,United in diversity,  based on heritage and festivals in Spain, La Reunion and the UK involved 78 students working collaboratively and was such a huge success!  Students worked in multinational teams throughout a year, which allowed them to develop real relationships!  They even participated, as part of our project into the Spanish carnival (those were the times!). Linguistically, all students improved massively and culturally the project was a blast! We even won a National Prize for our etwinning/Erasmus platform.

United in Diversity: an erasmus project

Viva el Carnaval! footage

Forging relationships!

Feedback from parents on our Erasmus project

Teaching via Sentence Builders and teaching culture via project based learning are not incompatible, rather they complement each other. The MFL teacher must teach experiences not just the language!