Teaching MFL at ALevel: A 10 step guide!

Teaching ALevel is very different from teaching KS3 and KS4 in the UK, or not? The approach is certainly different.  At this stage, Sentence Builders are not a must anymore, although learning some chunks with difficult expressions to express an idea, can be powerful! Similarly, the principles from cognitive science about how our memory works (transferring information/knowledge from the working memory to the long term memory) prevail. This means, that the recycling of ideas, structures, vocabulary, working with texts, milking them, teaching to analyse facts etc.. will need to be extensively modelled, practised with scaffolds until it leads to Fluency. Rosenshine and lexicogrammar still apply to A Level teaching.

At this stage, teaching single words is beneficial and studying grammar explicitly, as well as implicitly, via texts, is essential. Similarly, teaching the ALevel syllabus is not just about teaching a MFL but developing high thinking order skills, studying literature, film studies and most importantly, assimilating facts about the target country which students must analyse and draw conclusions from, this will need to be modelled and extensively practised! It is like a General Studies course but in a MFL, not easy! 

The Setting of High Expectations: The iceberg model!

On the first day of lessons, I go through our MFL Sixth Form booklet which, clearly explains what is expected from our Alevel students from day one! Normally the gap between GCSE and Alevel is big! The booklet makes reference to the Iceberg metaphor: the visible part of the iceberg represents lessons, while the invisible part underneath, refers to self study work!

The MFL Sixth Form Handbook

The handbook points out the skills that will need to be developed, under the surface outside lessons, to be successful in the course, as well as providing a model timetable of self study. Lesson work, alone, it is not enough! Finally, it gives students ideas on how to practise the different skills of reading, listening, vocabulary and grammar learning, independently. For that I also create a bank of resources for students to choose from to carry out their own independent study tasks, as explained in their booklet. Zig-Zag podcasts, films and Authentik reading resources are invaluable here. See picture below. 

My 10 Step Guide

The approach I use to teach the Spanish Alevel AQA syllabus, with some variations, is the Teaching Through Text based approach, which correlates nicely with lexicogrammar and whose foundation is rooted in cognitive silcience. This is what I do for each given topic, say, Changes in Family in Spanish society, in Y12.

1. I start my sequence of lessons with an oral activity similar to those carried out at GCSE level on the topic of family. This is normally a group discussion activity where students talk about themselves and their families, with a final thought proving question, in Spanish, such as what does a typical family look like? Is it normal that grand parents live with their children?  Some key vocabulary can be given to conduct the activity, or this may appear spontaneously while carrying out the task. This is a Retrieval classic task. 

2. At a second stage, in the same lesson, I show students some photos in relation to the topic, in this case I would show them photos of different types of families. At Y12, I would expect answers similar to those given for the Photocard in the oral GCSE exam. Students speak in groups for this activity and we carry out a brainstorming of ideas towards the end. Again, I finish the activity with a thought provoking question: how do you think is the typical Spanish family? Why do you think is this way? In Spanish of course! After brainstorming students’ ideas, I give some ideas myself, in Spanish. This is listening in action and modelling! I will speak slowly writing key words on the board. While I do this, for not more than 5 minutes, I frequently stop to check understanding of ideas and vocab. 

3. In another lesson, we start working with a text on the topic. More modelling, focussing on form to move to meaning. I always start with a text from the textbook. Yes! I do use a main textbook for Alevel supported by many other resources, such as newspapers and Youtube original videos! We read the text aloud during lesson time and translate it, word by word, into English analysing vocabulary and verb tenses in the process. This activity normally takes a whole lesson but students learn lots of vocabulary and revise many grammatical rules, especially tenses! I love doing this because students get knowledge of the society, learn vocabulary and go over grammar in one task! A winner! Students are asked to learn the vocabulary for homework. See below for an example of such a text with important verbs highlighted in blue and key vocabulary in yellow.

4. As a follow-up activity, I prepare a second text, in English, which I break up in sentences, based in the vocabulary learned at the previous stage. More modelling and structured production. For this activity I normally use TaskMagic and students use whiteboards. I basically expect them to use the vocabulary discussed and learned at the previous stage. If the group is good, we do this orally. For homework, using the practised vocabulary, they write a 70 word summary of the text. Summarising a text is a skill I tackle from the very beginning, which is one of the tasks they will need to complete in the actual Alevel exam (in the reading and listening sections).

5. We work on a second text, this time through listening. We are lucky to have a language lab but if students bring their own laptops and headphones, you can create a language lab in your own classroom! At this stage I create my own listening exercises, as I do at KS3/4. When I do this I create tasks to practise vocabulary, grammar as well as listening comprehension, with tasks similar to those required in the exam. I always provide students with the transcript. This is important because the listening can then become a reading activity and the text a source of information to get ideas about the studied topic, which students can, later, use to carry out the oral exam. Another reading text with specific vocabulary and grammar concepts is used for homework.

Example of Listening Tasks based on texts on the topic of Family

As linguistic skills start developing in our students, I introduce Youtube videos or short film extracts at this stage.

6. We carry out an official grammar lesson every week, if possible linked to a particular topic. For example on the topic of family we revise the present and imperfect tenses. At this stage of their language learning, grammar lessons are explicit, as I believe students studying a language at Alevel must have a love for linguistics! However, the activities we carry out to practise structures are very similar to those at GCSE: games via snakes and ladders, connect 4, wheel of names and use of mini whiteboards! 

7. Language assistant use

All my students have 6 lessons of Spanish a week plus an oral individual lesson with our language assistant. This lesson is vital as this is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge on a particular topic orally! We work very closely with our language assistants so that they have complete access to our course resources/lessons and know what we are covering at all times. This communication is vital. My language assistant does know all the texts I have covered so she knows what content and grammar to expect from the students and will prepare her oral classes accordingly. Students from day one are exposed to texts from which they will get information, which they need to reuse to back up their ideas in an oral scenario.

Our wonderful language assistant, Arancha Lorente, has also created two oral booklets for our students. She bases her oral sessions on the information we share with her in relation to our lessons, but also on the texts and oral bullet points highlighted in her invaluable booklets. Similarly, her compilation of texts taken from many sources: the Level AQA Oxford textbook, newspaper articles etc.. forms the foundation of our teaching!

8. The Lecture-Styled lesson

At this stage, I carry out a Lecture-style listening lesson based on me giving information, supported by a video and/or pictures on a topic. This is the lecturing part of the sequence! Students listen to me and take notes on the ideas/experiences I share. My students love this stage as it is based on story telling structures, a great technique for modelling! I support my lecture with key words on the board and I also use the vocabulary and ideas studied within the different texts in previous stages. This activity prepares students for university too! They listen, take notes and ask questions in Spanish! For homework, students are asked to prepare the oral questions from their oral booklet. To do this, students will use the ideas, vocabulary and grammar practised in all previous lessons within the topic.  

9. After exposure to two or three texts and my lecture style lesson, students will start assimilating ideas about topic of family in Spain, they will know how the family unit was composed in Franco times and how it has changed nowadays and its impacts. At this stage we carry another oral lesson where questions checking understanding on different data on family are practised. These will be based on the content of the texts studied in previous lessons and the oral questions they previously prepared .At this stage we carry out oral games such as Genially in lessons. See example below.  Debates at this final stage also prove to be great! Flipgrid can also be used for students to generate opinions and other students respond to those!

10. The final stage of this model involves exam style questions collated via Exampro! 

When working with texts, apart from translations, summaries and comprehension questions, we work a lot of on fill in the gaps type of activities.  My experience is that students find this type of task particularly difficult in the actual Alevel Exam!

The film/the book and the Individual Research Project

We study a film in Y12, and a book and IRP in Y13. In Y12, students dedicate two lessons per week to the study of the film. Similarly in Y13, students spend three lessosn per week, during two terms studying a literature title. We empower our language assistants with the management of the IRP as they conduct the oral exam in the department, of course, supported, at all stages, by the teachers in the classroom. 

I will explain my approach to literature in another post!

To sum up, the key goal at Alevel is to provide students with ideas through texts which they can use to analyse the target society they are studying while practising exam style questions from day one!