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Connexions !

I recently discovered the New York Times game called Connections. If you don't know it, you get a grid of 16 words and have to find four groups of four words which are somehow connected by meaning or usage. It's quite fun. Just like Wordle, you get one a day if you are not a subscriber. With my language teacher brain, the obvious thing was to take the same idea and design grids for my own language - French. Almost inevitably I enlisted the help of Chat GPT, though to be honest I could have done it nearly as quickly myself. I produced five grids for beginners and three grids for advanced level and uploaded them as slides on to my site. (Update: I have now added examples for Y9.) For the beginner slides, two of them consisted of three-word phrases, since I try to favour chunked language where possible - you must know the reasons by now! I found I had to edit the Chat GPT suggestions to fit with what I know about the sequence Y7s tend to learn new language. Also, Chat GPT made the...
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Ways to use Chat GPT* for resource creation

 * and other generative AI tools such as DeepSeek, Gemini, Copilot and the rest. I don't know about you, but I am finding generative AI a tremendously useful tool for creating lesson materials. The free version of Chat GPT is my go-to, though I have dabbled with DeepSeek which seems at least as good. I posted on the GILT Facebook group recently about a few ways I have been using Chat GPT in recent months and asked group members what uses they had found for it. I am focusing here on written text uses rather than the more techie uses which I have not delved into so far. So in this post I'll list some ways I have been using Chat GPT and will also mention the uses that teachers shared on FB. You may not have thought of all of these.  Copying language from sentence builders (substitution tables) to create narrow listening and reading tasks . This makes sure that chunks are recycled in different ways. For anyone not sure what I mean by narrow reading/listening - this is where you pr...
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Vocab building, sentence creation and fluency practice

I've been working on a booklet to support GCSE students with their vocabulary knowledge, use and fluency. The booklet consists of 18 pages, based on AQA sub-themes, though you could use it with other exam boards, even if they do not presctribe specific topics. I'll share an example of a topic below. You'll see that the format is similar to worksheets I designed ofr A-level, but at an easier level and with slight changes. I used Chat GPT to come up with the vocabulary and example senetnces. I just did a little light editing. I have not limited theshto the exam board vocab lists, but the vast majority of the words fall within the high-frequency category. The booklet could be printed off in its entirety, possibly for revision before exams, or you could pick and choose specific topics during a unit of work. Frenchteacher users will find the booklet on the Y10-11 page, right-hand column, in the GCSE exam section (2024 onwards). Here is the sample, with the tasks graded from easy...
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What's wrong with the 'words + grammar' approach to language learning and teaching?

Introduction In England, for a few years since the publication of the TSC Review of MFL Pedagogy (Bauckham, 2016), teachers have been urged to consider language teaching in terms of a 'three pillars' model, namely phonics, vocabulary and grammar. Departments have been encouraged to design their curriculum founded on those three pillars - producing a sequenced syllabus where explicit attention is given to teaching sound-spelling correspondences (SSCs), words and grammatical rules. The idea is that these these provide understandable building blocks for students who may be floundering in a sea of ill-organised input. You know how the argument goes: give students the words and the glue to stick them together (grammar) and acquisition gradually occurs. Of course, the reality is that most departments have been teaching in this traditional way for many years, even if we have moved to somewhat more communicative techniques compared with the the 1950s and 1960s. The particular focus on ...
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Gianfranco Conti’s blog, listening and grammar

 My co-writer and the former secondary teacher with the broadest knowledge of second language learning and teaching research, Dr Gianfranco Conti, has been blogging a lot recently as he pursues his latest speaking tour of the UK. I sometimes wonder if he ever sleeps.  When we wrote our first edition of The Language Teacher Toolkit in 2016 a major source of the material were the blog posts Gianfranco wrote in 2015. Recently, he has produced a spate of informative, research-informed posts which every language teacher should find illuminating. The easiest way to find them is just to go to his blog at gianfrancoconti.com and browse. In recent weeks he has covered areas such as grammar, listening, sentence builders/EPI and teaching via topics. Notably, he has returned to the work of John Field, a leading writer in the area of listening instruction. We turned his perspective on listening instruction into our book Breaking the Sound Barrier: Teaching Language Learners How to Listen ...
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Scaffolded comprehension and translation for novices

  On the Primary/Y7 page of my frenchteacher site I have a collection of tasks which help novice pupils with their French comprehension, translation skills and writing. Below is an example. In the original Word document the parallel French and English texts are presented in landscape, side by side. I choose the gaps to suit the level of a typical Y7 class,  but teachers can edit them to make the ask easier or harder. There is a progression in the lesson, since students move from initial scaffolded comprehension towards their own simple writing. Some classes could go further than my suggestion of five easy sentences to write. The French text can be exploited in other ways, for example with questioning, a 'correcting false sentences' exercise or just choral repetition and reading aloud. There are many possibilities to promote recycling of the same language. I would envisage this resource being used later in a teaching sequence on the family topic. I used Chat GPT to produce the ...
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Frenchteacher updates

I've been particularly busy on my frenchteacher site lately, adding a variety of new resources at different levels, as well as updating my links pages and replacing some out-of-date resources. Below is a list of new stuff I have added over the last two weeks. By the way, I usually mention the CEFR (Common European Framework) level for the benefit of thise teachers do not work in the English system and don't know what Y7,8, 9 etc means. And for those teachers in England who aren't sure about those levels, A1 is roughly Y7-8, A2 is roughly Y9-11, B1 is roughly Y11-12, and B2 is roughly Y13. American teachers use their own levels based on the ACTFL guidelines. There is a detailed chart in this document which lays out the equivalences between these different levels. Y8 (Very low intermediate) A narrow reading worksheet for Y8 (or a weaker Y9). A matching "Who wrote..?" task, sentences to complete and translate. CEFR A1. Y12-13 (Advanced) A current affairs resource. A ...
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