Merry Christmas to all! What a term this has been! I hope you can now relax with your loved ones and enjoy the festive season. As I have now some time, I would like to complete the final part of my thoughts/strategies to tackle the new GCSE for MFL. Part 4 and the last one, is all about developing fluency in students via oral structured practice. I find this stage the most challenging one and, in my experience, only possible to achieve if the other stages have been carried out thoughtfully and in depth, which can be difficult given the curriculum time constraints we all face.
Stage 4 is all about students being able to produce language via structured practice, mainly via the use of translations from English into Target Language, or prompts, expecting students to work from memory as much as possible. At this stage we create models of language that students, eventually, will be able to produce on their own as they become more and more fluent.
This stage should be full of communicative activities/games, where there's a need to produce language. These are some of my old favourite tasks:
Oral Battleships
This old activity is always a winner! Students work in pairs and choose 8 boxes from the battleships grid randomly. I give students the prompts and they must create sentences to find out where their partner's chosen boxes or ships are.
Information Gap Activities
In any shape and form! Basically, any activity where students, working in pairs, have to exchange information to complete a task. This can be done by asking each other questions to get specific answers, that students need, to complete a table, or just by exchanging information by translating sentences to each other. The important element for these activities is that we give students prompts or the sentences we wan them to produce and again, we expect them to translate such sentences from memory as much as possible!!
Board Games
Again, in any shape and form! Any game will be great, virtual or by using a classic board, dice and counters! Snakes and Ladders or No Snakes and Ladders, which is the same! Connect 4, Noughts and Crosses, Jumanlly etc.. work wonders. The idea is that when students are placed in a box, they produce target language orally responding to a particular prompt: an image, a sentence in English that they must translate, a word they must extend and put in a sentence etc..
I love digital games, so I use many games from Genially, which require hardly any preparation time. Click here for an example.
Flippity is also great for this: have you tried its new Connecto game? Click here for an example
The idea with these games is to create nearly real communicative situations basically the willingness to win the game and for that, a need to speak in the target language. As they become more and more confident with the covered material, we can exchange the prompts for questions and add time to the equation, so that students need to produce the language, quickly.
The same games/activities can be carried out by students several times but decreasing the time they have, to produce their answers: 2 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds, so we start developing fluency.
Wheel of names matched with "Stone, paper, scissors" is also a popular game: students spin the wheel then play "Stone, paper, scissors" and the winner translates the utterance that appear in the wheel.
Writing Practice using Google Forms
Productive language does not only involve oral work, but it can also be written production. In fact, this can be a powerful task before doing extensive oral work. To do this, Google Forms with open end questions can be an excellent alternative and to create them, we can use the Chrome Extension Brisk.
Brisk is wonderful to help you create a Google Form based on a given set of questions. I created the following Blogpost explaining how to use Brisk in this way, step by step. Click here to have full access to instructions about how to use Brisk. At this stage, I expect my students not to need prompts, so oral, open free questions are key at this stage, but in writing, so students can still think freely, at this stage.
Writing Practice using Padlet
Padlet is another old friend. It is great, again, to develop fluency in students. I create a Padlet for a given topic, any type of Padlet works.
Once created, go to "Settings" and then "Posts". Once in Posts, go to "Posts Fields". Create a post field for each question you want your students to write about in the Padlet when they add their entry. You can create as many Post fields as you want to! This means that when you share your Padlet with students and these click on the + button to add their entry, they will see the questions, you want them to answer in writing, one for post field, which you previously created. Students then press "publish" for their entry to be visible to you and all the other students. This is powerful to get inspired by others' answers/entries.
Using a tutor chatbot with Mizou
Finally, the ultimate fluency developer, Mizou.
Mizou is a FREE AI chatbot generator. I started using Mizou last year with Year 11 students and it proved a great success for those students who were reluctant to practise their oral skills with me as they were too shy. Mizou allows you to create a personalised chatbot in minutes. Just click on "Build a chatbot" , then "Custom".
Give your Chatbot assessment a title, for example: Practising questions on the topic of Technology. Then fill in the "AI Instructions". Be specific for example, for my Mizou practice on Technology my instructions were:
The students will practice their new GCSE oral exam with you. You will need to ask them the following 4 questions on the topic of Technology:
1 ¿Tienes un móvil? ¿Qué haces con tu móvil?
2¿Cuál es tu red social favorita? ¿Por qué?
3 ¿Qué peligros y ventajas tienen las redes sociales?
4. ¿Cómo solías usar tu móvil en el pasado?
Ask one question at the time. Ask the questions in Spanish but give feedback in English. Students should answer with accurate Spanish using opinions and reasons.
Give your AI assistant an image, Mizou will create one for you, after your description and give it a name. My AI assistant in Mizou is called Ana. Click on "more options" and type the welcome message that students will see when starting their session with Ana. Then type the "rules". My rules were:
Use the new MFL GCSE mark scheme for the speaking exam to give feedback
Students will answer in Spanish
Ask a question at the time in Spanish on the topic of Technology, starting with the questions given in the instructions.
When giving feedback, do it in English
Add a thumbnail on the topic of your questions and a short description.
Try your Chatbot and if you are happy just launch it. Click on "Share with students". Mizou will ask you to start a session and will give you link to share with students.
You can have a look at the final product here.
The idea with Mizou is for students to develop their fluency with typical GCSE questions that they are familiar with from lessons.
I hope you found these ideas useful, please, share your views and ideas by leaving your comments below.
